You might be wondering if the dream of Saudi Arabia’s rulers to dominate the world’s most watched sports at the highest level isn’t a little vague. writes Tony Stafford. Golfers and footballers have been enticed with unfathomably large sums of money to join the Liv Tour and the Saudi Pro League respectively, but even after little more than a year or two, disillusionment sets in in some cases.
In the Kingdom, the focus of horse racing is largely on one day and specifically on one race. The seventh edition of the Saudi Cup took place last Saturday, held over a mile and a furlong of the Riyadh Racecourse in Janadriyah. A field of thirteen consisted of three Japanese competitors, six horses from the US and was supplemented by a quartet of generally outclassed local horses.
The race had prize money totaling £15 million, but despite considerable opposition, favorite and defending champion Forever Young started at just 1/3 and took care of business for owner Susumu Fujita, trainer Yoshito Yahagi and jockey Ryusei Sakai. The trainer also won the race in 2023 with Panthalassa.
Forever Young shared the top spot in the dirt racing portion of the 2025 international standings with U.S.-trained three-year-old Sovereignty. Their score of 128 was two pounds lower than that of the overall champion, French-trained turf specialist Calandagan, who was boosted to that mark when he won the Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse in late November.
Saturday’s opposition to Forever Young was led by the Bob Baffert-trained Nysos, a far from negligible performer who had won six of his seven previous starts. One of these was at Grade 1 level and his only defeat until the Saudi Cup was also at that level and after that by just a neck difference.
His rating at the start of the race was 119.9 pounds lower than Forever Young’s, but after the one-length defeat his score will certainly be adjusted upwards. The pair were almost four lengths ahead of the best of the rest, the Wathnan Racing-managed but US-trained Tumbarumba, along with Wathnan’s regular rider James Doyle.
Now’s the time to mention the generous prices. The winner collected £7,407,407; Nysos earned £2,592,592; Tumbarumba earned £1,481,481; Bishops Bay (USA) in the fourth home country takes home £1,111,111. £740,740 was the prize for fifth-placed Luxor Café in Japan, while Sunrise Zipangu, next at home under Oisin Murphy, pocketed £444,444. Murphy has often been associated with Japanese runners at international events over the years.
The money went all the way down to 10e place. That position was held by one of the home contingent, Ameerat Alzamaan. It was well worth Ryan Moore’s time to travel to Saudi Arabia; his horse earned £148,148.
These huge numbers explain what happens when the best part of £30 million in total stakes is available. Do the authorities at the top in Kingdon continue to believe that the £30 million for one day is value for money? As long as they do that, the saddle will travel community will happily join the party.
Moore, Murphy and Doyle are among that small group of British riders (including the absent William Buick) at the forefront of the world’s jockeys and all three will return home with nicely improved bank balances. I’m not sure if they can rake in the supposed ten percent of the total prize money in Saudi Arabia, but even if it’s just five percent it would be a great way to cover the costs of family Christmas parties.
On the whole, Murphy had the upper hand, his £2 million and a bit total boosted by two wins, in a Listed race (£370,000) and more spectacularly in the £1,333,000 Turf Cup over ten and a half furlongs on the Karl Burke-trained Royal Champion.
Moore came third here with George Boughey’s Survie, in the colors of Doreen Tabor, and the resulting £222,000 added to Ryan’s £700,000 haul that afternoon. Later he partnered Tom Clover’s Tabletalk in the 1m7f Turf Handicap, only bettered here by Joseph O’Brien’s Sons And Lovers ridden by Dylan Browne McMonagle. The Irish team’s reward? A cool £1.1 million.
Doyle came closest to victory over French-trained speed handler Lazzat, owned by Wathnan, but he could not match American performer Reef Runner, trained in Florida by David Fawkes.
Another septet of British jockeys were recruited mostly for a single mount and again normally without making an impact. David Loughnane and Danny Tudhope each took home one lucrative prize, while the other five, namely Pat Dobbs, who moved across from his winter base in Dubai, Jason Watson, Pat Cosgrave, Callum Shepherd and PJ McDonald all went without a prize but could well have been guaranteed compensation for attending.
Many years ago, when Saudi Arabia was just beginning to host top international sporting events, the first prize in a golf tournament was surpassed many times over by the appearance fee paid to Justin Rose.
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We are at that time of the season where most managers will be holding their breath with Cheltenham in mind. One person who will go into it with optimism is Ben Pauling after Saturday’s stunning hat-trick in the first three races of the Ascot card. Novice hurdler Mondoui’boy; The Jukebox Kid, comfortable in the Reynoldstown Chase; and Fiercely Proud in the day’s handicap hurdle all won well, showing his team are at the top of their form.
Pauling is involved in one of the most compelling events of the winter during the six-day stage – and it’s a flat race at Southwell on Friday. With an extra £40,000 it is the “Let’s do Nicky Henderson and Michael Buckley a Favor novice stakes”, a race for four year olds and over 1m4f.
Hughie Morrison spoke to me about it recently and said that with that amount of money it couldn’t be divided, and there were 32 horses entered, with a maximum field of only 14 that could run. For a day, Nicky must have been nervous that Constitution Hill might have a low vote and miss the performance.
I know a lot of trainers who routinely get what they describe as “nonsense withdrawals,” but the techs (or AI perhaps these days) who program the machine that spits out the voting order the day after the submission, so yesterday, gave Constitution Hill number 16, so only two of the 32 have to come out.
One bookmaker I saw had the former champion hurdler as the 4/6 favourite. Kevin Phillipart De Foy’s Amo Racing-owned Square Necker, a winner at Dundalk in December, is next best at 7/4 with Willie Mullins’ Daddy Long Legs, a hurdler rated 152, next best at 7/2.
If you think I begrudge the Seven Barrows team being helped find a non-jumps race for Constitution Hill’s quest to regain his Champion Hurdle crown, far from it.
Sixteen years ago, the season after his Champion Hurdle success in 2009, Nicky struggled to find suitable preparation for Punjabi. Kempton was persuaded to organize a £8,000 prize for the winners’ hurdle race, also at the end of February, on favorable terms. Punjabi started at 1/6 and won by 12 lengths, but his wind failed a few days later in the big race and stablemate Binocular took revenge.
Ray Tooth’s star performer was never the same. The year after Binoculars won the Champion Hurdle, Sandown gave him another ‘gift’. It was happily accepted at 1/10, but once again a second title victory proved beyond the JP McManus star.
– TS
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