The 2026 Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup will be staged at Ascot Racecourse in Britain on 8 August. This year marks the 25th running of the competition and carries added significance for Hong Kong racing fans, with The Hong Kong Jockey Club sending its own team to compete for the first time. Vincent Ho will captain Team Hong Kong alongside Jerry Chau and Luke Ferraris, taking on Great Britain & Ireland, Europe and the Rest of the World in the internationally renowned jockeys’ team competition. The six-race Shergar Cup card will also be staged under the World Pool banner for the first time, giving the event a stronger Hong Kong presence than ever before.
What makes the Shergar Cup unique is that leading jockeys, who normally compete against one another as individuals, instead work together to earn points for their respective teams. Winning a race is naturally important, but consistency across all three riders and regularly finishing in the leading positions can be just as crucial to the overall result. For Team Hong Kong, making its first appearance in the competition, the contrasting backgrounds of its three riders make for an intriguing combination.
At 36, Vincent Ho is the most experienced member of the team and one of the leading graduates of The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Apprentice Jockeys’ School. When the Club announced the full Team Hong Kong line-up in July, Ho had accumulated 646 wins in Hong Kong. He is, of course, best known to racing fans for his outstanding partnership with Golden Sixty, with the pair combining for 26 victories, including 10 at Group 1 level. More importantly, Ho is no stranger to the Shergar Cup. Representing the Rest of the World in 2019, he partnered Power Of Darkness to victory in the Shergar Cup Mile, securing his first winner at Ascot and helping the Rest of the World team claim the overall title. Seven years later, he returns to Ascot not simply as a team member, but as captain of Team Hong Kong, giving this appearance an entirely different significance.
The 26-year-old Jerry Chau represents a new generation of homegrown Hong Kong riding talent. Also a graduate of the HKJC Apprentice Jockeys’ School, Chau rode 58 winners during his first full season in Hong Kong, setting a record for the most wins by an apprentice in a single Hong Kong season. His career has taken another step forward over the past year. In September 2025, he travelled to South Korea and partnered Self Improvement to victory in the Group 3 Korea Sprint, defeating a strong field that included Japanese representative Satono Reve and earning his first overseas Group race success. In May this year, he added another notable victory when the 43-1 outsider Light Years Charm landed the Group 3 Lion Rock Trophy. From Hong Kong to South Korea and now Ascot, Chau is rapidly building his international experience.
Luke Ferraris brings a different background to the team. He comes from one of South Africa’s prominent racing families and spent part of his childhood in Hong Kong while his father trained in the city. Ferraris later returned to South Africa to develop his riding career, becoming a two-time South Africa Champion Apprentice and completing the South African Triple Crown in 2021. He subsequently returned to Hong Kong to ride full-time and had accumulated 164 Hong Kong victories when the Club announced the Shergar Cup line-up in July. While Ho and Chau both emerged from the HKJC Apprentice Jockeys’ School, Ferraris combines his South African racing roots with years of experience in Hong Kong, giving each of Team Hong Kong’s three riders a distinctive background.
Winning the Shergar Cup will be no easy task for Team Hong Kong. The competition brings together leading jockeys from around the world, while Ascot’s straight course, uphill sections and large-field racing can all provide a challenge for riders who do not regularly compete in Britain. However, the Shergar Cup is decided by points accumulated across six races, meaning a team does not necessarily have to dominate the entire card. If all three riders can make the most of their allocated mounts and consistently finish in the leading positions, the overall standings can change quickly. In 2025, Team Asia won the competition with 68 points, edging Team Europe by just one point on 67, demonstrating how even a single point can ultimately decide which team lifts the trophy.
For Hong Kong, therefore, this year’s Shergar Cup means more than simply another overseas jockeys’ competition. Hong Kong riders have previously taken part in the event as members of teams such as the Rest of the World, but 2026 marks the first time The Hong Kong Jockey Club has officially sent its own dedicated team, comprising three Hong Kong-licensed jockeys. Ho brings Shergar Cup-winning and top-level international experience, Chau arrives as one of Hong Kong’s emerging riding talents, while Ferraris combines South African foundations with extensive Hong Kong experience. The sight of the three riders wearing Team Hong Kong colours at Ascot will itself mark a new chapter for Hong Kong racing. If they can add a winner or two and even mount a challenge for the overall team title in the 25th Shergar Cup, their British campaign will give Hong Kong racing fans even more reason to follow the action closely.