In 2022, Japan-based horses won four undercard stakes on the Saudi Cup card. In 2023, four Japanese horses, led by gate-to-wire winner Panthalassa, finished among the top five home in the $20 million Saudi Cup at King Abdulaziz Racecourse.
Elite Power’s winning streak began last June in a Churchill Downs maiden race. It grew to six on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, where he followed up on his Breeders’ Cup Sprint win in November with a powerhouse victory in the $1.5 million Riyadh Dirt Sprint.
With The Moonlight swamped seven rivals in the featured Balanchine Stakes on Friday at Meydan, winning the Group 2, $180,000 fixture by four lengths.
After winning a rich sales progeny race, the $349,500 Magic Millions Country Cup at Gold Coast Racecourse on Jan. 14, Ezekeil will have his second start of the year in the $100,900 Country Championship qualifier at Tamworth Racecourse on Saturday evening.
Gold Trip and Emissary, the first two finishers of the Group 1 Melbourne Cup in Australia in November, are expected to dominate the Group 2 Peter Young Stakes at Sandown Racecourse in Melbourne on Friday evening. The Young Stakes is part of an all-stakes program at Sandown that includes three Group 1 races. There are two Group 1 races at Royal Randwick in Sydney.
Rarely has the Hong Kong superstar Golden Sixty been knocked off his pedestal. And the two times he has gone down, the great gelding righted himself and climbed right back to the top. The rebound races all have come at 1,600 meters, Golden Sixty's ideal trip, and on Sunday at Sha Tin Racecourse, Golden Sixty stretches his talents to 2,000 meters in the Group 1, $1.53 million Hong Kong Gold Cup.
Declan Schuster's Hong Kong Selections and Analysis for Sunday, February 26, 2023, at Sha Tin.
Elite Power won the Breeders' Cup Sprint in his last start and might not even be the best American horse in the $1.5 million Riyadh Dirt Sprint on Saturday at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Saudi Arabia. Gunite didn't quite stay a two-turn mile while finishing fourth in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile – the colt's only loss in his last four starts.
Six Japanese horses and two Americans square off against the $229 winner of the 2022 renewal in the $20 million Saudi Cup on Saturday at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh.
With The Moonlight probably has no real rival Friday at Meydan Racecourse in the featured Group 2, $180,000 Balanchine Stakes. And if she does, that horse, Tranquil Lady, comes from the same training yard.
