Likely runners revealed for $35.1m Saudi Cup weekend

The likely runners for the $35.1 million Saudi Cup meeting on Feb. 25 and 26 have been announced, with horses from 16 racing nations set to compete in Riyadh.

King Abdulaziz Racecourse will host 16 races on its dirt and turf tracks, and the highlight of the meeting, the $20 million Group 1 Saudi Cup, looks set to be contested by the winners of 16 Group 1 races from six countries.

The field is headed by three-time Group 1 winner and last year’s Saudi Cup champion, Irish-bred Mishriff. A historic second win in the race would see the John and Thady Gosden-trained runner surpass Winx and become the highest-earning racehorse of all time.

Last season’s Group 1 Champion Stakes winner, Sealiway, of France, will make his debut for trainer Francis-Henri Graffard after leaving the stable of Cedric Rossi.

Japan’s chances of winning a first Saudi Cup lie with the Daisuke Takayanagi-trained T O Keynes, an impressive winner of his last start in the Grade 1 Champions Cup at Chukyo in December, and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner, Marche Lorraine. Trainer Yoshito Yahagi has indicated that his six-year-old will make her final start in Saudi Arabia as she bids to end her career with another win at the highest level.

Once again there is a strong contingent from the US, headed by Brad Cox’s Mandaloun, who narrowly got the better of Steven Asmussen’s Midnight Bourbon in the Grade 3 Louisiana Stakes last month. Grade 1 American winners, Art Collector, Happy Saver, and Country Grammer are also set to line up.

Antonio Cintra’s Grade 1 Gran Premio Latinoamericano winner Aero Trem of Brazil, trained in Uruguay, will be the first South American runner in The Saudi Cup.

The field is completed by locally trained US horse Emblem Road, and