Saudia Arabia Saturday preview: Richard Fahey excited by Spirit Dancer chance

The seven-year-old gave the former Manchester United manager and his fellow owners, Ged Mason and Fred Done, a day to remember when scoring in the Bahrain International Trophy last November and attentions were soon turned to securing more valuable prizes in the region.

Spirit Dancer tuned up for his crack at this $2million prize by finishing fourth in Meydan’s Jebel Hatta last month and his handler believes that will have put him spot on for this Saudi Cup night assignment.

“I felt he would need the run the last day and it looked that way as well,” said Fahey. “He has had four or five weeks to acclimatise now. It’s all stuff of dreams, which is becoming a reality when we get to run on Saturday. It’s fantastic here, we are well looked after and the horse is happy. When you come on these trips, the most important thing is how the horse is – and the horse is in good order. I’m very pleased with him and at the moment I wouldn’t swap my fella.”

Fahey admitted to being awestruck by the footballing great in the early stages of training for him, but now relishes the time they spend together comparing notes on how to prime star sporting talent for action.

“To be fair, when I first started training for him, I was a little bit humbled,” Fahey this week. "I have some fantastic conversations with him and he has been to the yard three or four times now. He is just a wonderful man and you can see why he has been a success.

“It’s a humbling experience but it’s amazing, because even this (Thursday) morning we were discussing footballers and horses and Sir Alex was asking why we didn’t canter on the grass. I explained we race on the (grass) surfaces because if we were to train on them all the time, we wouldn’t have many horses left, so we tend to use the artificial surfaces – and he compared it to a very good football team whose training pitch was quite quick and a lot of the players were getting hurt, so there is comparisons with football and racing.”

There is plenty of British and Irish involvement in the extended 10-furlong event, with Aidan O’Brien’s Luxembourg a clear favourite with the bookmakers, having knocked on the door behind Auguste Rodin on home soil in the autumn before also going close in Hong Kong in December.

Andrew Balding’s The Foxes is another who is no stranger to international competition, having finished second in the Belmont Derby last summer, and the Dante winner is expected to take a step forward from his comeback run at Southwell recently. A January afternoon at Rolleston is poles apart from the pressure cooker of Riyadh on Saudi Cup night, but connections are confident of a bold bid from their four-year-old.

“He’s got here in great form,” said the trainer’s wife and representative Anna Lisa Balding. “I was very pleased with how he looked out there on Thursday morning. Last year, we took him to America and he finished second in a Grade One, so we felt he would be up to the travel again.

“We’re delighted with his position in gate six and Oisin Murphy is back on and he rides him so well. He needed the run last time at Southwell but it was a good effort and he will come on for it.”

John and Thady Gosden struck gold with subsequent Royal Ascot and Juddmonte International Stakes champion Mostahdaf 12 months ago and will look to repeat the dose with stable newcomer Jack Darcy.

Astro King has been something of a superstar for Daniel and Claire Kubler and their Cambridgeshire hero should not be underestimated after being far from disgraced in sixth behind Spirit Dancer last time.

“With a little more luck, he might well have placed second or third (in Bahrain),” said Claire Kubler. “He was on the rail in Bahrain and ran into traffic. It was frustrating but we had to notice that it was established horses like Point Lonsdale and Nations Pride that were in his path and he was finishing stronger than them. It’s amazing for our team and his owners to be a part of this occasion. It’s so exciting and we feel he can run well.”

Dutro bullish over Abarrio claims

White Abarrio is carrying maximum stable confidence into the $20million Saudi Cup. The striking grey was last seen winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita in November, making it two Grade Ones in three starts for Rick Dutrow since moving from Saffie Joseph.

And Dutrow – who has returned to the big-race limelight after enduring a 10-year suspension imposed for medication and administration violations that forced him to build again from scratch – sees the world’s most valuable race as tailor-made for his charge, who will again be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr.

“All the work has been done with him and he’s in a zone that I wish every horse that ever lived was in that kind of zone,” said Dutrow. “We just made a couple of minor adjustments with him (after he switched yards), they just happened to work out really well. I think the glue-on shoes sealed the deal for him. We did that after his Met Mile run, we knew we needed to make some kind of changes with his front feet, because he wasn’t level, wasn’t even.

“He ran a big race that day (Met Mile, third), we were extremely happy with how he finished his race. Then we went with the glue-ons, then we knew we were training better. The riders could just feel he was better. I feel if he is on his game and runs his race, he is going to be tough to beat.

“This race, a mile and an eighth (nine furlongs), around one turn…I feel as if he were to wake up in the morning and we were to ask him, ‘Hey babe, what do you wanna do for a $20million race?’, he’d say, ‘Make it a mile and an eighth around one turn’.”

Dutrow stressed he was “all in” on the Saudi Cup – but would love to go on from Riyadh to Dubai for the Dubai World Cup.

“We’re so excited to do something like that, but it’s going to be up to him. I want him to have an easy race here – I shouldn’t be saying that, because there’s so many good horses here. How are we expecting to have an easy race?” Dutrow said. “We have a really good horse and he is on it, that’s what I’m hoping for. We’ll have a little chat with Irad, our main goal is to win and our second main goal is to save horse for his next race. If we can get those things done, we’re going to be excited going to Dubai.”

The five-year-old drew stall two at the post-position ceremony on Wednesday, with that doing little to dent confidence.

“He had the two-hole (in the Classic) last time, this can’t be a problem,” Dutrow said. “We’ve got the best rider, one of the best horses. It’ll be fun. We’ll be ready. He really takes my breath away every time I see him.”

Leading the opposition is the Hidetaka Otonashi-trained Derma Sotogake for Japan – just a length adrift of White Abarrio when second in the Classic. He reportedly suffered a minor injury scare on the flight over, but rider Christophe Lemaire is happy with what he has seen.

“The horse has got more mature, stronger, I think. He looks happy here, so I’m very confident,” he said. “He was still young last year as a three-year-old, as a four-year-old he’ll get better and better. He didn’t run much last year, of course they were tough races, but he’s the kind of horse who keeps himself safe, he still has many things to show us. The field will be very strong, but he’s a tough horse, he’s able to jump well from the gates and take a position, he can keep a strong pace.”

Otonashi said: “The accident during the flight is the only concern but we did everything we could have done. He is in good form.”

Bob Baffert has yet to win the race but has come close, with Charlatan the length runner-up to the John and Thady Gosden-trained Mishriff in 2021, while Country Grammer was half a length down on Emblem Road in 2022 and three-parts of a length second to Panthalassa 12 months ago, when ridden by Frankie Dettori.

His runner this time is National Treasure, winner of last year’s Preakness and second in the Dirt Mile at the Breeders’ Cup, before reappearing in the Pegasus World Cup, holding on to score from Senor Buscador, who reopposes for Todd Fincher.

Baffert’s assistant Jimmy Barnes said: “He has matured into a fine horse. He likes to be on the pace, that’s clear, but he was able to back off a little when he won the Pegasus last month. If there is a speed battle in this race, we feel he will still be able to get the right trip under a strong rider (Flavien Prat). He has a good post to work from in seven. This is our fifth runner in this race, we have been second three times, so we are hoping to make the breakthrough.”

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