horse racing in Saudi Arabia

It looked for much of the stretch run of the six-furlong Saudia Sprint Cup as if it would be a double for Speightstown and Japan as Matera Sky stole a big lead after setting the pace, but as that one got extremely leg weary in the final furlong it was the charging New York Central (Tapit) who capitalized, nailing him in the shadow of the wire to win by a head as another runner formerly based in America, Gladiator King (Curlin), made up ground to be third. New York Central...

The international favourites may have been humbled by locally trained runners in the first two turf contests on the $29-million Saudi Cup card at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh on Saturday, but European-trained runners powered back to fill the trifecta in the featured grass race, the $2.5-million Longines Turf Cup, with George Strawbridge's French-trained homebred Call The Wind (GB) (Frankel {GB}) leading home the British-based Mekong (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and Prince of Arran (GB) (Shirocco {Ger}) in the 3000 metre contest. Call The Wind's trainer Freddy Head had earlier in...

Bahrain isn't the most notable nation on the international horse racing circuit, but it took a significant step in growing its profile on Saudi Cup day when winning the first two races on the card, with Dark Power (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) bringing up the double when running down Godolphin's Mubtasim (Ire) (Arcano {Ire}) in the $1-million stc 1351 Cup. Mubtasim's stablemate Glorious Journey (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) ran on late to be third, making it a clean sweep for horses trained in the Gulf region. Bred by Guy O'Callaghan and...