THE success that Ascot’s Shergar Cup (I know we’re going back a bit now) has become, from humble and unpromising beginnings, is relatively surprising. It is an unusual event for sure, and it’s not for everyone. Six handicaps for largely solid, unspectacular handicappers, racing in unfamiliar colours, many with unfamiliar riders, is not going to do it for lots of racing fans.

But any racing event which generates the coverage that Shergar Cup day generates, and which gets 30,000 people in through the gates – many of them non ‘regulars’ – on a feel-good day that means that some of them might come back, cannot be a bad thing for racing.

We have had jockeys’ challenges in Ireland in the past, but it is worth kicking around the idea of a Shergar Cup-type event here. It wouldn’t have to be a four-team event, it could be an Ireland v Britain theme, at least initially. Or a Boys v Girls theme. Ideally some theme in which casual racegoers could naturally take a side.

It would need backing, it would need a sponsor or two, and it would need to capture the imagination of the media, but it might be worthwhile kicking around some options.