Mishriff, who won the 2021 Saudi Cup, heads a compelling international cast of likely runners for the $20 million Saudi Cup on Feb. 26 at King Abdualaziz Racecourse in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi racing authorities on Friday released a list of horses they expect to start in 16 races held Feb. 25-26, a two-day meeting highlighted by the Saudi Cup, which for the first time is a Group 1 this season. The Saudi Cup is contested around one turn at 1,800 meters, about 1 1/8 miles, on dirt.
None of the 12 runners in Sunday’s Grade 3 Hobart Cup at Hobart Racecourse in Australia have been in sharp in the last few months as the outsider White Hawk.
On the turf course at Hobart and the synthetic track at nearby Devenport, White Hawk has won three of his last four starts, including an 11-1 upset in the Tasmanian Summer Cup at 1 3/8 miles on turf at Hobart on Jan. 22.
Paul Lally:
R1: 3-2-1-8
R2: 6-4-9-2
R3: 2-4-11-12
R4: 1-2-5-9
R5: 3-2-7-1
R6: 8-4-2-10
R7: 10-8-4-7
R8: 1-9-8-2
R9: 12-1-8-7
R10: 3-9-12-1
Best Bet R8 N1 Sight Spirit
Longshot R10 N3 Circuit Three
Play Race10 QQP 3-9-12
Tom Wood:
R1: 3-5-2-7
R2: 6-10-3-4
R3: 7-2-10-4
R4: 1-2-5-13
R5: 7-1-3-11
R6: 2-4-8-11
R7: 6-10-8-4
R8: 1-8-4-9
R9: 8-12-1-4
R10: 9-1-8-7
It took a little more than eight weeks for the Kentucky stakes winner Lighthouse to prove she belonged in Australian sprints.
Lighthouse won her first four starts in Australia beginning in early November, a span that included a win in the minor Chester Manifold Stakes at seven furlongs at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne on Jan. 1.
Racing has gotten tougher since then, and will continue to be when Lighthouse has her career Group 1 debut in Saturday’s $540,900 C.F. Orr Stakes at seven furlongs at Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne.
There’s nothing like Hot Rod Charlie, star of the Feb. 4 Dubai World Cup Carnival card, on the Friday racing program at Meydan in the United Arab Emirates, but the seven-race card, top to bottom, came up strong.
Race 1 is for purebred Arabians and race 2 is a conditions race of no great consequence, but the last five races all merit at least minor attention.
Chantrea won her first six races in Western Australia, including consecutive minor stakes in July 2020. Subsequent months have not gone as well.
Chantrea is winless in seven races, a span that includes four second- and third-place finishes. Chantrea did not race from last May until Jan. 15, when she finished a good second in a one-mile handicap at tiny Camperdown Racecourse southwest of Melbourne.
Paul Lally:
R1: 1-2-7-8
R2: 7-1-5-8
R3: 7-12-1-9
R4: 3-2-5-11
R5: 1-9-5-2
R6: 5-8-9-11
R7: 5-4-2-10
R8: 3-2-8-6
R9: 3-5-1-4
Best Bet: R5 N1 Xponential
Longshot: R6 N5 Namjong Sings
Play R5 QQP 1-5-9
Tom Wood:
R1: 1-2-7-5
R2: 5-1-3-2
R3: 1-7-12-2
R4: 8-3-6-7
R5: 9-1-2-5
R6: 8-11-1-7
R7: 6-5-4-2
R8: 8-6-2-1
R9: 3-11-2-6
Jockey Zac Purton won five races Sunday at Happy Valley and appears to be sitting on a live mount in Wednesday’s first race. Trainer Clifford Shum won three races on the Sunday program at Happy Valley and has a capable entrant in the Wednesday nightcap.
Both races are Class 3 handicaps for horses rated 80-60, the last race carded at 1,650 meters, the lidlifter at 1,000 meters. There’s a third race at the same class level, race 6, to be contested at 1,200 meters.
Last July, Bethencourt finished second in three consecutive handicaps in Australia, always finishing within two lengths of the front.
Those close finishes loom prominently in Bethencourt’s form in advance of a seven-furlong handicap at Warwick Farm Racecourse in Sydney on Wednesday.
Trained by Kim Waugh, Bethencourt has not raced since finishing 10th of 15 in a handicap at 1 1/4 miles at Kembla Grange in mid-August. He then had a layoff of slightly less than six months.
