International Cast Assembled as Forever Young Bids for Saudi Cup History

[Wandering Eyes]

At an unspecified date in the future Saudi Arabia will have a brand new racecourse at Qiddiya City, which will eventually host the Saudi Cup, according to an announcement made earlier this week. But for now the world's richest race belongs in Riyadh.

Development has continued apace at King Abdulaziz Racecourse, which has now been in operation for 24 years. Much has changed, even in the short history of the Saudi Cup, both to the infrastructure at the racecourse and in the status of some of the contests. The Saudi Cup itself gained a Group 1 tag back in 2021, ahead of the third running of the race, and now it is joined at that international top tier by the Howden Neom Turf Cup, which on Saturday will become the first Group 1 race on grass to be staged in Saudi Arabia.

Bob Baffert served up the Field of Dreams analogy in an interview during the week, and of course when $20m is attached to a race it will draw top horses from all over the world. In 2021, Classic winner Mishriff became the first European to take the race, and remains the only one to have done so, with subsequent runnings having gone to horses trained in Saudi, America and Japan. Yoshito Yahagi is the only trainer to have won it twice, initially with Panthalassa in 2023, and he has brought last year's winner, Japan's Horse of the Year Forever Young (Real Steel), back for another shot in an attempt to extend his record further still.

Japanese horsemen now come in droves to the winter fixtures in the Middle East. In the six-year history of the Saudi Cup, 16 of the 47 international thoroughbred races have gone to a Japanese runner and there are 20 horses from the country here in Saudi. It should come as no surprise as, in addition to the Cup itself, Japan secured a clean sweep of last year's turf races with Shin Emperor (Siyouni), Ascoli Piceno (Daiwa Major) and Byzantine Dream (Epiphaneia). The latter has not travelled to Saudi this year for a repeat attempt at the G2 Red Sea Turf Handicap but is instead in Qatar where he will run in the G2 HH The Amir Trophy.

For this year's main event, Forever Young will be tough to beat. Baffert, having twice finished second in the Saudi Cup, launches a double-pronged attack and said on Thursday that the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Nysos (Nyquist) is the best horse he has brought for the Saudi Cup to date, from five previous runners. He also fields Nevada Beach (Omaha Beach), who the trainer compared favourably to his 2022 runner-up Country Grammer.

Yahagi's former assistant Kyoko Maekawa, the first female trainer to be licensed in the JRA, has her first shot at international glory with Sunrise Kipangu (Kizuna), a versatile sort when it comes to both trip and surface. Her compatriot Noriyuki Hori, who came close to Royal Ascot glory last year with Satono Reve, will saddle the third challenger from Japan, Luxor Cafe (American Pharoah), the mount of Joao Moreira. 

The Godolphin-bred Banishing (Ghostzapper) was bought by Larry Roman for $80,000 as a four-year-old in training, and Roman has raced him since then with trainer David Jacobson. On Saturday Banishing will race for those two partners along with Sharaf Al Hariri, who bought into the six-year-old in recent days – a strategy which worked well for him when he took a share in the 2024 winner Senor Buscador just prior to the race. Meanwhile the fellow American-trained Bishops Bay (Uncle Mo) will also carry local hopes. The Brad Cox trainee, the winner of four graded stakes at up to nine furlongs, is now listed in the ownership of King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz and Sons.

Ghaiyyath filly Ameerat Alzamaan leads a team of five Saudi-trained challengers and will be ridden by Ryan Moore. The four-year-old was runner-up to Mhally (Sergei Prokofiev) in the G3 Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup, a Saudi Cup qualifying race over course and distance.

Bridesmaid Survie goes for Group 1 glory

The new Group 1 status of the Howden Neom Turf Cup, along with its $3m purse, has proved sufficient enticement for the new connections of Survie, who changed hands for 1.9 million gns at Tattersalls in December. The five-year-old daughter of Churchill now runs in the colours of Doreen Tabor and has moved to the stable of George Boughey, who gave her a warm-up run, and win, in the Winter Derby Trial at Lingfield on January 31.

“She came out of the race good, she didn't do a huge amount last week but has shipped over in great shape,” Boughey said. “Dropping back to this 2,100-metre trip was always my plan, especially with this race having been upgraded to a Group 1 and with an extra $1m in prize-money, it was an obvious point for her.”

Survie has been placed in Group 1 contests on four occasions, including when second to Sparkling Plenty in the Prix de Diane. She fully deserves to be a top-level winner in her own right but will have to see off last year's winner, the aforementioned Shin Emperor, as well as recent G2 Bahrain Trophy winner Royal Champion (Shamardal) and his runner-up Galen (Gleneagles).

Alohi Alii (Duramente) claimed the G3 Prix Guillaume d'Ornano on his last trip outside Japan and will likely be better suited by the 2,100-metre trip and faster ground after being thwarted in the Arc.

The 2024 G1 Dubai Turf winner Facteur Cheval (Ribchester) and last year's GI Canadian International winner Silawi (Dubawi), now seven and six respectively, add some depth to an 11-strong field drawn from six different nations.

Melrose winners clash in Red Sea Turf

Bar two runners from Japan – Struve (King Kamehameha) and Vermiclles (Gold Ship) – the $2.5m G2 Red Sea Turf Handicap is an entirely European affair featuring some well known names and emerging stayers. The last two winners of York's Melrose Handicap, so often a good pointer to some progressive types, face each other, with Tom Clover's Tabletalk having been gelded since we saw him last at Chester in August. The trainer rides him daily and feels he will be well suited to the faster ground he will encounter in Riyadh.

The 2025 Melrose winner was the Juddmonte homebred Tarriance, a son of Frankel from the family of Hasili who has also recently been gelded. Trained by Andrew Balding, his only blip in six runs to date was his last-place finish in the St Leger on soft ground, but he too should enjoy these more suitable conditions. 

“It's great having a Juddmonte horse out here,” said the trainer's wife Annalisa Balding. “He didn't run at two and just improved so much last year. He's very straightforward and hopefully will enjoy the trip.”

Epic Poet (Lope De Vega) was second in the race last year for David O'Meara, who said of the seven-year-old, “I think his prep, especially going out to Dubai this year, has been better. 

“I'm unsure about the draw in 12, but we're hopeful. He's very versatile and can sit right behind the leaders or take his time in the back if they're going hard.”

Joseph O'Brien has scratched his Melbourne Cup runner-up Goodie Two Shoes but is still double-handed thanks to last year's Derby third and G2 Prix Dollar winner Tennessee Stud (Wootton Bassett) and G3 Ballyroan Stakes winner Sons And Lovers (Study Of Man).

Burdett Road (Muhaarar) is guaranteed to be the only Saudi runner who did his Middle East prep at Cheltenham, but last year's Champion Hurdle runner-up is plainly in good form from his National Hunt exertions as he ran a decent second in a conditions race in Dubai last month.

The French-trained greys Presage Nocturne (Wootton Bassett) and Espoir Avenir (Montmartre) have looked a picture training together in the morning this week but they are not just here to look pretty. Both are Group 3 winners over this trip at Longchamp and Presage Nocturne went off favourite for last year's Melbourne Cup.

Lazzat and Panja Tower a class above in 1351 Turf Sprint

Annaf (Muhaarar) won the $2m 1351 Turf Sprint two years ago and Mick Appleby's seven-year-old finished sixth of 13 last year. In this third appearance he faces a solid Group 1 performer in Lazzat (Territories), who could well add to trainer Jerome Reynier's burgeoning haul of international wins.

Donnacha O'Brien's first runner in Saudi Arabia is Comanche Brave (Wootton Bassett), who drops back in trip for this 1,351-metre contest. Ridden by Ryan Moore, he backs up quickly after finishing third in last weekend's Listed Abu Dhabi Gold Cup.

“He is a horse I always wanted to bring back down to sprint distances,”O'Brien said. “This is his first step in that direction. He is a horse with a lot of natural pace and hopefully that will bring out a bit of improvement.”

The G1 NHK Mile winner Panja Tower (Tower Of London), representing trainer Shinsuke Hashiguchi, looks the pick of the three Japanese runners and is versatile regarding trip.

Points to be made in the Saudi Derby 

The G3 Saudi Derby has been given something of a boost by its star graduate of 2024, Forever Young. Three of the six runnings have gone to Japan, and this year's most talked-about horse is Satono Voyage (Into Mischief), the winner of three of his four races in Japan including the Cattelya Stakes, which carries points for the Kentucky Derby, as does this race. Satono Voyage is trained by Hiroyasu Tanaka, whose biggest threat in attempting to land this prize could come from compatriot Junji Tanaka (no relation), who saddles another multiple winner Best Green (Smart Falcon).

The American challengers attempting to pick up some Derby points include the Brad Cox-trained My World, from the first crop of Darley's Essential Quality, and Obliteration (Violence), who was fourth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint for Steve Asmussen.

Karl Burke has sent Pontefract Listed winner Shayem (King Of Change), the winner of three of his four starts last year, and James Doyle's mount is not the only European runner in the reckoning as Gianluca Bietolini brings his Deauville Listed winner Cielo Di Roma (Romanised) and has secured the services of Mickael Barzalona. 

Breeders' Cup Sprint form tested

The Grade I winners Elite Power and Straight No Chaser are both former winners of the G2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint, for which last year's runner-up Muqtahem (Soldier's Call) reappears with a string of five Saudi wins to his name since then for trainer Abdullah Alsidrani.

The Bob Baffert-trained Imagination, last seen finishing runner-up in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, sets a decent standard and will reoppose fellow Into Mischief colt American Stage, who was fourth behind him at Del Mar and is making his first visit to Riyadh for this meeting's most successful trainer Yoshito Yahagi.

The Naoya Nakamura-trained four-year-old Yamanin Cerchi (Four Wheel Drive) has a progressive look to him and closed out last year with a hat-trick of Listed wins before finishing second in the G3 Capella Stakes in mid-December.

 

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