Racing: Platt takes on Eriksson in Shergar Cup showdown

The Shergar Cup, to be contested for the fifth time at Ascot on Saturday, has developed into a game of three halves. And if that sounds surreal, it is nothing to what racegoers will face as part of the day's entertainment. The England football manager, Sven Goran Eriksson, a man who has never before knowingly been to a race meeting, will be there as the designated leader of a squad of jockeys representing the Rest Of The World. Bring on Salvador Dali.

But to be fair to Ascot, which took on the concept of a team event from Goodwood after a disastrous and embarrassing inaugural running, the occasion has now found an identity and will remain part of the calendar. The morning is firmly devoted to sport other than racing, in the form of hugely popular masterclasses for youngsters; the afternoon features six races in which riders from Great Britain and Ireland take on their overseas counterparts; and the early evening gives over to a pop concert with Melanie C and her band.

Some 25,000 turned up on Shergar Cup day a year ago (twice as many as on a usual run-of-the-mill Ascot Saturday) and although it may irk the purists in the sport that the only way an otherwise ordinary day's racing can become a sell-out is by appending football and pop music, the strategy is partly founded on the idea that some of the young wannabes might just enjoy the bit between the sideshows and return at some point in the future.

"Sven will be there as a figurehead and will be kicking a ball about with the kids," said Nick Smith, Ascot's PR guru. "He won't be giving his opinion on the racing. But it will be great for the day to have him there. And he didn't cost as much as you might think."

For the professionals, Ascot is offering six 10-runner races with no entry fee and a total of £260,000 prize money, paid down to £500 for last place in each case. In other words, guaranteed appearance money, a unique concept in this country. There will be a £5,000 prize for the leading trainer and prizes galore for stable staff, to a total of £10,000. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was a bumper entry yesterday with a total of 139 horses declared for the Mile, Juvenile (taken last year by the subsequent Dewhurst Stakes winner Tout Seul), Distaff, Stayers, Challenge and Sprint. Most, however, will be disappointed as the fields will be whittled down on Thursday to 10, plus two reserves, for each race.

Appropriately on the first day of the League and Conference seasons, Eriksson will be joined by another ex-footballer, the England under-21 manager David Platt, who will nominally oversee the GB&I team. At least Platt has a connection with horses, as owner of smart miler Handsome Ridge and a small broodmare band, but the actual racing technicalities - the matching of jockeys to horses and the like - will be undertaken by Jason Weaver for the home side and Michael Roberts for the overseas contingent.

In his final season, Pat Eddery will captain the GB&I squad of Kieren Fallon, Kevin Darley, Darryll Holland, Michael Kinane and Johnny Murtagh. Frankie Dettori captains the RoW-ers: New Zealander Shane Dye, Eriksson's countryman Fredrik Johansson, Germany's Andreas Suborics, Japan's Yutaka Take and the South African Doug Whyte.

"No-one is pretending that this is the Breeders' Cup or the Ryder Cup," added Smith. "But it has developed as a day that is a bit of fun, and in that context it works. Sure, it is expensive to run, with the band and payments to the celebrities, jockeys, trainers and so on, and no entry fees coming in. But we get maybe 12,000 more people coming through the gate as a result."

The day's richest contest will be the finale, the six-furlong Sprint with a purse of £60,000. Twenty-one remain at the present stage, including Somnus, one of last year's leading juveniles. The gelding, who bounced back to form last month, also holds an engagement in Ireland, the Group Three Phoenix Sprint, the following day. "We'll leave a decision until later in the week," said trainer Tim Easterby yesterday, "but he wouldn't want the ground too firm". With hot weather set to continue, watering is planned at Ascot.

* America's unlikely hero Funny Cide suffered his second defeat since taking the first two legs of the US Triple Crown when he could manage only a distant third in the Grade One Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Sunday night. Sent off the evens favourite, the chestnut broke slowly and was never on terms with the all-the-way winner Peace Rules, third in the Kentucky Derby and fourth in the Preakness Stakes, or runner-up Sky Mesa.