TODAY should be Shergar Cup day at Ascot, a day on which some names with which we are not familiar usually join some with which we are more familiar, and they all whizz around Ascot in a perennial jamboree in colours with which we try to become familiar for a day.

Instead, we have a hat-tilt to the fabled international jockeys’ team competition with the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup Celebration Handicap, in which Jim Crowley will wear Godolphin blue on Jalaad and Andrea Atzeni will wear the yellow and black Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum silks on Game Player, and it will all feel very familiar.