THIS may not have been a perfect year for Fran Berry, who is no longer employed by trainer Ralph Beckett, but in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup the popular Irishman can do no wrong.

Not only did he ride two winners at Ascot on Saturday, helping the Great Britain and Ireland team to a 19-point victory over the Rest Of The World team, with Europe in third, but he remains unbeaten in the competition itself, having been a member of the successful Ireland teams in 2010 and 2011.

He won the Alistair Haggis Silver Saddle for leading rider in the first of those two years, and took the prize for a second time last weekend. These are the only three occasions he has taken part and two Silver Saddles brings him level with Richard Hughes and Gerald Mosse in an exclusive club. With the globe-trotting Ryan Moore unavailable, things dropped perfectly for him.

The first leg of Berry’s double came on Mick Quinn’s 12/1 chance Great Hall in the Shergar Cup Challenge over a mile and a half. The former Portsmouth and Newcastle striker, who played under two former World Cup winners in Alan Ball and Ossie Ardiles, is more accustomed to watching Great Hall do his best around Brighton and Yarmouth but the seven-year-old has always loved soft ground and, together with 2/1 favourite Gawdawpalin, came from off the pace to collar eventual third Oasis Fantasy.

Great Hall kept on best of the pair to score by just over a length, with Quinn pointing out that everything had come right on the day.

LAST TO FIRST

Going into the final leg, three teams were still in with a shout with only the Girls out of luck this year. However, Berry had realised early on that ‘hold-up’ horses would fare best in the ground and brought Tim Easterby’s Golden Apollo, 4/1, from last to first in the Shergar Cup Sprint, beating Anthony Delpech on Lualiwa by a length. The winner is smart on his day and on a similar surface he would have a very fair chance in the Ayr Gold Cup.

Things had begun perfectly for GB & Ireland when Jamie Spencer landed the Shergar Cup Dash on 4/1 joint-favourite Stake Acclaim, giving Dean Ivory another good sprint win following Lancelot Du Lac’s triumph in the Stewards’ Cup.

Spencer, riding his 2,000th British flat winner, was in no hurry and timed things to perfection, getting up to beat Sir Robert Cheval by a neck in the dying strides, with Lexington Abbey third.

Spencer, twice champion here and once in Ireland, becomes only the fourth present-day jockey to ride 2,000 domestic winners, moving alongside Frankie Dettori, Ryan Moore and Joe Fanning.

“I’m only there to ride them and there’s a lot of people who do all the work, day in, day out. But to get to 2,000 is a good number,” Spencer said. Asked for his most special memory, he nominated Fame And Glory in the Ascot Gold Cup for Jim and Fitri Hay and Aidan O’Brien. He was stable jockey at Ballydoyle, of course, and was later retained by Qatar Racing before retiring (very briefly) in 2014.

“Everyone is ambitious but with what has happened over the past year to Freddy Tylicki and George Baker, you should be grateful for what you’re getting and not be greedy,” Spencer added.

DE VRIES STAYS CALM

East Renfrewshire trainer Jim Goldie has countless runners at Scottish tracks but his runners much further south warrant special attention. He won the Shergar Cup Stayers with Euchen Glen, another to come from some way off the pace, with Dutch rider Adrie de Vries carrying out his instructions to perfection.

Byron Flyer hit the front and was making the best of his way home for Alexander Pietsch when de Vries found a gap on the inside and sent Euchen Glen to the front, scoring by a neck. Goldie had told the jockey, who was giving Europe an early boost, that he’d either look very clever or a villain; happily it was the former.

“The trainer told me to sit last on him and I was a bit scared as they went quite slow. But he has a nice kick and finished off the race very well,” said de Vries with a smile. He later picked up the Ride of the Day award.

Germany’s Pietsch went one better when Jamie Osborne’s Raising Sand came right back to his best in the Mile, cruising home at 10/1 (from 16s) after looking to be trapped out wide at one stage.

In front a furlong out, he was much too good for Nicholas T and Kerrin McEvoy, and had Osborne thinking of a possible tilt at the big seven-furlong handicap on Champions’ Day. Punters generally found things quite tricky on this card and McEvoy just failed to help them out when Andrew Balding’s 2/1 favourite Contango was nailed close home by 8/1 shot Glenys The Menace in the Classic over a mile and a half.

Trained by John Best and turning out again only 48 hours after finishing second at Sandown, the filly was ridden by Anthony Delpech, another to follow instructions down to the last detail.

PAYNE and THE MEDIA

After their triumph last year, the Girls team failed to make much of an impression this time around, with France-bound Hayley Turner managing only a best-placed fifth from her five rides. However, a great deal is down to the draw and they were done few if any favours in that respect, though Michelle Payne’s late replacement Hollie Doyle came so close to winning the opener on Sir Robert Cheval.

For her part, Melbourne Cup winner Payne, somewhat abrupt at a media event on Thursday, was much calmer when explaining her withdrawal to the press. She failed to recover from a virus picked up on arrival in England and was forced to admit defeat on Saturday morning.

“Devastated I’m not well enough to compete. Medical advice is a five-day recovery,” she later added on Twitter.

Needless to say, her mood contrasted sharply with Berry’s.

“Fantastic day,” the Kildare jockey said while grinning. “I didn’t realise we’d won the competition until after the line in the last. You see the crowd here today and you get a big kick out of it. They might have me back next year!”

On ability he’d be a decent bet. On his record he’d be odds-on.