White Abarrio Will Also Pass Saudi Cup

[Wandering Eyes]

It was a tough day for the G1 Saudi Cup.

Within hours of the breaking news that 2024 3-year-old male champion Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) will not run in the G1 Saudi Cup at King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Feb. 22, the $20-million race lost another star when the owners of White Abarrio (Race Day) announced that they had also decided to keep their 6-year-old home and focus on a U.S. campaign.

“We are going to bypass Saudi,” co-owner Mark Cornett said. “We will stay here and campaign him here. All the stars just weren't lining up with the timing and shipping and all that stuff. We're going to try to do what's best by the horse and stay here and have a nice campaign to end his career here.”

Complicating matters is the fact that White Abarrio is co-owned by Saudi Prince Faisal bin Khaled bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud.

“All along it was probably 50-50,” said Cornett, whose brother Clint is another co-owner. “We had to factor in that Prince Faisal also owns a piece of the horse and that he is from Saudi Arabia. At the end of the day we decided we had to do what's best for the horse and campaign him over here and have his last few races in the U.S.”

Cornett said that White Abarrio will make his next start in the March 29 GIII Ghostzapper Stakes at Gulfstream, which will serve as a prep for the June 7 GI Metropolitan Handicap at Saratoga. Cornett said other races that will be considered will be the GI Whitney, the GI California Crown and the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

While White Abarrio, who is trained by Saffie Joseph, Jr., doesn't show up every time, when he does there may not be a dirt horse on the planet that can beat him. After a lackluster performance when finishing second in GIII Mr. Prospector Stakes, he ran what may have been the best race of his life when winning the Jan. 25 GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream by 6 1/4 lengths in what was expected to be a prep for the Saudi Cup.

Trained by Rick Dutrow at the time, White Abarrio was 10th in last year's Saudi Cup.

Though White Abarrio is out of the Saudi Cup, the Cornett brothers may still have an entry. They are hoping to get Soul of an Angel (Atreides) into the race, but have been told that at this point she tops the list of the horses on the also-eligible list. The 2024 Champion Filly or Mare Sprinter, she won last year's GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint before finishing third in the Rampart Stakes at Gulfstream.

“With White Abarrio dropping out we're still hoping to get Soul of an Angel into the race,” Cornett said. “She's been moved up to the first alternate. That a Breeders' Cup winner is not yet part of the field for the race, well, you can kind of read between the lines there. They have horses weighted way below her but ahead of us so far as getting into the race goes. So I don't really understand their system.”

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