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Swiss Skydiver, Charlatan, Knicks Go Lead U.S. Entries To Saudi Cup Card

The second staging of The Saudi Cup meeting, headlined by the $20 million Saudi Cup, has attracted a star-studded list of entries from the US, including Swiss Skydiver, Knicks Go, Charlatan, and Channel Maker.

After a successful inaugural event last year, the two-day meeting, held at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh on Feb. 19 and 20, has been expanded significantly in 2021 with increased prize money and a new race, resulting in an even stronger list of entries than 12 months ago.

The highlight will once again be the $20 million Saudi Cup, the world's most valuable race. The 1,800 meter contest has attracted some high-profile entries, such as Kenny McPeek's top-class Preakness winner Swiss Skydiver (USA), 2020 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Knicks Go (USA) and Charlatan (USA), the winner of the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes.

Last year's fifth-place finisher, Tacitus (USA), is also entered along with Shug McGaughey's two-time G1 winner Code Of Honor (USA), while Jack Sisterson is represented by G1 Cigar Mile winner True Timber. The main British challenger looks set to be last year's Saudi Derby runner-up, Mishriff.

Gronkowski (KSA), now in the care of Abdulaziz Khalid in Saudi Arabia, has been entered to run in the meeting's highlight again after finishing tenth last year under Frankie Dettori. The locally-trained winner of the 2020 Dirt Sprint, New York Central (KSA), has been entered in The Saudi Cup this year, as has local hero, Alzahzaah (KSA), trained by Shaleh Alotalbi, winner of his last four starts, the latest being the domestic Grade 1, the Crown Prince Cup last month.

The $1.5 million Saudi Derby has also attracted a host of well-regarded types, including multiple G1 winner Jackie's Warrior (USA), last seen finishing fourth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, as well as the horse that finished two places ahead of him that day, Doug O'Neill's Hot Rod Charlie (USA).

The 2,100-meter, $1 million Middle Distance Turf Cup entry list includes Bill Mott's four-time G1 winner Channel Maker (USA), as well as 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Storm The Court (USA). They could face a strong European-based challenge with Dubai Warrior, Extra Elusive and Sangarius (all GB) all entered, while Port Lions (BAH) , trained in Bahrain by Fawzi Nass, is also entered as he bids to win the race for a second year running.

Channel Maker could also line up in the $2.5 million Long Distance Turf Handicap, run over 3,000 meters, which boasts over 100 international entries from around the world and also includes the 2020 victor Call The Wind (FR), international globetrotter Prince Of Arran (GB) and English St Leger runner up Berkshire Rocco (GB).

Neil Drysdale's Grade 1 Jaipur Stakes victor Oleksandra (USA) is entered in the $1 million, 1,351-meter Turf Sprint, where he could take on G1 July Cup winner Oxted (GB) and the Godolphin-owned Space Blues (GB).

Oxted is also entered in the 1,200 meter $1.5 million Dirt Sprint alongside Justin (JPN), who earned an automatic spot for the race when winning the Grade 3 Capella Stakes last month, while the Purebred Arabian entries in the 2,000 meter $2 million Obaiya Arabian Classic are headlined by the Group 1-winning Messi (BEL), trained by Timo Keersmaekers in Belgium, and last year's winner Tallaab Al Khalediah (KSA), trained locally by Mutlaq Bin Mushref.

This year's meeting, which starts on Feb. 19, sees the addition of a new race, the $500,000 Saudi International Handicap, specifically designed for horses trained in IFHA Part II or Part III countries.

There are horses entered from nine different countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, the Czech Republic and Greece.

Tom Ryan, Director of Strategy and International Racing for the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia, was excited by the quality of talent entered for this year's event.

“We are absolutely thrilled with the final entry list for this year's Saudi Cup meeting, especially given the challenges everyone has been faced with over the past 12 months,” Ryan said. “Considering this is only the second year of a new international racing event, both the quality and depth of entries has grown significantly, and there is some really strong momentum behind the meeting. We have seen marked improvements across the board but most satisfying to us is the support that our turf races and the Saudi Derby have received.

“The Saudi Cup itself is fascinating with exciting entries from the USA, Japan, Europe and the Middle East, while we are delighted with the response to our new race, The Saudi International Handicap, which gives an opportunity for horses trained in part two and three racing countries to compete on the global stage.”

* suffix denotes where horse is trained

Entries list: https://thesaudicup.com.sa/sc2021_entries.pdf

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The Haiku Handicapper Presented By Form2Win: 2020 Breeders’ Cup Classic

Time to analyze the 2020 Breeders' Cup Classic field, in post position order, in the form of Haiku; a Japanese poem of 17 syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five.

To read previous editions of The Haiku Handicapper, click here.

#1 – Tacitus
A frustrating case
Loves to almost win races
Gotta be due, right?

#2 – Tiz the Law
Could the crop's top horse
Be under the radar here?
His price could be fair

#3 – By My Standards
Few are more honest
Extra furlong's the question
Big price if he can

#4 – Tom's d'Etat
Classic Stall patience
Or did that nightmare Whitney
Snuff his momentum?

#5 – Title Ready
Shouldn't have a prayer
But the Dallas Stewart factor
Keeps him on notice

#6 – Higher Power
Struggled to break through
In the West Coast's shallow ranks
Needs his all-time best

#7 – Global Campaign
Trending the right way
Might have been my Dirt Mile pick
Less imposing here

#8 – Improbable
Once a cash burner
Now could be Baffert's best shot
Just keeps improving

#9 – Authentic
How he'll fare depends
On what's left in his reserves
From his Preakness war

#10 – Maximum Security
A rocky career
Approaches its conclusion
Feels like a bounce risk

Prediction
2020's weird
Let's give it to Tacitus
Eight, four, two follow

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Expectations High For ‘Very Consistent’ Tacitus In Breeders’ Cup Classic

Multiple Grade 2 winner Tacitus will attempt to carry the famous green and pink silks of Prince Khalid bin Abdullah Al Saud's Juddmonte Farms to the finish line first on Saturday in one of the world's top races, the Grade 1 Longines Breeders' Cup Classic. Carrying a $6 million purse and contested over 1 1/4 miles on dirt, the Classic is the apex of a 14-race, 2-day and $31-million meeting held this year at Keeneland.

Multiple Grade 2 winner Tacitus, who is trained by inaugural Dubai World Cup-winning trainer Bill Mott, will be seeking his first Grade 1 in the race, but has been knocking on the proverbial door throughout his career, including seconds in the Belmont Stakes and Travers, thirds in two Jockey Club Gold Cups and a fourth in the Kentucky Derby. Also fourth in February's $20 million Saudi Cup astern Maximum Security, who reopposes on Saturday, Tacitus subsequently trained during the month of March at Meydan until the Dubai World Cup was ultimately cancelled.

“One of the unfortunate natures of the beast is when very good horses can't get their head in front in races,” said Garrett O'Rourke, General Manager of Juddmonte Farm. “This is a very sound, very talented and very consistent racehorse and you have to give him his credit because he does show up every time. Maybe there are some times when the expectations are higher with him and, yes, we were disappointed last time out (when third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup), but making his own pace does not come easy to him and he consistently runs his race.”

Hopes have been high since birth for the earner of nearly $3 million and winner of four of 14 starts. Tacitus is the first foal of brilliant five-time G1-winning champion mare Close Hatches—also trained by Mott for Juddmonte—and is a son of America's top stallion of the past decade, Tapit. Close Hatches was second in the 2013 Breeders' Cup Distaff and Tapit has sired five Breeders' Cup winners.

“Horses like him often run their best races in races like the Breeders' Cup, when they don't have to worry about the pace because everyone's running for their lives in the race,” O'Rourke continued. “That will hopefully be the case and we can save all the ground from the rail (post). Hopefully that will be the difference. He's also a horse who also has been looking good and doing well for so long because he's always been healthy and sound. He's an honest horse in the big scheme of things and we have always aimed very high with him. Bill (Mott) wants to run him and that's what you want. If you're aiming for the stars, you want to go with the trainer driving you.”

Mott, who seeks his 11th Breeders' Cup trophy, updated on the eye-catching colt's training: “He's good, he's fresh and he feels good. He worked good here and he came out of that in good order. He's got to improve because the competition is a little tougher this time. I think the race having a little pace in it will be to his benefit. They have a long run to the turn, so everyone should get a good spot.”

If all goes well, it seems not impossible that fans, especially in his owner's native Saudi Arabia, may see him again. No decision has been made if the blueblood will stay in training, but if so, the early targets would likely be the Saudi Cup and Dubai World Cup, once again.

“I sure hope he (stays in training),” Mott continued. “He's not a horse who had a big 2-year-old campaign or anything and is worn out. I think he's a horse that should be a good 5-year-old. Maybe he hasn't reached his peak yet.”

In addition to champion Maximum Security, Tacitus' main competition is plentiful. From the rail out, after Tacitus, are Belmont (G1) winner Tiz the Law, Oaklawn Handicap (G1) winner By My Standards, Clark (G1) winner Tom's d'Etat, G2-placed longshot Title Ready, 2019 Pacific Classic (G1) winner Higher Power, Woodward (G1) winner Global Campaign, Whitney (G1) winner Improbable, Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Authentic and Maximum Security. Early favoritism resides with Improbable.

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Siskin A Transatlantic Juddmonte Masterpiece

LEXINGTON, KY–In the 36-year history of the Breeders’ Cup, few owners have been so intertwined with the event as has Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms been. The operation’s 80 starters at the meeting are bettered only by Godolphin and the Coolmore partners, while its seven winners and over $16-million in prizemoney at the Breeders’ Cup is only slightly inferior to the record accrued by Coolmore.

Juddmonte and the Breeders’ Cup, in fact, have nearly come of age together. At the time that the inaugural Breeders’ Cup was staged at Hollywood Park in 1984, Prince Khalid had owned racehorses less than five years. The Saudi Royal had his first runner at the second Breeders’ Cup at Aqueduct in 1985, when Queen Anne, Sussex S. and Prix du Moulin winner Rousillon contested the Mile, but it wasn’t to be that day for the favourite, who settled for ninth after a luckless trip. Rousillon went on to gain further aclaim as the sire of Vintage Crop, the first Northern Hemisphere-trained horse to win the G1 Melbourne Cup in 1993.

Though that maiden voyage didn’t pan out as hoped, Prince Khalid was not deterred and tripled down on the 1986 ‘Cup at Santa Anita, lending the event some serious star power in the form of Dancing Brave. Still regarded as one of the best Prince Khalid has ever raced on either side of the Atlantic, Dancing Brave came into the Breeders’ Cup Turf off wins in the 2000 Guineas, Eclipse S., King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Struck in the eye by a clod of turf in-running, Dancing Brave checked in fourth.

It is remarkable, in hindsight, that it took Juddmonte 16 years and 24 starters to break its Breeders’ Cup duck, but it did so at last at Belmont Park in 2001 when the G1 Coronation S. winner Banks Hill (GB) (Danehill) ran away with the Filly & Mare Turf by 5 1/2 lengths for Andre Fabre and Olivier Peslier. Juddmonte repeated the dose in the same race four years later with Banks Hill’s full-sister Intercontinental (GB), remarkably back at Belmont Park. Intercontinental’s foundations had been laid by Fabre, but by that stage she had been transferred to Prince Khalid’s beloved Bobby Frankel.

Juddmonte’s Ventura (Chester House) provided Frankel with one of his last major wins in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint of 2008; the legendary trainer died of cancer just over a year later aged 68. And while Frankel’s famous equine personification-so meticulously chosen by Prince Khalid-was never himself given the chance to contest the meeting at which his namesake won six races, Juddmonte did grace the 2018 edition of the Breeders’ Cup with another of its true legends: the 11-time Group 1 winner Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), who at Churchill Downs became the first horse to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the GI Breeders’ Cup Turf (or any Breeders’ Cup race, for that matter) in the same year. Add to that a GI Breeders’ Cup Mile win by Expert Eye (GB) (Acclamation {GB}) on the same card, and it was the kind of day that had been years in the making for Juddmonte at the meeting that it had perennially thrown so much support behind; in the interim between Ventura and Enable, Prince Khalid sent out six-time Group 1 winner Midday (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) to take the 2009 Filly & Mare Turf-she was, incidentally, trained by Frankel’s late conditioner Sir Henry Cecil–and its great American champion Arrogate to win the 2016 GI Classic.

After sitting out the 2019 Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita, Team Juddmonte returns in 2020 with the formidable duo of Siskin (First Defence) for the Mile and Tacitus (Tapit) for the Classic. Though the pair, both homebreds, are trained an ocean apart, they have much more in common than simply their pink and turquoise silks; they are both descendants of Silver Star (GB) (Zafonic), a Juddmonte homebred out of Monroe (Sir Ivor), a foundation mare for Khalid Abdullah who was part of the very first batch of fillies he accrued in the late 1970s and a daughter of the excellent producer Best In Show. Silver Star is the second dam of Siskin and the third dam of Tacitus. While Silver Star’s branch of the Monroe line includes her G1 Dewhurst S.-winning sire son Xaar (GB) and Tacitus’s five-time Grade I-winning dam Close Hatches (by Siskin’s sire First Defence), Monroe has had a far-reaching impact in other directions, too, with other descendants including sire brothers Cityscape (GB) (Selkirk) and Bated Breath (GB) (Dansili {GB}), and last year’s G1 St Leger winner Logician (GB) (Frankel {GB}).

Rising Tornado and Bird Flown (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) were born six years apart and on different continents, but both ended up in the yard of Andre Fabre. Each managed one win in her relatively brief career, but their pedigrees meant that they were given a chance in the elite Juddmonte broodmare population. More specifically, they were both expatriated back to Juddmonte’s American satellite to patronize resident sire First Defence, a Grade I-winning sprinter by Unbridled’s Song out of Honest Lady (Seattle Slew), a Grade I-winning daughter of another iconic Juddmonte producer, Toussaud (El Gran Senor). Completely unsurprisingly, it turned out that the team at Juddmonte knew just what they were doing: Rising Toronado’s first foal was Close Hatches and she produced two other winners by First Defence including the listed winner and GI Kentucky Oaks third Lockdown before First Defence was sold to stand in Saudi Arabia.

Bird Flown, meanwhile, visited First Defence in his final two seasons in Kentucky, the second mating producing Siskin. He has proven an embodiment of the potency of the Juddmonte blood on both sides of the Atlantic being by a sire from the third generation of a family flawlessly cultivated in Kentucky and out of a mare that brings together two of the farm’s European foundation mares in Monroe and Bahamian. The mould was somewhat broken with Siskin when he was entrusted to Ger Lyons, and that rising Irish trainer has held up his end of the bargain with aplomb, sending the colt through an unbeaten, Group 1-winning juvenile campaign and onto Classic success at three. A win at Keeneland on Saturday would place him in rarefied air, indeed.

The stories continue to be written, too, for Bird Flown and Rising Tornado. The former provided Juddmonte’s six-time Group 1 winner Flintshire (GB) (Dansili {GB}) with his first winner in September in Talacre-she, too, is in the care of Ger Lyons. Rising Tornado has a yearling colt from the first of just three crops by Arrogate, and after failing to produce a live foal this season was covered by Quality Road.

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