Baffert Horses Face Another Late-Race Test in Saudi Cup

Bob Baffert is back in Saudi Arabia, hoping to reverse his run of disappointment in the world's richest race, the Saudi Cup (G1), renewed for the seventh time Feb. 14 at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh. Baffert horses have finished second three times in the Cup, twice giving up a lead in the final 100 meters of the one-turn, 1,800-meter (about 1 1/8-mile) contest. And as he saddles Nysos and Nevada Beach this year, he faces perhaps his biggest obstacle yet to surviving that final surge to the finish—defending Saudi Cup victor and 2025 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) winner Forever Young (JPN). "That 100-meters mark is a killer for me," Baffert said in the lead-up to the race. "We are always ahead at the 100 meters, and then I just think, 'Uh-oh, this is not good. We've still got 100 meters to go.' We've come agonizingly close." The horses who came to beat the Baffert charges—Mishriff (IRE), Emblem Road, and Panthalassa (JPN)—were no lightweights, for sure. But if either Nysos or Nevada Beach is leading the field at the 100-meter mark this year, the horse most likely to be coming at him has a patent on that move. Forever Young hit the big time in the 2024 Saudi Derby (G3) by improbably catching Book'em Danno in the final strides after that rival's New Jersey-based connections were within seconds of a wild celebration. Book'em Danno, of course, has gone on to stardom, winning the Eclipse Award as champion male sprinter of 2025. A year later, after finishing third in both the Kentucky Derby (G1) and the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1), Forever Young returned to Saudi Arabia to contest the Saudi Cup, this time against Hong Kong superstar Romantic Warrior (IRE). Again, Forever Young looked beaten. Again, he rallied to win. "It was unbelievable. To be honest, I thought we had been beaten at the finish. It was a great race," said trainer Yoshito Yahagi, the colorful "Man in the Hat." So how does Baffert, the man with the white hair, plan to approach this year's stretch run? What can turn the tables in his favor? Nysos, he said at the Feb. 12 media briefing, "needs to break well. He can sit, sit, sit and go whenever he wants to. His main weapons are that he (jockey Flavien Prat) can shut him down, shut him off during the race. "I don't know a lot of horses in the race. Forever Young, I know he's gonna be up there. He always runs a big race. Hopefully, Nysos gets away from there. He's one of those horses you've got to help away from there a little bit. After that, from the 12 hole, he can just sort of hide and see what's going on. Nevada Beach, he needs to get away and he's got speed, also..." He paused and punted. "I really don't know. All I can hope for when they turn for home is that Nevada Beach and Nysos, they're in contention. It would be great to see my horses hook up with Forever Young. That would be the ideal." Baffert agreed with Yahagi's assessment of the 2025 finish. "Last year, that was really fun to watch. It was incredible. I mean, that's what the Saudi Cup is supposed to be about, two great horses just going at it. I just hope the horses show up. That's all a trainer can ask for." Yahagi, in turn, said he knew Romantic Warrior was the horse he had to beat in the 2025 Saudi Cup. Has he identified the one to beat this time around? "It might be Nysos," Yahagi said. It is, of course, not a two- or three-horse race. Kenny McPeek returns with Rattle N Roll, who finished fifth a year ago after earning a spot by winning The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup (G3) a month before the big race. He skipped that step this year, and the 2021 Breeders' Futurity (G1) winner has not raced since winning the Dec. 20 Tinsel Stakes at Oaklawn Park. "I think he will run much better and behind Forever Young, it is a wide-open race," McPeek said. "If Forever Young doesn't run his best, then it won't be a surprise to see him (Rattle N Roll) run really well, as I have never had him better and I am excited." Brad Cox sends Bishops Bay, who was purchased by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz & Sons Stable shortly before winning the Dec. 6 Cigar Mile Handicap (G2) at Aqueduct Racetrack. Cox has saddled three horses in previous runnings of the Cup, finishing third in 2024 with Saudi Crown, fourth in 2021 with Knicks Go during the latter's Horse of the Year campaign, and ninth in 2022 with Mandaloun, the 2021 Kentucky Derby winner. "I think there is definitely some advantage to having been there," Cox said, noting assistant Dustin Dugas handled Bishops Bay on arrival in Saudi Arabia. "Dustin is representing the team this year before I arrive, and he has plenty of experience." Forever Young is not the only Japanese horse in the gate. Luxor Cafe, a 4-year-old American Pharoah colt, has had a couple of rough starts at home but finished third in the Japan Dirt Classic in October and wasn't disgraced when 12th in the 2025 Kentucky Derby. And Sunrise Zipangu (JPN) starts for Kyoko Maekawa, who a year ago became the first woman granted a training license in Japan. Sunrise Zipangu will be a longshot for the former assistant to Yahagi. The 1-2 finishers in this year's The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques also move along to the Cup. Mhally (GB) won the race and the "Win and You're In" bid, but trainer Sami Alharabi believed enough in the runner-up, Prince Faisal bin Khaled bin Abdulaziz's Ameerat Alzamaan (GB) that he convinced the Prince to supplement her and Ryan Moore to take the ride. The Ghaiyyath (IRE) filly has won six of her eight local starts, including in the One Thousand Guineas and the Fillies Mile last year. "I have been very pleased with her condition and believe she is in much better shape now than she was previously, showing clear improvement," Alharabi. The Saudi Cup is part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In, providing the winner with a paid, automatic berth into the Breeders' Cup Classic this fall at Keeneland.