Rattle N Roll, McPeek As Good As Ever As Saudi Cup Looms

[Wandering Eyes]

RIYADH, KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA — At the age of six, Lucky Seven Stable and Sharaf Mohamad Alhairi's Rattle N Roll (Connect) is at the peak of his powers. The same can be said for his veteran trainer Ken McPeek, who is just this side of a series of achievements that anyone who does what he does for a living will have a hard time replicating anytime in the foreseeable future.

For equine and human alike, Saturday's G1 Saudi Cup at King Abdulaziz Racecourse is a potential watershed moment.

“It's very exciting. Of course, I've had a lot of excitement in the last year,” said McPeek. “This'll just put a little icing on top or a little cherry on top of my excitement if we could pull this off.”

Born in Arkansas and raised in Lexington, the 62-year-old McPeek has long been regarded as one of this game's top horsemen and one of its shrewdest judges of horseflesh for most of the last three decades. He has posted career numbers over the last two seasons, improving on his $10.8 million in earnings in 2023 with a season that will long be remembered in 2024. His runners amassed $16.2 million in prize money and it's difficult to pick a single highlight among the list of accomplishments. Was it the Oaks/Derby double with Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) and Mystik Dan (Goldencents)? Training the former to Horse of the Year honors? Or perhaps finishing just a handful of votes behind Chad Brown for an Eclipse Award of his own.

As encores go, a win in an eight-figure horse race would rate as a pretty good one, but McPeek is quick to deflect and defer and to give credit elsewhere.

“I don't really think about [the $20-million purse] so much as I've got this great team of people that I work with, whether it's clients or the staff, and we try to just do the best we can with each individual horse,” he said. “I really don't think about the money so much as what's right for this particular horse.”

Ken McPeek | Tod Marks

Reasonably Humble Beginnings

Known for having selected the likes of Curlin and, of course, Thorpedo Anna, for modest sums, McPeek gave $210,000 for Rattle N Roll on behalf of the Mackin Family's Lucky Seven Stable at the 2020 Keeneland September Sale, hardly a king's ransom, but not an insignificant chunk of change.

“Well, he looked like–and I tend to buy this kind of horse–he looked like a horse that would not have any trouble handling distance,” McPeek explained. “And he had a lot of size and balance and length to him. I don't really buy sprinters and haven't historically trained a lot of sprinters, although I've had my share of sprint wins, but he's a classic mile-and-a-quarter, mile and-a-sixteenth, mile-and-an-eighth horse. And of course we all dream of having that kind of horse and he's been great.”

Winner of the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity at two, Rattle N Roll just failed to draw into the 2022 GI Kentucky Derby, the renewal won from the clouds by Rich Strike (Keen Ice). At least in a minor sort of way in hindsight, McPeek regrets that Rattle N Roll did not gain a run in the Derby.

“This horse would probably be much more recognizable had he gotten into the Kentucky Derby, because that race ended up being a closers' race,” McPeek said during a Thursday press conference at King Abdulaziz. “He would have benefited from the fast pace. He was every bit as good as Rich Strike, but he didn't get in.”

Rattle N Roll nevertheless more than earned his keep over the course of a 10-race sophomore campaign that featured a victory in the GIII Ohio Derby. Kept busy at four in 2023, he made seven trips to the races, winning three times in Grade III company and just missing in the GI Stephen Foster Stakes.

Rattle N Roll was a distant fourth as the favorite in the GIII Lukas Classic Stakes in September 2023 and was sidelined thereafter with distal bone bruising, casting a fair bit of doubt on his career, though no surgery was required.

“We gave him this long, long time off, and actually at one point we weren't sure he was going to make it back,” said McPeek. “And then fortunately, the Mackin Family are extremely patient and have always been the best client to say, 'Look, do what's right for the horse. No problem, okay?'”

 

 

Rattle N Roll looking amazing @TheSaudiCup to be seen on @HorseRacesNOW and @FanDuel_Racing on Saturday 12:40ET pic.twitter.com/PWyLlHhPHv

— Kenny McPeek (@KennyMcPeek) February 20, 2025

 

Back And In Career Form

Gone for two days shy of a year, Rattle N Roll resumed with a sound third in the 2024 Lukas Classic and connections rolled the dice, sending him out west with an eye on the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. Unfortunately, it came up snake eyes for McPeek and Lucky Seven, and Rattle N Roll was rerouted for the GII Clark Stakes back in Kentucky about four weeks later. He ran out a 3/4-length winner, and McPeek and his owner opted for some outside-the-box thinking thereafter.

“His win in the Clark was just a real highlight for a horse that we weren't sure was going to make it back at all,” the trainer said. “Of course, he's been so successful all his career, but that was a real high moment. And then from there it was, okay, 'What do we do next?'”

Instead of a race like the GI Pegasus World Cup, connections programmed Rattle N Roll for the G3 Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup (King's Cup) the Jan. 25 course-and-distance qualifier for the main event with a push from former trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. In the interim, McPeek and Mackin had been approached by Saudi businessman Sharaf Mohamad Alhairi, making the decision to come for the prep that much more sensible. Switched off towards the rear with Joel Rosario calling the shots, Rattle N Roll weaved his way though the long straight to win with something in hand.

“The King's Cup was a race that there was a little risk, but a lot of reward there,” McPeek said. “But we felt like he would, on class alone, that that ought to be a race he could win. And right now it's put us in a position where we might have a chance to win the whole thing. We've always felt like that he would be a really good fit for some of those races over there in between Saudi and Dubai.”

McPeek said that Rattle N Roll, who has been under the watchful eye of Danny Ramsey since the King's Cup, is thriving in Riyadh.

“He's a very uncomplicated horse,” said McPeek. “We keep him on what I'd call a Saturday routine, and he really likes his regular schedule. He gallops. Danny's been getting on him since he was a 2-year-old, so Danny Ramsey knows him well.”

Should all go well this weekend, Rattle N Roll would move on to Dubai for a crack at the G1 Dubai World Cup six weeks down the road. McPeek explained that Rattle N Roll would then return to the U.S. to continue his career for Lucky Seven and his Saudi part-owner, who–unlike the lease agreement he struck with the owners of Senor Buscador (Mineshaft) last year–has purchased an ownership interest in the 6-year-old entire.

McPeek relishes the opportunity to showcase his and his horses' ability on foreign soil.

“I just find it fun,” he said. “I think the Thoroughbred is one of the most amazing animals ever created. It's almost a universal language.

“I think when you're traveling for these big races–the interesting thing is that, look, bring a very good horse and interesting things happen. I liken it to fine wine. Once you've tasted those experiences, that's what you want. I gave a young trainer by the name of Brad Cox some advice years ago. I said, 'Once you taste the fine wine, you won't drink the Bud Light anymore.'”

Should the stars align for McPeek, Mackin and Alhairi just after 8:40 Saturday evening, you can count on plenty of 'rattlin' n' 'rollin' with a side of 'hootin' n' hollerin' on the outskirts of Riyadh.

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