True Self, an 8-year-old mare ridden by a female jockey, the Englishwoman Hollie Doyle, rallied from the rear of the field and ran down American champion Channel Maker to win the $1.5 million Neom Turf Cup, the first race on the Saudi Cup card Saturday at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Saudi Arabia.

Emirates Knight, a huge longshot, finished third, 4 3/4 lengths behind Channel Maker, as True Self was the only horse making up much ground. The winner paid $14.60 in North America, where Channel Maker was an odds-on favorite.

There are three important races Sunday in Hong Kong but one horse rises above the rest, Golden Sixty, who will be heavily favored to extend his winning streak to 13 when he starts in the Group 1, $1.55 million Hong Kong Gold Cup.

The post position draw for Sunday’s Grade 1 February Stakes at Tokyo Racecourse in Japan was not kind to the recent stakes winner Auvergne and Red le Zele.

In a full field of 16, Auvergne and Red le Zele will start from posts 14 and 16 in the one-mile dirt race, which has a purse of $1.84 million and is the first Grade 1 race of 2021 at a Japan Racing Association track. The February Stakes starts on turf from a chute on the backstretch and joins the inner dirt course more than seven furlongs from the finish. 

American-based jockeys John Velazquez and Umberto Rispoli were unable to travel to Saudi Arabia, where they were scheduled to ride horses in the $20 million Saudi Cup on Saturday.

Rispoli had the mount on Max Player in the Saudi Cup and Cowan in the Saudi Derby. Trainer Steve Asmussen said Friday that Mickael Barzalona would ride Max Player in the Saudi Cup. Joel Rosario was released from his commitment on another horse in the Saudi Derby and will ride Cowan.

Trainers Doug Watson and Charlie Appleby scored stakes doubles on the Thursday card at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.

Watson trained the winner of the Group 3, $125,000 UAE Oaks, Mnasek, and sent out Al Tariq to an upset in the Group 3, $130,000 Al Shindagha Sprint. While Watson’s successes came on dirt, Appleby ruled the turf, as D’Bai was a narrow winner of the Group 2, $163,000 Zabeel Mile and Summer Romance comfortably captured the Group 2, $163,000 Balanchine Stakes.

Way back in 2016, when he was a 2-year-old, Channel Maker finished third in the Grade 2 Summer Stakes at Woodbine and made it to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, where he was seventh. The following spring, there was a barn change, with Channel Maker coming under the care of trainer Bill Mott, who took him to Keeneland in April expecting to win an allowance race on a considerable class drop. Nothing doing. Channel Maker lost his first four starts for Mott.

“I wondered if we were going to be able to win a one-other-than with him,” Mott said.

By Leo Schlink

Danny Shum is considering an audacious tilt at the HK$24 million BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) in March with Charity Fun after the Irish import’s stunning victory in the Class 3 Hung To Handicap (2200m) at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (17 February).

Contesting only his second race in Hong Kong, Charity Fun surged to a four-length win over Xiang Bai Qi and Arrogant for Karis Teetan, prompting Shum to ponder making a late Derby entry for the son of War Command.

SHA TIN SELECTIONS
(Sunday, 21 February, 2021)

Unbeaten in two Group 3 stakes in October and January, the highly touted filly Enthaar will have her Group 1 debut in Saturday’s $1.16 million Blue Diamond Stakes for Southern Hemisphere 2-year-olds at Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia.

Enthaar won her debut in the Gimcrack Stakes at Royal Randwick Racecourse in October as the 3-5 favorite and followed with an easy 2 1/2-length win at 1-4 in the Chairman’s Stakes at Caulfield Racecourse on Jan. 30 in her lone start this calendar year.

All due respect to the other dozen in the field, but the race for $20 million probably comes down to just two.

Knicks Go and Charlatan, Charlatan and Knicks Go: They’ve never met, and the $20 million Saudi Cup is just one year old, but that’s the compelling faceoff at, shall we say, center sand Saturday night at King Abdulaziz Racecourse outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“We’re ready for it, but it’s not going to be easy,” said Bob Baffert, trainer of Charlatan. “Charlatan and Knicks Go, they’re the most exciting older horses in American racing right now.”