Ascot’s Shergar Cup, which famously brings together some of the best jockeys from around the world for some light-hearted sport, tries something new this year with the inclusion of two riders who are so new to the game as to still be ‘claimers’. One of those, Vincent Cheminaud, is a fully fledged pro in all but name, as France’s reigning champion jump jockey and the winner of this year’s French Derby.
The other is Sammy Jo Bell. A 24-year-old from Templepatrick, County Antrim, she is surely the least experienced rider ever to take part in the Shergar Cup, though possibly not the lowest-profile. As recently as March, you would have had to be a fairly committed follower of the sport to be able to name her on sight but that is no longer the case, following a stack of winners and almost as many interviews.
While loving the fact that she is finally breaking through and establishing herself, the unassuming Bell is just teetering on the edge of becoming a trifle bored with the media attention, not least because every set of photos in the paper is a prompt for renewed mickey-taking in the weighing room. But, as she eyed a raucous Ladies’ Day crowd at Pontefract from the safety of an area reserved for riders and officials this week, she was clearly thrilled to have got the Shergar Cup call.
“Really excited about it and looking forward to Saturday,” she said. “Since I came to England, I’ve taken an interest in it. Never thought I’d ever ride in it, though. But I am! So it’s great.”
Hayley Turner, who will be one of Bell’s two team-mates on Saturday, could hardly have been more welcoming, describing her as a fantastic choice and adding: “She’s kicking home loads of winners and rides with a lot of confidence. It just goes to show how highly she’s held.”
Even in the privacy of her own thoughts, Bell probably did not dare dream up the possibility of such praise for herself last winter. At that stage, she was a 24-year-old jockey with just 20 career winners to her name at a modest strike-rate of less than 8%. While her main employer, Richard Fahey, is reliably supportive of young talent, there are always plenty of teenage hopefuls at his North Yorkshire yard, desperate to take the available mounts.
With such things in mind, Bell is determined to make the most of this year. “I spent all winter basically getting as fit as I possibly could. I got a personal trainer and spent all winter with her. I started the season as fit as I could definitely be, so that I had no excuses. Basically, she works me until I feel sick. She just pushes me, which is good. Afterwards, you feel good but at the time it’s not exactly fun.
“Fitness is a great part in it. You have to be fit, if you’ve two or three rides a day.” And reflecting on other possible causes of her success, Bell adds: “I’m a bit older now, so maybe ride a bit stronger. I suppose sometimes the ball just gets rolling. I rode a few winners early on in the season and it just sort of went from there.
“And the boss has been great. He’s given me lots of opportunities. If you show you’re good enough and work hard, he’ll definitely give you a chance.”
Bell does not appear to have had her head turned by the attention. Her ambition for 2015 was to ride enough winners to reduce her claim, the amount of weight she is allowed to take off the back of her mounts to compensate for her inexperience, from 5lb to 3lb. That one was ticked off by mid-season but her revised hopes are similarly restrained: “I’d like to ride out my claim to start with and then see how it goes from there.”
She estimates there is another 40 winners to go before she ceases to be a claimer, at which point she must compete with Ryan Moore and Frankie Dettori on level terms. It is often the point at which a fledgling career founders and the risk seems particularly great for female jockeys, very few of whom have made an impact on the senior ranks.
But Bell shakes her head at any suggestion that racing is not entirely fair to women. “I just think if you’re good enough, you’ll get the rides. It’s tough for any of us to get rides in [Group-quality] races. There’s plenty of lads that don’t get rides in those. I don’t really think it’s a problem.”
Bell is a late replacement in Saturday’s Girls’ Team for Cathy Gannon, a Shergar Cup veteran now nursing a collar-bone injury. The choice of substitute did not please all, with fans of Amy Ryan arguing she had stronger claims, but Bell might be called the form choice, her 18 winners since 2 May making her Britain’s most successful female jockey in the current championship.
“It’s the first time we’ve had anyone on the team who is a training jockey as such,” explained Nick Smith, Ascot’s spokesman, “but we thought about that and thought, with the amount of winners she’s riding, she deserves a break now rather than waiting for maybe next year. The event is about showcasing new talent.”
