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Sutherland Enters Jockey Challenge In Saudi

The Saudi Cup International Jockeys Challenge, led by defending champion Caitlin Jones, plus a mix of international female and male riders like Victoria Alonso, Joanna Mason, Frankie Dettori, Luis Saez, Joao Moreia, and Chantal Sutherland, is set for King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Saudi Arabia on Friday.

The jockeys will compete to receive 15% of prize-money for each of the four $400,000 races in they win with a further $100,000 going to the overall champion.

“It is my first time in Saudi Arabia and I'm actually blown away by the hospitality and the kindness people have shown” said the Florida-based and Canadian-born Sutherland.

The daughter of a Standardbred trainer, Sutherland is no stranger to making history. She was the first woman to win the GI Santa Anita H. and also the first to ride in the G1 Dubai World Cup, both aboard Game On Dude (Awesome Again). Sutherland also piloted him to a second-place finish in the 2011 GI Breeders' Cup Classic behind Drosselmeyer (Distorted Humor), who was ridden by then-boyfriend Mike Smith.

“I was second in the Breeders' Cup Classic and I thought that was around the time to maybe have a child,” said Sutherland. I stopped racing and took about four years out and didn't ever get to have a kid. The marriage [to Dan Kruse] didn't work out either, so I went back to racing, got injured, then got back from the injury, then Covid happened.”

Sutherland's decision to return to the track was prompted by a move to the Sunshine State over the course of the winter in early 2021.

“I was going to ride just before Covid. I was going to ride Turfway [Park] and that was freezing,” she said. “I'd frozen for I don't know how long in my career, in Canada, at Aqueduct. I thought, 'I'm going to Florida,' and I just loved it. It felt like home.”

As far as her mounts for Friday in Saudi Arabia, Sutherland will be aboard the appropriately-named, Fighter (KSA) (Official Flame) in race two over 1600 meters and Inhimr (KSA) (Pomeroy) in race three going 1400 meters, both on dirt. Then in the pair of turf races, she will guide Go Fast Traou Land (Fr) (George Vancouver) in the 1200-meter race five and finish off with Billy Batts (City Zip) in race six over 2100 meters.

She added, “I'm really looking forward to the Jockeys Challenge. I've already worked out the races, watched all the replays and I've spoken to some key handicap people who have put the races together. I feel I am ready, physically, mentally and preparation-wise. I've done my homework. It's going to be exciting.”

Sutherland is looking forward to staying put at Gulfstream Park once she returns from the Middle East, especially since year-round racing continues to draw jockeys from all quadrants.

“I'm very happy in Florida and very happy to be doing what I'm doing again,” Sutherland said. It has been stop-start, but now everything, with the flow, I feel there is an alignment in my life and everything is going well.”

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Japanese Superstar Fukunaga To Hang Up The Saddle At Saudi Cup

Yuichi Fukunaga, one of the most decorated jockeys in Japanese racing history, paid an emotional tribute to his fans ahead of his retirement rides at the Saudi Cup.

The 46-year-old had his final rides on the Japan Racing Association (JRA) circuit at Tokyo Racecourse earlier this month but will close the chapter on his storied career when he partners Remake (Jpn) (Lani) in the G3 Riyadh Dirt Sprint presented by Sports Boulevard and Ecoro Ares (Unified) in the G3 Saudi Derby presented by Boutique Group on Saturday.

The veteran rider will concentrate fully on his training career upon his retirement from the saddle and told fans of how that new ambition outweighed his desire to continue riding.

“I have found other things I really want to do as my job,” he said. “I never felt I did not like being a jockey. The attraction of becoming a trainer outweighed the motivation to continue my riding career because I have had enough as a jockey. As a trainer, I can be more deeply involved with horses.”

Fukunaga will retire with a spectacular list of achievements. As an established rider, he has collected 45 Grade/Group 1 wins which include 34 on the JRA circuit, six at the National Association of Racing (NAR) level and five overseas.

Those were the American Oaks on Cesario (Jpn) (Special Week {Jpn}) in 2005, three times in Hong Kong on Eishin Preston (Green Dancer) and the Dubai Duty Free on Just A Way (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) in 2014. In 2022, he won the G1 February S. on Saturday's G1 Saudi Cup entrants Cafe Pharoah (Jpn) (American Pharoah) and Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) on Geoglyph (Jpn) (Drefong), having helped Contrail (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) land the Japanese Triple Crown in 2020.

He continued, “I'd like to thank all the racing fans for supporting and cheering the horse racing in Japan, I never thought I wanted to quit as a jockey in these 27 years. I am very grateful to all the people involved in my jockey life. I will go to the next stage as a trainer, and I do hope I can train horses that many people want to cheer.”

Fukunaga added, “I want to express my gratitude to the connections for the chances to ride in Saudi Arabia for my final rides. Hopefully I can show their best runs and bring the best results to all the fans in Japan.”

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Brad Cox Joins TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

He just won the GII Risen Star S., has a strong pair entered in Saturday's GII Rebel S. and accounts for 10 horses being offered in the latest round of the Derby Future Wager. When it comes to 3-year-old talent, Brad Cox's lineup has tremendous quality and tremendous quantity. In the spotlight virtually every Saturday that includes a prep race for the GI Kentucky Derby, Cox found the time to join the team for this week's Thoroughbred Daily News Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland to discuss his Derby prospects. Cox was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week.

So far as the Rebel, in which he will start Verifying (Justify) and Giant Mischief (Into Mischief), Cox is optimistic he can pick up another major win on the road to the Derby.

“I think that Verifying is a very good horse,” he said. “The last time out at Oaklawn, he showed the ability to set close to the pace. I think the fractions [in the Rebel] will be similar, maybe even quicker. I don't expect to necessarily be on the lead but somewhat forwardly placed in a good stalking position. If he runs as well as he's training, I think he's going to be right there. He's a good colt. Giant Mischief is also a very good colt. I thought he ran a winning race at Remington [in the Springboard Mile], but, obviously, just didn't get away well. He made a big middle move and then kind of flattened out. This was by design to give him a little time after that race. He had three good runs at two, three positive races. And I thought he showed in his Remington race that he could stretch out. We're looking forward to getting him started at three.”

Like most trainers with top horses and clients, winning the Derby has become a focal point for Cox, who said he's living a dream with this many good horses.

“This has been my dream for a long, long time, to get into this position, acquire good colts from top outfits, top breeders, top owners throughout the country,” he said. “These horses, you need to have a lot of them to be on this stage. That we have so many at this point just proves that we've got a really, really good program. It's a team effort and it's years and years of training young horses and being able to stop on them when they need to be stopped on and then having them ready to go in the fall of their two-year-old year or to begin their three-year-old season to try to make that push for the Kentucky Derby because it is very, very demanding.”

Officially, Cox has won the Kentucky Derby. The Cox-trained Mandaloun (Into Mischief) was awarded the win in 2021 after Medina Spirit (Protonico) was disqualified due to a medication overage. But Cox said he doesn't really feel like he's won the race and wants to win it by sending out the best horse.

“It hasn't felt like winning the Kentucky Derby,” he said. “If you're awarded the race how do you explain that to people? I have to say, 'Oh, yeah, I've won it, but my horse didn't cross the wire first.' If I met a stranger and they didn't know much about horse racing, I'd have to explain how I won the Derby. I definitely don't feel that we've won the Kentucky Derby. We know the Kentucky Derby is not the richest race run in America, but I think it is without a doubt the most prestigious. All the eyes are on racing that day with the telecast, the crowd and everything. And it's the thrill of victory, bottom line. I haven't experienced that thrill and I look forward to it someday.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, XBTV, Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders and West Point Thoroughbreds, Randy Moss, Zoe Cadman and Bill Finley reviewed last week's races at the Fair Grounds, including the Risen Star and the disappointing effort by Hoosier Philly (Into Mischief) in the GII Rachel Alexandra S. Steve Asmussen's 10,000th win was also discussed with Finley predicting that Asmussen is setting records that will never be broken. To preview the G1 Saudi Cup, Cadman caught up with jockeys Mike Smith and Frankie Dettori in a new segment on the podcast, 1/ST things 1/ST at Santa Anita.

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French Wildfire Survivors Bid For Remarkable Win At Saudi Cup

There is added significance to a portion of the French challenge at the Saudi Cup because, a little under a year ago, 480 horses trained at the famous La Teste-de-Buch racecourse in the south-western part of the country had to be evacuated due to wildfires.

The Christophe Ferland-trained Big Call (Animal Kingdom), who runs in the G3 Longines Red Sea Turf H. and Elisabeth Bernard's Sultana (GB) (Af Al Buraw {AE}), a runner in Friday's G2 Al Mneefah Cup presented by the Ministry of Culture, were among the horses that had to flee their stables.

“It was a nightmare,” recalls Elisabeth Bernard, who trains 75 Purebred Arabians. “We had been told by the firefighters in the morning that the fire wouldn't reach us and then suddenly, in the afternoon, the wind changed and there it was. It was like an apocalypse. The villagers had already been evacuated, but you can imagine it is not that easy to get horses evacuated. However, the smoke was toxic and we had to move quickly.”

Evacuating 480 horses in a rush was no easy task and after the transport companies had filled their horse boxes, there were still plenty of horses left at the La Teste-de-Buch racecourse.

“We started calling our friends and Xavier [Thomas-Demeaulte] sent me his horsebox,” Bernard continues. “And Didier Guillemin sent me his as well. But then we still had to find a yard for them, as I didn't want to split my horses.

“Also, there was a lot of panic amongst the staff and I thought if I don't keep my eyes on everything it won't work. There was only one place I could go and that was Pau, which has the infrastructure to accommodate 20 staff and 75 horses.”

It was an anxious 24 hours for the trainers based at the famous racecourse, but Bernard concludes, “In the end, the people were more panicked than the horses, who took it all remarkably well. No horses were injured, but it was quite an operation.

“I think Christophe [Ferland] had to put some of his horses up at a stud, some went to the Bordeaux Racecourse and some to Deauville. Logistically, it was a challenge, but the racing world was great, because they all helped out and all ended well.”

Luckily, the flames did not reach the racecourse and it remains operational, with Big Call and Sultana proving that the training centre is still capable of producing top-class runners.

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