This February saw the fifth running of The Saudi Cup, which brought together the best horses, trainers and jockeys from around the world to compete over two days of the highest quality racing at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh.
The 2024 renewal featured upgrades to a number of races including the Ministry of Culture Al Mneefah Cup for Purebred Arabians which was run as a Group 1 for the first time, while the Howden Neom Turf Cup and the Saudi National Bank 1351 Turf Sprint were both run as international Group 2 contests.
With $37.6 million on offer across the meeting’s 17 races, reflecting the race upgrades, this was also the most valuable Saudi Cup meeting ever run. It attracted a host of international contenders from the USA, Japan, UK, Ireland, France, the UAE, Oman, the Czech Republic, Spain and Norway which joined a strong group of Saudi Arabian runners.
Both the Friday and Saturday cards saw a spread of international winners.
One of Friday’s highlight events, the Invest Saudi International Jockeys Challenge (IJC), was won by France’s Maryline Eon, outscoring superstar jockeys like Ryan Moore, Damien Oliver, Maxine Gyon and Ryusei Sakai.
Eon rode one winner and finished runner-up in another of the IJC races to score more points across the four-race challenge than locally-based rider Camilo Ospina and Brazilian jockey Victoria Mota, who finished second and third respectively.
Saturday’s Saudi Cup card began with arguably the best Purebred Arabian on the planet, Asfan Al Khalediah, taking out the G1 Diriyah Gate Development Authority Obaiyah Arabian Classic to extend his unbeaten career record to 17 races, and his success was greeted rapturously by the large crowd in attendance.
Japanese-trained runners have made their presence felt at The Saudi Cup meeting in recent years, and one of their big hopes, Forever Young, trained by last year’s Saudi Cup-winning handler, Yoshito Yahagi, left it until right on the line to get the better of US-trained Book’em Danno in the G3 Boutique Group Saudi Derby.
Victory for the Koichi Shintani-trained Remake under Yuga Kawada in the following race, the G3 Sports Boulevard Riyadh Dirt Sprint, signalled that the Japanese challenge was as strong as ever this year, and later on they would nearly land The Saudi Cup for a second successive year.
Before that, Mick Appleby’s Annaf was a winner for the UK, after threading a daring passage up the rail under Rossa Ryan to land the G2 1351 Turf Sprint, and a major pay-day for a small, but highly ambitious yard.
More UK success was to follow with one of the loudest cheers of the night greeting the Sir Alex Ferguson-owned Spirit Dancer, who gave the former Manchester United manager a second win in the Middle East following the son of Frankel’s victory in the Bahrain International Trophy.
This year was the first time since 2020 that Aidan O’Brien had sent runners to the meeting and while Luxembourg finished behind Spirit Dancer in the Neom Turf Cup, connections were celebrating after Tower Of London overcame traffic problems in the G3 Longines Red Sea Turf Handicap under an ice cool ride from Ryan Moore.
The $20 million Saudi Cup was run at a searing pace from the off, with locally-owned Saudi Crown looking as though he might last home for a famous victory. However, both Japanese challenger Ushba Tesoro and the US-trained, Señor Buscador swept on by as the pace collapsed late on, with Señor Buscador challenging latest of all to win by a head under Junior Alvarado for Texas-based trainer Todd Fincher.
