RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — On a day when America, Britain, Ireland, Saudi Arabia and Japan were all represented in the winner's circle at King Abdulaziz Racecourse, perhaps the most astonishing performance came from the Karl Burke-trained Royal Champion. The son of Shamardal appears still to be improving at the age of eight and bounced into [...]

At an unspecified date in the future Saudi Arabia will have a brand new racecourse at Qiddiya City, which will eventually host the Saudi Cup, according to an announcement made earlier this week. But for now the world's richest race belongs in Riyadh. Development has continued apace at King Abdulaziz Racecourse, which has now been [...]

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — It's what sport is all about, isn't it? Choosing your team and rooting for them, through good games and bad times.  The fleeting nature of the careers of some racehorses can make it harder to be a fan, but not if you pick Team Yahagi. For a start, there is a [...]

RIYADH, KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA — Bob Baffert may have won two Triple Crowns, six Kentucky Derbys, 21 Breeders' Cup races, and four Dubai World Cups but there is an itch that still needs to be scratched: the Saudi Cup. “We've gotten pretty close,” he said Thursday morning from King Abdulaziz Racecourse, and he's not [...]

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The international contenders may have been out in force on Wednesday morning but there is one horse who dominates the spotlight and he has every right to it. Forever Young first set foot on King Abdulaziz racecourse two years ago when he arrived as a three-year-old to take the Saudi Derby [...]

Like London buses, James Keane will have not one but two runners this week in quick succession, marking his first two appearances on the racecourse as trainer. The 32-year-old Irishman now claims Newmarket as his home, rather extraordinarily falling in love with the place during a winter which included the fierce 'Beast from the East' [...]

NEWMARKET, UK — The racing programme in the Gulf region is becoming ever busier, with this Saturday's $1m Abu Dhabi Gold Cup the latest valuable contest to be enter the fray, followed by a double bill next weekend of Qatar's Emir's Sword Festival and the blockbuster Saudi Cup meeting.  The various horses-in-training sales at Park [...]

NEWMARKET, UK — A sale ring as full as any for the Sceptre Sessions greeted first the Retraining of Racehorses showcase and then the British EBF stallion parade for sires yet to have runners. Included in the 10-strong line-up for the latter was Eldar Eldarov, the winner of the St Leger in both Britain and [...]

If you bump into Edmond Mahony over the next few days at Park Paddocks and congratulate him on his ITBA Wild Geese Award, the chances are that it will be greeted with mild embarrassment and an assertion that there are other more deserving recipients out there. Mahony is famously averse to fuss. He has, equally [...]

To a degree, 2025 was the year of the gelding. Those who won at least one Group or Grade 1 race included Calandagan, Ka Ying Rising, Romantic Warrior, Goliath, Cicero's Gift, Lazzat, American Affair, Half Yours, Caballo De Mar, Candelari, Ethical Diamond, Never So Brave, Rebel's Romance, and Trawlerman. Indeed, three of those were among [...]

It is not just the horses who move fast in the world of racing. The winds of fashion, especially when it comes to stallions, are ever changing. All the while the years gallop on, and a filly you can still picture in the heat haze of an Ascot summer is suddenly the third dam of [...]

A mistake made by the organisers of the Racing League was to underestimate just how much certain racing colours resonate with those watching the action. All of us who have followed racing over the years will have owners and trainers we like to get behind. Even when scanning down a race card in the paper [...]