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Mishriff Training Well for Saudi Cup

French Group 1 winner Mishriff (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}), who ran second in the 2020 Saudi Derby in Riyadh on Feb. 29, needs a wide draw in the Feb. 20 $20-million Saudi Cup according to trainer John Gosden. The colt rebounded with a win in the Listed Newmarket S. on June 6 and won the G1 Prix du Jockey Club on July 5. His final win of the year was a victory in the G2 Prix Guillaume de Ornano at Deauville on Aug. 15 before an eighth in the G1 QIPCO Champions S. at Ascot in mid-October. The 4-year-old carries the colours of Prince Faisal and will be ridden by his retained jockey David Egan.

“He worked nicely going into it, but first time on the dirt, you never know. He did have the benefit of a wide draw last year and we were thrilled the way he ran,” Gosden told a Saudi Cup press conference. “I think he's a mile-and-a-quarter horse, very much so. He's got a great stride, great tactical speed and a powerful finish. I think that is his perfect trip. Whether we stretch him out to a mile and a half one day, I don't know.”

“This race is run on the dirt and at a very different tempo. You need a wide draw,” he said. “If it was a mile and quarter it would suit us a lot better, but it's very fast. The Americans go hard and it's not a race with any hiding places. He's had a nice down time building up to this. He's a genuine horse, he enjoys his training. He's not a horse who requires a massive amount of work, so to that extent he's the right type to get ready early in the year.”

Frankie Dettori will be aboard Global Giant (GB) (Shamardal) for Gosden in the Middle Distance Turf Cup. They were second in the Bahrain International Trophy last November.

“He came back in great order and breezed nicely this [Wednesday] morning,” Gosden added. “The horse was as frustrated as the jockey and the owner and the trainer, but he got too far back and got there too late. The wire came up a stride and a half too soon, but that's racing. He's fine, he's going for the Middle Distance. It will be a tough race. Distance-wise it's probably the top end of his range. He's got a very good chance and he's in good form right now.”

Gosden will also take another crack at the Saudi Derby and will send G3 Round Tower S. hero New Treasure (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}). The newly gelded chestnut was acquired for 90,000gns by Voute Sales on behalf of Najd Stud out of the Tattersalls Autumn HIT Sale after being sold by breeder/owner/trainer Jim Bolger.

“He was in the horses-in-training sale and Jim was selling, so you have to have a sense of reality about that. He didn't go for a great deal of money,” said Gosden. “The horse came here and the owners wanted to aim him at this race. “He won a Group 3 over six furlongs on soft ground. He's not run over a mile before, but we're hopeful he'll get it. He's on a one-way ticket. He races and stays there to race with the local horses. He's very genuine and is a giver. He's a fun horse to run in the race and it a great way of going down there–a Group 3 winner and going for the Saudi Derby.”

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American Runners Ready for Return to Riyadh

A year ago, a brigade of American runners dominated results in the inaugural running of the $20-million Saudi Cup, taking four of the top five placings in the world's richest race. Another top-level group of U.S.-based horses are set to return to Riyadh for the second running of the 1 1/8-miles race Feb. 20. Leading the group is Charlatan (Speightstown), who returned from a layoff to record a scintillating victory in the Dec. 26 GI Malibu S. last month. The newly turned 4-year-old worked six furlongs in 1:12.60 (1/5) at Santa Anita Wednesday and shortly afterward trainer Bob Baffert declared the colt “better than he's ever been.”

“I think the Saudi Cup is perfect timing for him,” Baffert told reporters during a conference call Wednesday afternoon. “It's a one-turn 1 1/8 miles and I think coming off the seven-eighths race, especially the way he did it, I think it is a perfect kind of distance. We know he ships well and he has a great mind on him. He's a good gate horse. It's very challenging to go to Saudi or Dubai. You need a really great mind and he has a really great mind. So I think that race fits the bill perfectly for him.”

Charlatan will be making just his fifth start next month at King Abdulaziz Racetrack, but his lack of experience doesn't concern Baffert.

“I think his talent makes up for his inexperience,” Baffert, who finished fourth with Mucho Gusto (Mucho Macho Man) in last year's race, said. “I think he has enough experience where he doesn't know what it's like to lose. I think that's a good trait.”

Charlatan will be piloted in the desert by Mike Smith, who rode the colt for the first time in the Malibu. Smith finished second aboard Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute) in last year's Saudi Cup, but received a nine-day ban and was issued a $210,000 fan–60% of his share of the purse–for violating the country's whip rules.

Of the Hall of Fame jockey's return to Riyadh, Baffert quipped, “He's fine. I think he just needs to count a little bit better.”

Knicks Go (Paynter), winner of last year's GI Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, earned a trip to Riyadh with his front-running victory in the Jan. 23 GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. and could prove Charlatan's toughest competition.

“They are sort of the same type of horse,” Baffert said of a potential match-up between the two front-runners. “Knicks Go, he likes two turns, he likes that better because he can get away from his competition. Speed horses like that are so dangerous going two turns, but going a one-turn 1 1/8 miles, it's a different story.”

The Juddmonte Farms homebred Tacitus (Tapit), fifth in last year's Saudi Cup, makes a return trip to Riyadh to fly the colors of the late Prince Khalid Abdullah, who passed away just two weeks ago.

“Any time we lead a horse over there in Juddmonte's silks it is very special,” Riley Mott, assistant to his father, trainer Bill Mott, said during the teleconference Wednesday. “Every trainer in the world desires to train for such an operation. Last year when we brought Tacitus, he had a nice little following locally due to the fact that he was a Juddmonte horse. He had a lot of fans there on race day. And just to be there in Prince Khalid Abdullah's home country was very special. To bring Tacitus back this year is something we are very much looking forward to and a big reason why we kept him in training this year.”

Tacitus has made a name for himself more for the races he almost wins than the ones he actually wins. The regally bred gray was third in the GI Kentucky Derby, as well as the 2019 and 2020 renewals of the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup S. He was runner-up in the GI Belmont S. and GI Runhappy Travers S. in 2019 and again in the GI Woodward H. last year.

“He's been a little frustrating,” Mott admitted. “He always flirts with winning a top Grade I. He has placed in a lot of prestigious races here in the U.S. and is just on the cusp of breaking through in one of those big ones. He's by a champion stallion out of a champion mare that Prince Khalid Abdullah bred himself, so for him to break through and win one of these big Grade Is would mean the world for him in his next career as a stallion. We think he is capable of it. No matter what race we run him in, whether it be a Group III or Group I, he is always liable to hit the board. So we are hoping he is good on the day.”

Also representing the Mott barn in Riyadh next month will be multiple Grade I winner Channel Maker (English Channel), who is expected to go postward in the $1-million Middle Distance Turf Cup. Now seven, the chestnut gelding set the pace before settling for third in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf at Keeneland last October.

“He's a horse we are very much looking forward to bringing over,” Mott said of Channel Maker. “We are confident in how he is doing and training. We will see how he stacks up against the competition, but he's been a really fun horse to have in the barn.”

Both Tacitus and Channel Maker could go on to engagements on the Dubai World Cup card in March if they exit their races in Saudi Arabia in fine fashion.

Despite the ongoing global pandemic, officials from the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia said it was all systems go for the Feb. 19 and 20 festival of races.

“We are going to get through this the same way as other big events before us,” said Tom Ryan, director of strategy and international racing for the Jockey Club said. “Whether that's Hong Kong in December, Bahrain in November or the Breeders' Cup, there is a template there internationally for us to follow. This will be the Saudi Arabian version of that.”

Of attendance on race day, Ryan added, “In terms of attendance on course, it will be greatly scaled back compared to last year's very positive and well-attended event–participants, a small number of ministers in an outdoor setting, very prudently arranged. That will be about it, I think.”

While Baffert was on hand for the Saudi Cup's inaugural running, the trainer said he would be staying home this time around.

“I'm going to send [assistant] Jimmy [Barnes],” Baffert said. “One of us has to stay back. If for some reason they don't let us back in, I have to be here to keep the ship going.”

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Saudi Arabian Dirt Likely for Oxted

Group 1 winner Oxted (GB) (Mayson {GB}) is likely for the six-furlong Riyadh Dirt Sprint instead of the 1351 Turf Sprint at Riyadh in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 20. A winner of the G3 Abernant S. last June, the bay gelding added the G1 July Cup at Newmarket one month later. After undergoing wind surgery, Oxted resumed with a fifth in the Oct. 17 QIPCO British Champions Sprint S.

“At the moment we are favouring the dirt really because it's six furlongs,” said trainer Roger Teal, whose son Harry will accompany his stable star to Saudi Arabia, at a Saudi Cup press conference. “Obviously, it's an unknown surface for us but because it's a flat six furlongs I think that is where we are going to go. He's a good-moving horse. He likes the top of the ground and handles all sorts of ground.

“He trains on an all-weather surface every day, so I'm just hoping. The reports are very good about the dirt track in Saudi. That gives me confidence. There's not too much kickback apparently. As long as there wasn't going to be tons of kickback, I think we're going to be happy to run him on it.”

He added, “The timing of the race was good for us. It was enough time to give him a break and then prepare him for the season ahead. We can go to Saudi, come back, maybe go to Dubai for World Cup night if things go to plan. We can then prepare for Ascot and another go at the July Cup. We'll be a little bit wiser after the event. He's pretty straightforward and takes things in his stride, but you don't know until you do it. He should be fine.”

Regularly ridden by Cieren Fallon, Jr., the now 5-year-old gelding would reunite with Fallon in Saudi Arabia.

“He definitely gets on so well with the horse,” said Teal. “Hopefully when Cieren's available he can ride him whenever. This horse has got good gate speed. He travels strong. He's got early pace so I think the pace of the race will suit him fine. The pace beat us at Ascot [on Champions Day] last year. There wasn't enough pace for him.”

“Harry will go with him out there,” he added, but was non-committal on his own attendance. “You can't make any firm plans yet, but we'd like to be there if we can. He's pretty much on track. He's been stepping up weekly. We're very happy. We'll just keep tipping away with what we're doing and get him there in good shape.

“If we're allowed to I'm looking to getting him to Wolverhampton just to have one good sprint round the turn because he's never run round a bend. That's another thing we've got to find out about him. He's in good shape. He had a short break after Ascot. He had a month away and came back looking tremendous. He's really blossomed through the winter.”

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Gosden To Saddle French Classic Winner Mishriff In Saudi Cup, Hopes For Wide Draw

Trainer John Gosden has his sights set on the $20 million Saudi Cup with last year's Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club hero Mishriff. The 4-year-old was runner-up in The Saudi Derby – run on the same dirt track as the world's most valuable race – at the inaugural meeting last year, before returning to Europe to complete a summer hat-trick of big-race wins.

Gosden, based in Newmarket, said at a Saudi Cup press conference: “Mishriff has always been a grand horse and he worked nicely going into The Saudi Derby last year. It was his first time on the dirt, so you never know but he did have the benefit of a wide draw.

“I think he's very much a 2000m (1 1/4 miles) horse – he's got a great stride, great tactical speed and a powerful finish. This is 1800m (1 1/8 miles) and, if you remember from last year, the American horses break – that's their game.

“They're very fast over the first 400m (half mile) and you really don't want to be getting in behind all of that. If you get a basin full of dirt in your face, that's what stops turf horses switching to the dirt as they're not used to taking all that kickback. That's why a wide draw would be advantageous.

“He's not a horse who requires a massive amount of work so, to that extent, he's the right type to be getting ready so early in the year.”

Gosden, who is also planning to send Global Giant over to run in the $1million Middle Distance Turf Cup and New Treasure in the $1.5million Saudi Derby on Feb. 20, was suitably impressed with the first Saudi Cup meeting last year.

He said: “The horses were looked after properly in every way – the facilities were great. The main track is exceptional – the American jockeys always say it's the best they ride on anywhere – and the turf course completely blew me away, it was stunning. We all had a superb experience.”

British trainer Roger Teal will run last year's July Cup winner Oxted on dirt for the first time in the $1.5million Riyadh Dirt Sprint.

He said: “He looks magnificent – he's really blossomed throughout the winter. His work has been stepping up weekly and we're very happy. He's got early pace – he travels strongly. It was a strongly-run race last year and that will suit him. We're hoping we'll be allowed to take him to Wolverhampton to have one good sprint around a turn as he's never raced around a bend.”

Dark Power, shock winner of last year's $1million 1351 Turf Sprint under Frankie Dettori, is expected to defend his crown for Bahrain trainer Allan Smith.

Smith said: “He finished third in his prep race last week but it was over a straight 1200m and he couldn't get much cover. After that he's pretty much spot on. I shall have a quiet word with Frankie but I'm almost sure the 'Italian Stallion' will be on board again.”

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