With only two days until the third running of the Saudi Cup, George Dudley puts the questions to Prince Bandar, chairman of the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia (JCSA) and driving force behind the world’s richest race.
George Dudley: Last year’s Saudi Cup winner Mishriff had already won the Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) and he went on to win the Dubai Sheema Classic and Juddmonte International. He was owned by a Saudi, Prince Faisal, bred in Ireland and trained in England. Is he the ideal profile of horse and global connections that you are looking to attract?
Prince Bandar: What was nice was that he came second in the 2020 Saudi Derby and was introduced to the world in the first Saudi Cup before coming back the next year to win the big race, and in between that time he won a couple of big races in Europe. It shows his ability to run well on turf and dirt.
It is just a wonderful story for horse racing and there is an international element to him when you look at where he was bred, who the trainer is, who the jockey is and who the owner is. The owner has been in racing for four decades now and to win something big, in his own country, was a certainly a special moment.
But I would have been just as happy for any of the horse connections to win. I love to stand in the paddock and watch the reaction from the Greeks or the Japanese or the French or the Saudis – often I hear six or seven languages being spoken at the same time.
When I hear that dynamic, it is just wonderful. These are people that travel the world and come for the love of horse racing. Yes, it is emotional, but I am in such a unique and privileged position that I can be happy for whoever finishes first.
Mishriff was a wonderful, wonderful story but every year there are really special ones happening. It is amazing to be in the middle of these people and see the stories being made.
If we are talking about great horses owned by people from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it would be remiss of me not to mention Prince Khalid Abdullah, who has passed away since the last running of the Saudi Cup. What is his influence on racing in Saudi Arabia?
He is a legend in this part of the world and I don’t think that I would be inaccurate if I said that he was highly respected across the world.
He was a gentleman first of all, a big contributor to the sport and he brought joy to many people who were fans of Juddmonte and the horses he ran. He did it in a very classy way. I think that we need a lot of these types of character in the sport.
He is a role model in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an example of what you would aim for and not only as an example of running G1 winners. I think that he had six or seven horses of a lifetime, when most people are lucky to have one. Yes, he was fortunate but I know that there was a lot of planning by him.
Khalid Abdullah: the man who has owned FOUR Horses of a lifetime
A lot of the local owners see the Juddmonte model as what they are aiming for. There is now a Cup in Saudi Arabia in his honour, and we at the Jockey Club are honoured to be able to contribute with something like this. We are also honoured that his sons have embraced the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia by supporting Prince Khalid’s Cup, as well as continuing the Juddmonte legacy. He will always be that influential role model for all Saudis and many people across the world.
More than anything, he enjoyed it: Breeding the horses and seeing them become a special horses on the track. Each one meant a lot to him and it showed.
Although the first Saudi Cup was a thrilling event, there was an unfortunate aftermath with the alleged involvement of Maximum Security's trainer Jason Servis in a widespread doping conspiracy in the USA. Price-money was withheld – can you update us on where things stand?
The status around the Saudi Cup 2020 winner's purse remains unchanged. We continue to monitor the US legal situation closely and require an outcome from that process to complete our own investigation. We remain fully committed to completing this exercise as quickly as possible.
Looking at this year’s Saudi Cup, have you made any alterations to the track or facilities?
Every year we expand a little bit. This year we have the largest number of horses coming in from outside the kingdom, which we had expected.
The track itself is already regarded as one of the best dirt tracks in the world, so we don’t want to mess with that. The jockeys and horses love it – it’s one of the few dirt tracks that turf horses can perform well on, Mishriff being a great example, and our goal is to maintain that.
Where we had to prove ourselves is the turf track and that has worked really well from the outset. This is the first season that we have had racing on it from December through March.
It surprised me how many domestic connections are now campaigning their horses on turf, but you have to remember that a lot of them have European pedigrees. They are discovering that horses rated 80 on dirt could very well be given a mark of 85 or 90 on turf. I now have local owners asking me for a turf track year-round, which is fine, but they don’t have to pay for it!
Away from the Saudi Cup and the King Abdulaziz racetrack in Riyadh, you have made some improvements to the King Khalid racetrack in Ta’if. What can you tell me about these? How does the Ta’if track fit into your overall vision of racing in the kingdom?
We are looking at starting at the beginning of June at the turf track in Ta’if, running through November and then turf racing to continue in December, January, February and March in Riyadh. I really hope that by 2025 that this can become a reality.
Because we have extended the season to 10 months it needed to be upgraded and be able to accommodate different distances. We have also increased the stabling to almost double. We had at some point over 1,900 horses training on that track.
We are looking at a new location that can be an international turf and dirt track in Ta’if. We have, in addition, been tasked to come up with an equestrian city in the suburbs of Ta’if that will have infrastructure – not only for horse racing – that is not too dissimilar to Lexington where all equestrian disciplines are covered. It makes a lot of sense because Ta’if will attract more horses than Riyadh. What’s more, there will be four or five months when Ta’if is the only game in town if you are within 2,000 miles.
I am really excited about Ta’if’s prospects for the future and because it is a summer town, it has a festive, casual feel to it and last year every night was a party at the racetrack. If you can believe it, people would stay until 3am to watch the horses in the morning. It was crazy.
This is the first year that the track will be lit at night to utilise the cooler weather and run the horses in safer conditions. Due to us being able to run during the day and night, the track has doubled in capacity because we have fixed the inner track for training purposes. The stabling has been increased by about 30 per cent.
There are more Japanese contestants this year across the board. Has this been a concerted effort, or do you think it is reflective of Japanese horses’ position in the new world order?
A bit of both, I think. For us, the Japanese involvement from the inaugural Saudi Cup has been very important and we love having them here. They are so enthusiastic. There have been Japanese winners here already, so they have good experiences at the meet.
It is quite a haul from Japan and it is my hope that we see a lot more Japanese competitors in this part of the world, specifically in Saudi Arabia. I hope that we can attract them on a season-long basis rather than just one cup.
I have never been to a Japanese race – it is at the top of my list to visit Japan and to go racing.
You have nonetheless been to many of the great international racedays, such as the Breeders’ Cup, Royal Ascot and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. What have you learned from your travels?
I learned that although this is a huge world that we live in, the horse racing community is not: everybody knows everyone. Therefore it makes a lot of sense for me to go to these global races to talk about what we are doing in this part of the world and keep people interested.
We also want to learn from what they are doing, to see what might work for us and to see what we can do to move in that direction. In the universe of horse racing, you have got the race or the event, as well as the breeding and sales aspects – it is an ecosystem. In Saudi Arabia, we are interested in making it an industry that can be self-sufficient and create more employment. It will become a viable career choice.
To do this, it has always been important to me that I can talk to and learn from people within the industry to see how they go about things. It is crucial for me to be exposed to people that have done this for decades. There is always a lot for us to learn from them.
What would mark this year’s Saudi Cup as a success, in your opinion?
Firstly, to have the whole event go smoothly and every single person that comes here – be them connections or fans – to have a wonderful time. I want them all to say that they want to come back for the next Saudi Cup. I also want locals to be inspired and to say that this is an industry that they want to be involved in.
• Visit the Saudi Cup website
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