Taiba, Country Grammer face stiff competition in Saudi Cup
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.
Emblem Road, a Saudi-based horse born and sold in America, swooped to a shock victory in last year’s Saudi Cup, pushing past Country Grammer in the final half-furlong of the 1,800-meter, one-turn contest.
Six-year-old Country Grammer is back for more and has brought a friend, Taiba, his 4-year-old stablemate trained by Bob Baffert and owned by Saudi native Amr Zedan.
Japan-based horses won four undercard stakes on the 2022 Saudi Cup program and go six deep in this Saudi Cup. Geoglyph, Panthalassa, and Vin de Garde are grass horses until proven otherwise. Cafe Pharoah, Crown Pride, and Jun Light Bolt are players.
Longshot Remorse comes from Dubai, while Emblem Road heads a four-horse Saudi contingent that includes a former American, Scotland Yard, who can have a say.
Those are the 13 entered in the world’s richest race, carded as the last of seven Saturday, post time 12:35 p.m. Eastern. American horses feature prominently in undercard stakes. Elite Power and Gunite go in the Riyadh Dirt Sprint, Havnameltdown in the Saudi Derby, and Casa Creed in the 1351 Turf Sprint, a race he finished second in a year ago. First post is 7:45 a.m., the weather will be warm and dry, and you can catch all the racing at DRFBets.com.
Country Grammer and Taiba have been working together at Santa Anita. Neither ranks among Baffert’s flashiest work horses, but both have been breezing long and strong for a taxing journey and a tough race. Taiba, who will have Mike Smith in the irons, has been placed on the inside in recent works, Country Grammer, Frankie Dettori set to ride, on the outside. That’s how the two have drawn, Taiba in post 2, Country Grammer in post 10.
The King Abdulaziz surface can favor outside closers: Emblem Road raced wide the entire trip after breaking poorly and settling in last. Country Grammer last year wound up pinned to the rail around the turn and into the homestretch. Smith will need to find his way off the fence with Taiba.
“I think it’s good to have a speed horse inside of him,” Baffert said, referring to rail-drawn Panthalassa, a habitual front-runner. “He likes company, to run with another horse to get him into the race.”
Taiba and Country Grammer last raced on the same card, Dec. 26 at Santa Anita, where Country Grammer easily won the 1 1/16-mile, two-turn San Antonio Stakes, Taiba the seven-furlong, age-restricted Malibu. It’s not easy choosing between them. Taiba, the faster horse on speed figures, has all the upside in the world. Country Grammer already has traveled the world, going on from Saudi to win the Dubai World Cup last March. And the answer really could be, “neither one.”
Among the Japanese shippers, Cafe Pharoah and Crown Pride, the latter a pace-and-fade runner in the 2022 Kentucky Derby, have their merits, but it’s Jun Light Bolt who intrigues. The 6-year-old made his first 21 starts on turf and found solid success, but a summer 2022 switch to dirt birthed a better horse. Jun Light Bolt was second making his dirt debut in July and since has won three in row, improving every start. Most recently, on Dec. 4, he somehow extricated himself from heavy mid-stretch traffic and came with a withering outside run to reel in Crown Pride and win the rich Group 1 Champions Cup over 1 1/8 miles. Ryan Moore is booked to ride Jun Light Bolt, who breaks from post 6.
There’s nothing to suggest Emblem Road can’t win again, this time with a different jockey. Last year, Alexis Moreno got off Emblem Road and onto his Moutaib Almulawah-trained stablemate Making Miracles, who was fourth in the Saudi Cup; Wigberto Ramos picked up the mount on Emblem Road. A European turf campaign last summer fizzled after one subpar start, but back in Saudi Arabia Jan. 13, Emblem Road picked up where he’d left off in the Saudi Cup.
Facing inferior opposition in a one-turn mile, Moreno made a beeline from post 4 to the far outside, racing nearly from last in a 19-runner field, swooping past most of them on the turn. Emblem Road won by four lengths under light urging, and while the competition grows exponentially stronger Saturday, that looked like a perfect prep.
Almulawah also trains 4-year-old Scotland Yard, who left the United States in 2022 a four-race maiden trained by Steve Asmussen but comes into the Saudi Cup a local force.
Clearing the maiden ranks in his Saudi debut, Scotland Yard then won the one-mile King Faisal Cup on Jan. 14, the race in which Emblem Road prepped last year, beating a capable rival, Great Scot, by 3 3/4 lengths. Two weeks later, stretched out to 1 1/4 miles, Scotland Yard bolted home in a $400,000 stakes.
Facing 16 rivals, he won by 10 1/4 lengths, stalking the pace on the outside, easily making the lead with a quarter-mile to run and drawing steadily clear. Far behind in second was another U.S. export, Electability, good enough to have been second last summer in the Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park.
That might seem like a flimsy framework to tackle the likes of Country Grammer and Taiba – but Emblem Road pulled it off just a year ago.
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