Forever Young hard to knock in any way I’ve had a fairly quiet winter, so it’s nice to get out to Riyadh for five rides at The Saudi Cup meeting. There’s a lot of prize money at stake and some good international competition. Fingers crossed we can get amongst it. King Abdulaziz | Race 5: G2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint DON AMITIE was disappointing on his last start and will have to run a career best to challenge in this. If you put a line through that then he could run respectably, but it still looks a fairly big ask. There are plenty of other Japanese horses in there who hold more obvious claims, as well as interesting runners from the United States, Hong Kong, the UK, the UAE, and the locals, so it looks pretty hot. King Abdulaziz | Race 6: G2 1351 Turf Sprint COMANCHE BRAVE is backing up after running a good race in the Abu Dhabi Gold Cup last week, so he looks to be in good form. This is a deeper race, though, with the likes of Lazzat, Panja Tower, Fortune Time and Annaf, who won this a couple of years ago. Lazzat is probably the most obvious one, but there are a good handful of chances in what looks a pretty strong race. King Abdulaziz | Race 7: G1 Neom Turf Cup I ride SURVIE here, who made a winning start for trainer George Boughey at Lingfield last time out. She’s Group 1-placed, with notably strong runs coming in the Prix de Diane and the Pretty Polly, and she also ran a good race in the Prix Jean Romanet last year. We’ve got a bit of an awkward draw in 10, and with this being a Group 1 for the first year it looks a good race. Shin Emperor possibly sets the standard on some of his best form, while Royal Champion looks an improved horse and won well in Bahrain last time. Facteur Cheval is a previous Group 1 winner, Alohi Alii has shown to be a fairly good horse and Galen has been holding his form well. Phantom Flight has been in good form and Silawi is a Grade 1 winner, so there’s plenty in with chances. Overall, I think Survie is a nice mare, but she’s got a bit to find from an awkward stall. King Abdulaziz | Race 8: G2 Red Sea Turf Handicap TENNESSEE STUD looks a progressive horse who won a Group 1 as a two-year-old and ran well in both the Derby and Irish Derby. He won the Prix Chaudenay over 1m7f (3000m) on Arc weekend, so this distance holds no fears. He’s got a slightly awkward draw on the outside in 10, but he’s off a fairly nice mark. Again, it looks a good, competitive race, and you could make a case for quite a few of them; Presage Nocturne, who was unlucky in the Melbourne Cup and run well in the Caulfield Cup, Tabletalk looks progressive, Epic Poet has run well here in the past, Sons And Lovers is interesting, Struve has good form from Japan, Burdett Road ran well enough at Meydan the last day and Tarriance is interesting off a light weight. As you can see, it’s pretty wide open, but we’ve got strong enough claims. King Abdulaziz | Race 9: G1 Saudi Cup This race is probably all about Forever Young. He won this last year and has become a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner since. He’s a very well accomplished horse and is hard to knock in any way. He’ll be very hard to beat. Nysos ran a very good race in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and won again at Santa Anita when last seen in December. He looks an obvious challenger, while Bob Baffert’s other runner, Nevada Beach, looks bang there on the figures. Sunrise Zipangu ran a really nice race in the Arima Kinen, but there’s question marks over the drop back in trip and switch to dirt. As for my ride, AMEERAT ALZAMAAN, she’s been very consistent with six wins from eight starts, including a second in the trial for this. She has plenty to find on ratings against international competition, but at least she likes the track – it’s all she knows and she’ll hopefully give a good account of herself.