Saudi Cup

The Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia (JCSA) has released the names of the 1162 entries--including 41 Grade I/Group 1 winners--from no fewer than 15 racing jurisdictions around the world for the US$33.5 million Saudi Cup meeting to be held at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024. Prize money is up by $2.25 million as compared to the 2023 renewal, reflecting the upgrades of the Neom Turf Cup (2100mT) and 1351 Turf Sprint to international Group 2 status. One of the two races for Purebred Arabians--the Al Mneefah...

Two-time Grade I winner Defunded (Dialed In) will point towards the G1 Saudi Cup for new connections after having been privately purchased. The news, announced Saturday evening via a release, notes that the colt was bought for an undisclosed sum by Dr. Muhaideb Abdullah Almuhaideb's HDB Racing Stable, a new Saudi Arabian owner, and arrived in Saudi Arabia Dec. 18. "He is an exceptional horse and has the profile, hopefully, to be a great asset to Riyadh racing and to do well in the Saudi Cup," said Khalid Mishref. In...

Najd Stud has become increasingly active on the European sales scene for the past five years and now the operation has made its maiden voyage to American soil for the Keeneland November Sale. The Saudi Arabian breeding and racing operation of HRH Prince Faisal Bin Khaled Bin Abdulaziz collected a sizeable group of weanlings, plus a handful of mares and horses of racing age, to take back to Saudi Arabia. Saud Al Qahtani, who represented Najd Stud at Keeneland throughout the auction, spoke on their decision to expand their buying...

A day after his victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, trainer Rick Dutrow was already mapping out a plan to take White Abarrio (Race Day) to the Feb. 24 G1 Saudi Cup. Dutrow said he hopes to leave the 4-year-old at Santa Anita for a while and probably will take him to Saudi Arabia to be prepared for the race. "I would be comfortable running him in the Saudi Cup in his next start," Dutrow said. "I'm going to be pushing for it. I think that's where this horse...

2022 G1 Dubai World Cup winner Country Grammer (Tonalist) has been retired at the age of six. He will stand the 2024 season at WinStar Farm for an introductory fee of $10,000 LFSN. Campaigned by Commonwealth, WinStar Farm, and Zedan Racing, the Bob Baffert-trained colt started three times this year, finishing second for the second year in a row in the G1 Saudi Cup but failing to hit the board in both his Dubai World Cup defense and the GII Hollywood Gold Cup S. May 29. Bought for just $110,000...

Six days before he is to be sentenced as the final--and most notoriously prominent--defendant in the 2020 racehorse doping conspiracy scandal, the barred trainer Jason Servis was described by federal prosecutors in court documents as a person who "lied, repeatedly, and persisted in his illegal conduct even when confronted with irrefutable proof that his conduct was dishonest and violated racing rules." Culled from a trove of wiretapped surveillance (that would have been used against him at trial had he not pleaded guilty last December as part of a plea bargain)...

The 2-year-old Commissioner Dan (Commissioner) (hip 120), who captured his debut Wednesday and was supplemented to the sale on Thursday, topped the Keeneland April Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale Sunday in Lexington with a final bid of $500,000 from Pedro Lanz, bidding on behalf of the Saudi Arabia-based KAS Stable. Keeneland sold 67 horses Sunday for $6,743,000.  The average of $100,642 rose 9.13% over last year's $92,224, while the median jumped 40% from $50,000 to $70,000. In 2022, 58 horses sold for $5,349,000. "Today was very positive. This is...

It felt like a literal solstice, a moment marking our transition to a different phase in the alignment of the Thoroughbred firmament. Because the meteoric performance of Equinox (Jpn) in Dubai on Saturday night, as highlight of another momentous evening for Japan, left rival breeders everywhere speechless. Perhaps, they wondered next morning, this was what was meant by a Sunday silence. There are so many lessons in Japan's accession as a dominant influence on the 21st Century Thoroughbred, a trend that even the most obtuse and parochial of us cannot...

WinStar Farm, Commonwealth Thoroughbreds and Zedan Racing's defending G1 Dubai World Cup champion Country Grammer (Tonalist) tops a dozen North American entries for the Dubai World Cup program at Meydan Racecourse Saturday, Mar. 25. The prospective fields were revealed overnight by the Dubai Racing Club. The 6-year-old is one of 13 in the field for the $12-million centerpiece of the meeting, including no fewer than eight runners from Japan topped by Panthalassa (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}), who registered a half-length defeat of Country Grammer in the G1 Saudi Cup last...

Official Starter for the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, Joe Banahan is hugely passionate about breeding, and from a small but select broodmare band, his family have enjoyed notable success on the Flat from their Moortown House Stud base near Navan. Joe's parents Percy and Elaine have recently passed away but, along with his wife Edel, he has carried on the proud family tradition in breeding. In this week's Starfield Stud-sponsored Q&A, Banahan, a former jockey, reveals how he became infatuated with breeding, what he aims to achieve from Moortown House...

When Panthalassa (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) provided Japan with a breakthrough victory in the $20-million G1 Saudi Cup, Tom Ryan, one of the key men behind the lucrative two-day meeting, punched the proverbial air. Of all the results possible in the big race, a Japanese victory would have been right up there as the most desirable for a relatively new fixture on the international racing circuit, as extravagant the prize-money may be. Nobody understands this better than the County Tipperary native who swapped managing Naas racecourse for his current role...

Going into Saturday's Saudi Cup meeting at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh, there was approximately one way that this year's results could better the massive success achieved by Japan in 2022. And who better to orchestrate it but trainer Yoshito Yahagi, who has won major races everywhere with the possible exception of Mars, as Hiroo Race Co. Ltd's Panthalassa (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}), one of six top-shelf gallopers signed on from the Land of the Rising Sun and making just the second start of an already successful career on the...