Fran Berry's Sporting Life blog: Shergar Cup

Fran Berry 10/1 with Sky Bet to win the Silver Saddle

The Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup is a very special occasion, a fantastic day and it's really nice to be invited and great to be a part of it again.

I've ridden there twice before and enjoyed a bit of luck, winning the Silver Saddle in 2010 when part of the winning team, and hopefully I'll enjoy a bit of luck again. Looking at the draw, the Rest of the World have done well but hopefully the local knowledge of the track and the horses that Neil (Callan), Jamie (Spencer) and I have will be an advantage.

It's a real family day out and the atmosphere builds up from the opening ceremony onwards and if the competition stays tight until the last couple of races then it really builds. You go out there looking to do the best for your horse and yourself but if you're out the back, you're looking to see those green colours to see how they're going and it can soon change with one good race... or a bad one.

You're always learning as a jockey and everyone has their own little knacks so it's always interesting to ride against new people and I'm excited to be competing against Emma-Jayne Wilson who has done so well at Ascot the last couple of years.

I've ridden against Keita Tosaki a lot in Japan and he's a fantastic jockey, very quiet in the saddle but he always seems to get the photo finishes, and I'm looking forward to catching up with Kerrin McEvoy and Umberto Rispoli again.

Click here for Sky Bet's latest betting on the Silver Saddle award for top rider

There's another reunion in the Dash as I've drawn Mirza who I won a Listed race on at Cork five years ago, would you believe? I've had a lot of luck over the years for Rae Guest and the Mills family and I'm excited to team up with them again. He is top-weight but it's a compressed handicap which will help and his second to Battaash last time reads well, even if he wasn't a match for the winner!

The Challenge looks a very open handicap and Great Hall looks to have an each-way shout. He hasn't been beaten far in his last three starts and he's back down to 92 having won off 95 last autumn so he should be competitive.

I team up with his trainer, Mick Quinn, at Leicester on Sunday to ride Stanhope in a £20k handicap and you can put a line through his last run as he was too free. He'd have claims on the form of his previous run at Newmarket.

It doesn't look as though Knight Owl has hit top form yet this season although possibly he didn't handle the very soft ground at Newmarket last time. He ran well at Ripon before that and has run well over course and distance before so hopefully he can bounce back in the Mile.

Bear Valley has a typical look of a Mark Johnston horse and has had a lot of racing lately. His recent form isn't that exciting but his third over course and distance behind Atty Persse in the King George V Handicap at the Royal meeting is top class course form and he's back down to the same mark for the Classic.

It was officially good to soft when Golden Apollo ran at Newmarket the last day but conditions looked a good bit more testing than that and you can forgive any horse a bad run in the circumstances so hopefully he can bounce back in the Sprint. Take that run out and his profile otherwise is of a horse on the up with a good fourth at Newmarket and his defeat of The Wagon Wheel at York working out well.

Click here for Sky Bet's latest odds on the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup

I can't hang around for the music and the party as I've got four rides at Lingfield and I'm hopeful of a big run from Global Exceed in the nursery. He travelled well at Nottingham but possibly needed the run a little, it was his first for over 70 days, and wondered about a bit. The blinkers should help him and the ground won't be a bother.

I team up with Ed Dunlop again to ride Global Wonder who should come on for a nice introduction at Yarmouth. He was green but stayed on well to not be beaten far and should improve in the novice stakes.

I start off on Falcon Cliffs who won on debut and then ran in Listed company. This is her first run for Willie Muir and we'll just be hoping that she can return to form. I also ride Harbour Force for the same connections and he's a hard horse to weigh up. He ran a promising race first up but has disappointed twice since and wears blinkers for his handicap debut from an opening mark of 60.

Whatever happens to Fortune And Glory in the last he should be worth keeping an eye on as he's a fascinating horse on paper. He's an unraced four-year-old but he was owned by a Coolmore partnership until this year so he's obviously had a few issues but is also obviously well bred and related to plenty of winners.

Hopefully, there will be a winner or two among them to keep things ticking over as it's been a great week with four winners for four different trainers. It's been good to have success for David Barron, Stuart Williams and it was a particular thrill to score on Hugo Palmer's Dukinta as I'm a good friend of Mark McStay whose mother owns the filly with Mrs Faeste. As a half-sister to Grandeur, Dukinta is really well-bred and it's important for her to have won.

I wrote in last week's blog that Kerrera looked to be my best ride at Newmarket and she didn't disappoint. It was lovely to ride a winner for Paul Webber and she won very well. She was doing all of her best work late on and could find even more improvement for another step up in trip later in the season.

Goodwood was a shade frustrating despite finishing a close-up fifth in the Stewards' Cup on Shanghai Glory. He hit a flat spot about two out and suffered a lot of interference as a result, he was lucky not to be put through the rail, so it was a really good effort from him to pick up and close on the leaders again. He could hold his own in better class races, perhaps even over seven furlongs, or even in something like the Ayr Gold Cup, especially if it comes up soft.

I also rode Capital Flight for Fitri Hay and he made a really pleasing debut and is a nice type for the future. He was quite green and I ended up following a couple of horses that couldn't travel and I had nowhere to go for much of the race but he picked up well to finish third. We wouldn't have beaten the first two but we would have been a good bit closer.