Sleepy Eyes Todd headed to Saudi Cup

One day last April, trainer Angel Miguel Silva was reached by phone while driving from Houston to Grand Island, Neb., a horse trailer behind him housing Sleepy Eyes Todd, who a few days later would win Nebraska’s premier race, the Bosselman/Gus Fonner at Fonner Park.

On Feb. 9, Silva and Sleepy Eyes Todd are taking another trip, this one not over the road. Sleepy Eyes Todd flies on an international equine transport from Florida to Saudi Arabia, where Silva will meet his horse and oversee final preparations for a start Feb. 20 in the $20 million Saudi Cup.

Silva calls the invite to the Saudi Cup “a once-in-a-lifetime chance.” There’s a good chance, too, that Sleepy Eyes Todd will be the only horse ever to start at both Fonner Park and the King Abdulaziz racecourse outside Riyadh during a 10-month span – or ever, for that matter.

Sleepy Eyes Todd comes off a fourth-place finish in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational, a decent performance below his best form. Silva said the horse, owned by Thumbs Up Racing, was squeezed early, winding up much farther behind Knicks Go, who won the Pegasus and also is headed for the Saudi Cup, than was planned.

“We’d have liked to be closer,” Silva said. “We like what we’ve been seeing from him since that race.”

Even before flying halfway round the world, Sleepy Eyes Todd, a 5-year-old Paddy O’Prado gelding, already has been an unusually itinerant racehorse. His 16 starts have come at 11 different tracks and during 2020 alone he raced in Texas, Louisiana, Nebraska, West Virginia, California, Kentucky, and Florida.

“One of the reasons to do this is he’s really good to travel. If he ships like he always does and other horses don’t, that could help us,” Silva said.

Sleepy Eyes Todd’s 2020 campaign included races over 1 1/2 miles on turf and seven furlongs on dirt; the one-turn 1 1/8 miles of the Saudi Cup suits him, Silva said. The hope is that Knicks Go and Charlatan, the two favorites, knock each other out on the lead.

“There’s going to be a lot of speed, and that’s good for us,” Silva said.

Alexis Moreno, a Saudi-based jockey, has tentatively been booked to ride Sleepy Eyes Todd, according to Silva.

The American-based horses expected to travel for Saudi Cup races are Knicks Go, Charlatan, Tacitus, Max Player, Sleepy Eyes Todd, Mirinaque, Cowan, and Channel Maker. Mirinaque, an Argentine import, is being aimed at the Long Distance Turf Handicap. Channel Maker runs in the $1 million Middle Distance Turf Cup; Cowan in the $1.5 million Saudi Derby.