The John Gosden trained Mishriff (IRE), owned by Prince A A Faisal, went one better than his second place finish in last year s Saudi Derby when he caught Charlatan (USA) in the final 100m to win the $20m The Saudi Cup, the world s most valuable race.
Without a Kentucky Derby prep this week, racing presents a sampler platter of subjects, including the delayed start to the season for would-be Derby favorite Essential Quality.
Rispoli, Stevens Removed From Plane En Route to Saudi Cup; Velazquez Stymied in Miami
Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 10:28 pm |
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Updated: February 19, 2021 at 1:24 pm
Sue Finley
Several major shifts in riding assignments were underway Friday morning after Umberto Rispoli and John Velazquez were not allowed to fly to Saudi Arabia due to a mixup in flight arrangements Wednesday and problems with COVID-19 restrictions Thursday.
Ron Anderson, the agent for Velazquez and Rosario, said that Mickael Barzalona would ride
Max Player (Honor Code), that William Buick would be aboard
Tacitus (Tapit) in the Saudi Cup, and that Joel Rosario would ride
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Maybe itâs not against ALL odds, but the Saudi Cup looks set to take another mighty step forward
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Pegasus winner Knicks Go - pictured exercising on the Riyadh dirt on Thursday - faces a potentially spectacular clash with Saudi Cup favourite Charlatan on Saturday. Photo: Mathea Kelley/Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia
A neat overview of the progress of the world’s richest race before this weekend’s second edition appeared earlier this week under the headline ‘Saudi Cup Survives and Thrives Against All Odds’.
Written from an American viewpoint, the central argument rightly suggested that the two-day event had managed to overcome some fairly forbidding obstacles to claim its place on the world stage.
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Umberto Rispoli, John Velazquez, and retired rider-turned-broadcaster Gary Stevens will not make this year s Saudi Cup after a series of travel headaches related to overbooked flights and COVID-19 test timelines. The trio, along with jockey Joel Rosario, arrived at airports Wednesday to discover their tickets had been cancelled. Rispoli, Stevens and Rosario were flying out of LAX and Velazquez from Miami. They were told Qatar Airways had double booked the second leg of their journeys from Doha, Qatar, to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and when the extra booking was cancelled, their tickets for the first leg were automatically cancelled.