Saudi Cup

A quartet of Breeders' Cup winners all recorded workouts Sunday at Santa Anita. GI Breeders' Cup F/M Sprint winner Splendora (Audible) and GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Nysos (Nyquist) both worked for trainer Bob Baffert. Splendora drilled four furlongs in :49.00 (47/87) in her third work back since the Breeders' Cup. The 5-year-old is a candidate for the GII D. Wayne Lukas Stakes for fillies and mares going seven furlongs Feb. 7. Nysos, working for the first time since winning the Dec. 28 GII Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes, went...

The Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia has announced that the purse for the Howden Neom Turf Cup, which has recently been upgraded to Group 1 status, has been increased to $3m for 2026. The 2,100m invitational race will be the first Group 1 to be staged on turf in Saudi Arabia and takes place on the Saudi Cup card on Saturday, February 14. The meeting has been further enhanced by a 50 per cent increase in prize-money for the 1,800m Listed Tuwaiq Cup, which will now be run for $1m....

It has been well-documented that you have to go all the way back to Thunder Gulch in 1994 to find the last winner of the GII Remsen Stakes to go on to double up in the GI Kentucky Derby. But the nine-furlong contest, which offers the winner 10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, has seen its profile elevated by the results of the last handful of runnings. In 2021, Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo) dropped his nose down on the line ahead of Zandon (Upstart) and the duo...

The Howden Neom Turf Cup, one of the highlights of the Saudi Cup meeting, has been upgraded to Group 1 status ahead of next year's running. Meanwhile, global insurance broker Howden has extended its partnership with the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia (JCSA) for a further three years, taking the race sponsorship to 2028.   The addition of the Howden Neom Turf Cup to The Saudi Cup's line up of Group 1 races now takes the tally of top flight contests on the day to three, with a glittering undercard including...

DEL MAR, Calif -- "I drank too much." Ever the professional, even when feeling a little worse for wear, Yoshito Yahagi was at a 7.30 a.m. press call with his Breeders' Cup Classic winner Forever Young (Jpn). The latter was looking sparkier than his trainer, but then he hadn't been out late in a Mexican restaurant celebrating the LA Dodgers sealing back-to-back wins in the World Series. "I'm a bit hungover. The horse is in much better condition than me," Yahagi admitted. An avowed fan of baseball, he unzipped his...

Leon King Stable's Bentornato (Valiant Minister) put in a half-mile breeze Saturday ahead of an expected next start in the GI Cygames Breeders' Cup Sprint Nov. 1 at Del Mar. Working under regular pilot Irad Ortiz Jr., last year's Sprint runner up went in :50.80. Bentornato will also be a part of the Keeneland Championship Sale held just prior to the Breeders' Cup, with a 25% ownership interest on offer Oct. 29 at Del Mar. Trainer Jose D'Angelo noted that Bentornato's past and future racing schedule will appeal to buyers...

Lucky Seven Stable and Sharaf Mohamed Alhairi's Rattle N Roll (Connect), who rallied from the back of the back to finish a creditable fifth to Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}) and Romantic Warrior (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) in the G1 Saudi Cup on Feb. 22, has officially been invited to participate in the $12-million G1 Dubai World Cup at Meydan Racecourse Apr. 5, trainer Ken McPeek tweeted Mar. 21. The 6-year-old failed to draw into last year's GI Breeders' Cup Classic and was rerouted for the GII Clark Stakes Nov....

Aron Wellman, the president and founder of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, has had big days, buy maybe nothing quite like the one he had last Saturday. Horses owned in part by Eclipse won the GI Santa Anita Handicap, the GII San Felipe and the GIII Herecomesthebride Stakes. And while that was going on he was putting the finishing touches on an agreement for his Big Cap winner Locked (Gun Runner) to stand at stud at Gainesway. With many subjects to cover, Wellman was this week's guest on the TDN Writers' Room...

Danny Shum has indicated that his Hong Kong superstar Romantic Warrior (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) may yet return to Riyadh for a second attempt at the Saudi Cup at the age of eight. The 10-time Group 1 winner lost out by a neck to Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}) in the $20 million contest, the pair having pulled more than 10 lengths clear of 2024 runner-up Ushba Tesoro (Jpn). "It was a great run and for the next 10 years they will be talking about what a great race The...

'TDN Rising Star' Locked (Gun Runner) has always been highly regarded. By one of the nation's hottest sires and sold for $425,000 as a 2022 Keeneland September yearling, he affirmed that regard with a Grade I win at two. Sent to the sidelines for nearly a year before coming back to win the GII Cigar Mile Handicap in his only stakes start at three, he opened his 4-year-old campaign with a second to White Abarrio (Race Day) in the Jan. 25 Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park before shipping...

Rachel King made history in Japan on Sunday when she became the first female jockey to partner a Grade 1 winner in the country when she guided Costa Nova (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) to victory in the February Stakes at Tokyo. King rode six winners as an amateur in Britain between 2009 and 2013. She has gone on to become something of a globetrotting sensation and even rode a winner in the final leg in the International Jockeys' Challenge at Riyadh on the opening night of the Saudi Cup meeting...

Stop me if you've heard this one before. Japanese-trained runners dominated the Saudi Cup meeting, landing the big race itself and a clean sweep of the turf races, while peppering results elsewhere on the card with placed finishers.  A little sprinkling of European spice was added to the mix in the French breeding of the G2 Howden Neom Turf Cup winner Shin Emperor (Fr), whose heritage is shared by Christophe Lemaire, rider of the G2 1351 Turf Sprint winner Ascoli Piceno (Jpn) but now just as much a son of...