Scotland Yard has solid case
French trainer Bachalard’s Tuwaiq Cup winner makes racing comeback on Nov 22
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The Nicolas Bachalard-trained Scotland Yard (Adel Alfouraidi) winning the Tuwaiq Cup (1,800m) on Saudi Cup day on Feb 21.
PHOTO: Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia
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RIYADH - Tuwaiq Cup winner Scotland Yard makes his eagerly awaited return to action on a brilliant weekend of racing at King Abdulaziz racecourse on Nov 22.
All eyes will be on the sixth event (10pm, Singapore time) in which Scotland Yard faces 15 rivals on his first outing since the Saudi Cup weekend, when he blitzed the field to win by over five lengths.
The Quality Road six-year-old won three of his last four outings when French trainer Nicolas Bachalard took over him, with champion jockey Adel Alfouraidi doing the steering last season.
However, it is Panamanian jockey Luis Morales, his Saudi Cup partner, who will jump back on the seven-time winner this time.
Bigger targets will surely await Scotland Yard, who ran eighth in the 2024 renewal of the Group 1 Saudi Cup (1,800m), the world’s richest race with a purse of US$20 million (S$26.1 million).
The Nov 22 120,000 riyal (S$42,000) race over 1,800m looks to be at his mercy with the White Stable of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz & Sons’ Bolide Porto and the Humoud Mufarrej-trained The King’s General appearing to be his main opponents.
Irish-bred Bolide Porto ended his last campaign on a winning note under champion jockey Oisin Murphy at only his second outing for trainer Bader Rizaiq on March 7. The four-year-old colt by Le Havre is dropping back in trip from 2,100m, but the 1,800m first-up will suit him down to the ground.
Also Irish-bred, but a four-year-old gelding by Dubawi, The King’s General boasts two wins in four starts in Saudi Arabia, having franked the promise shown at his four starts in the UK, where he came as a maiden but did run second at his last outing in a 2,000m race at Windsor in July 2024.
Other purebred Arabian stars are on show in the first race on Nov 22 – a 1,200m 120,000 riyal open – as recent scorer and Taif Sprint Championship Prep winner Baseqm And Bake renews his rivalry with the Sprint Championship winner Jade De Faust after they took the top two spots on Sept 26.
Also on Nov 22, 150,000 riyals is on offer for the Sultan Raei Algudah Cup (1,400m) in which 13 two-year-olds have been declared and the White Stable US-bred pair of Galb Alraad and Walad take on the Red Stable of Prince Faisal bin Khaled bin Abdulaziz’s Anquod. JOCKEY CLUB OF SAUDI ARABIA
