Saudi Cup $20 million purse qualifies it as richest purse in the race world
Until this year, Saudi Arabia’s best-known thoroughbred race was the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup. Recent winners include Allam and Wattani, two horses who in previous lifetimes in the U.S. were known, respectively, as Premium Tap and Ron the Greek.
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup is still a big deal – at least in Saudi Arabia – but this year it is overshadowed by the inaugural running of the Saudi Cup, an event whose $20 million purse qualifies it as by far the richest horse race in the world. The pot is more than the combined purses of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont, Breeders’ Cup Classic, Pegasus World Cup Invitational and the eight other twoturn G1 events for older horses: the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Pacific Classic, Whitney Stakes, Santa Anita Handicap, Woodward Stakes, Awesome Again Stakes, Clark Handicap and the Gold Cup at Santa Anita.
The Saudi Cup, one of eight stakes on Saturday’s card at King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh, has drawn a diverse international field that includes horses based in North America,
Europe, Dubai, Japan, as well as Saudi Arabia. Because the race is contested on dirt, however, it is the five-horse American contingent that has attracted the most attention. The group includes recently crowned champions Maximum Security and Midnight Bisou; fellow Eclipse finalist McKinzie; Mucho Gusto, recent winner of the Pegasus World Cup; and multiple G2 winner Tacitus.
Maximum Security, last year’s 3-year- old champ, is the likely favorite. The son of New Year’s Day crossed the finish line first in seven of eight 2019 starts (including his DQ in the Kentucky Derby), closing out the year with a decisive win over older horses in the Cigar Mile. A confirmed front-runner, Maximum Security should have little difficulty making the lead and, assuming he’s the same horse he was in 2019, going on to claim the $10 million top prize.
Midnight Bisou has won a dozen graded stakes (five G1s) during a stellar career that includes victories in seven of her last eight starts. This will be her first try against males, however, and a mile and an eighth may not be her best distance. Nevertheless, if any horse is able to make up ground late on Maximum Security, she may be the one.
McKinzie had an inconsistent year in 2019, winning the Whitney and Alysheba Stakes but running second in three stakes in which he was favored. The son of Street Sense led at the eighth pole in the BC Classic but was unable to hold off Vino Rosso.
Mucho Gusto and Tacitus probably owe their presence in the Saudi Cup to the fact that both 4-year- olds are owned by Saudi Prince Faisal bin Khaled’s Juddmonte Farms. Mucho Gusto, a four-time G3 winner, ran the best race of his career in winning the Pegasus World Cup by 4½ lengths. He’ll face a much tougher field on Saturday, however. Tacitus, a two-time G2 winner in 2019, is unraced since finishing third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup last September,
World travelers Benbatl and Magic Wand are the most accomplished of the nine non-U.S.-based entrants. Benbatl’s nine group victories include G1s in Dubai, Germany and Australia, but the $4.7 million earner will be making only his second start on dirt. Magic Wand has yet to win at racing’s highest level but has been runner-up in G1s in England, Hong Kong and the U.S. The Galileo mare will be trying dirt for the first time on Saturday.