Tag: Prince Bandar

Moore, Oliver, Saez Headline Saudi Jockeys’ Competition

Fourteen world-class jockeys from eight jurisdictions around the world will participate in the International Jockeys' Challenge to be held on the eve of the Saudi Cup meeting at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh Friday, Feb. 23. A team of seven male riders will compete against seven of their female counterparts in the four-race series.

Ryan Moore will feature in the Jockeys' Challenge for the first time in its brief history. The veteran reinsman, who was recognized as the Longines World's Best Jockey in Hong Kong last December, is one of five male participants based overseas, alongside the defending champion Luis Saez from the United States, Maxime Guyon from France and Japan's Ryusei Sakai.

Legendary Australian jockey Damien Oliver, the last of the overseas invitees, officially retired from the saddle Dec. 16, taking a Group 3 race named in his honour at Ascot in his hometown of Perth in Western Australia. But similar to his compatriot Glen Boss in 2022, Oliver–a three-time winner of the G1 Melbourne Cup–will pause his retirement to take part in the event, which is worth US$30,000 to the winner from a total pool of US$100,000. Oliver will look to add to the 3,168 winners he rode during an illustrious 34-year career in the saddle.

Eight-times Saudi champion Camilo Ospina and current titleholder Adel Alfouraidi round out the line-up for the males.

New Zealand's Lisa Allpress made history in 2020 when becoming the first female to win a race in Saudi Arabia, and the four-time leading rider returns to Riyadh for another crack. Australasia is also set to be represented by the Sydney-based Alysha Collett. America's Katie Davis makes her debut in the event and will be joined by South Africa's Rachel Venniker, Victoria Mota from Brazil, French jockey Maryline Eon and Great Britain's Saffie Osborne, the daughter of trainer Jamie Osborne, who was part of the female team that emerged victorious at last year's Shergar Cup at Ascot.

“The jockeys challenge on the Friday of Saudi Cup weekend is always one of the event highlights for me,” said HRH Prince Bandar Bin Khaled Alfaisal, Chairman of the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia. We are justifiably proud of the variety of racing showcased across the two days. To be in a position to offer a global stage to 14 of the world's best jockeys, seven men and seven women, is highly gratifying.

“We wish the best of luck to all the jockeys competing and hope that their feats on the racecourse serve to inspire new generations of riders both in Saudi Arabia and beyond.”

 

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Equine MediRecord Secures Contract With JCSA

Equine MediRecord, a Kildare-based software platform, has secured a long-term contract with the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia (JCSA). An Irish trade delegation traveled to the JCSA to announce the news. The platform will support the $20-million G1 Saudi Cup, which was elevated to Group 1 status for the first time in 2022.

The Equine MediRecord platform allows for the full veterinary history of the horse to be recorded securely, ensuring the best possible horse welfare, as well as aiding with crucial anti-doping procedures. In addition, the platform will provide all entrants, trainers and vets, a system to comply with the latest anti-doping and animal welfare measures which have been brought in for the Saudi Cup 2022. Integrity of this information will be ensured using the Equine MediRecord system and its algorithms which will guarantee the compliance for all horses who participate before they race, ensuring the best possible equine welfare.

For more information on the platform, please visit www.equinemedirecord.com/.

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Prizemoney Boosts For Saudi Cup Card

In addition to the previously announced allocation of Group 1 status to the $20-million Saudi Cup and Group 3 status to five undercard Thoroughbred races, the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia revealed in a press conference on Thursday some key purse increases for undercard races.

The 2022 Saudi Cup meeting, which will take place on Feb. 25 and 26, will be worth $35.1-million, making it the world's richest race meeting. Prizemoney for the G3 Neom Turf Cup and the G3 1351 Turf Sprint have each been boosted by $500,000, and are now worth $1.5-million apiece.

The JCSA also revealed a series of new qualifying races for the Neom Turf Cup and 1351 Turf Sprint. The GI Pegasus World Cup Turf, G3 Bahrain International Trophy and the G3 Challenge Cup at Hanshin in Japan will be qualifiers for the Neom Turf Cup. The G2 Hanshin Cup has been added as a qualifier for the 1351 Turf Sprint. The three qualifying contests for the Saudi Cup remain the same: the GI Pegasus World Cup, the G1 Champions Cup in Japan and the Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques Cup.

“We could never have imagined the immediate impact The Saudi Cup would have on the international racing landscape, or indeed on our domestic racing product,” said HRH Prince Bandar Bin Khalid Al Faisal, Chairman of the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia. “In 2020 we launched our first ever international meeting and less than three years later we enter our first racing season as a Part II racing nation, having been promoted by the IFHA earlier this month. We are now looking forward to hosting the world's most valuable race, The Saudi Cup, as a Group 1 for the first time, as well as five Group 3 races on the undercard. None of this would have been possible without the buy in and support of the international racing community and, on behalf of the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia, I would like to thank everyone within the industry for the way they have embraced The Saudi Cup.

“As The Saudi Cup makes advances, so does our domestic racing offering. We continue to focus not only the international aspects of this sport but also understand that building strong foundations upon which a sustainable industry can be built is a vital element to securing the future of this incredible and unique sport for generations to come, both in Saudi Arabia and overseas.”

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Prince Bandar Addresses Maximum Security 2020 Purse Issue

Interviewed on the world feed coverage of the Saudi Cup, Prince Bandar Bin Khalid Al Faisal, chairman of the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia, said that he expected there to be “movement” on the U.S. case against Jason Servis which had been holding up the payment of last year's Saudi Cup purse.

Servis was the trainer of 2020's inaugural winner of the Saudi Cup, Maximum Security (New Year's Day), who has never been awarded prize money for the victory. Two weeks after the race, Servis was one of 27 people named in a criminal indictment for “widespread, corrupt scheme by racehorse trainers, veterinarians, PED distributors and others to manufacture, distribute, and receive adulterated and misbranded PEDs and to secretly administer those PEDs to racehorses under scheme participants' control,” by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

While the rest of the field was paid their share of the purse, including runner-up Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute), Maximum Security's $10-million winning payout has been withheld.

Nick Luck, the host of the program, asked Prince Bandar about the issue.

“It was a wonderful night last year,” said Luck. “We all left here with a real spring in our step. It was a terrific horse race between Maximum Security and Midnight Bisou, but racefans around the world are familiar with what has happened since, because Maximum Security's then-trainer was indicted on very serious illegal medication charges, just a couple of weeks later. What is your position at the moment, because you have withheld the purse money from Maximum Security's owners up to this point?”

“That is true,” said Prince Bandar, “and we are sort of in a hold position now waiting for the U.S. authorities to move forward with that case. We understand in the coming six weeks there will be some kind of movement on it which will allow us to move forward and bring this to a close. I feel we don't have long to wait for it, but as you said, it's an unfortunate situation. I had a soft spot for that horse. I thought he got a raw deal in the Kentucky Derby. It was fair, but he was the best horse on the day. Here, he was the best horse on the day and he was a victim of circumstances that have nothing to do with the horse himself, but we have to abide by the international rules and regulations and somebody will get the prize money. We have paid out all of the other positions, and I feel that within six weeks, hopefully, we'll put this issue to a close.”

Jim Gagliano, the president and chief operating officer of The (American) Jockey Club, said that he had not been informed on any movement on the case. “These are government proceedings and they don't provide updates,” said Gagliano.

The most recent news on the case came on February 5, when Jorge Navarro and Seth Fishman, DVM, the trainer and veterinarian indicted on the same charges, both filed motions to dismiss the drug alteration and misbranding conspiracy charges levied against them in United States District Court (Southern District of New York).”

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