Richest race in the world US$20 million
Mandaloun has the chance to become winner of both the Kentucky Derby and the world’s richest race, all in the same week.
The 4-year-old Into Mischief colt is the 5-2 morning-line favorite for the Group 1, $20 million Saudi Cup. He and 13 other runners from across the world will race about 1 1/8 miles at 12:40 p.m. EST.
Mandaloun enters off a Fair Grounds win Jan. 22 in the Louisiana Stakes (G3) over Midnight Bourbon (4-1), who is the second choice on the Saudi Cup morning line. Also representing the U.S. are Art Collector (8-1) and Country Grammer (12-1).
Trained by Brad Cox, Mandaloun started the week with a 9: 6-1-1 lifetime record. He added a seventh victory Monday when the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission disqualified Medina Spirit from the win in last year’s Kentucky Derby due to the late colt’s failed post-Derby drug test.
Shortly after the KHRC’s ruling went public, Churchill Downs announced that 2021 Kentucky Derby runner-up Mandaloun would be recognized as the race’s winner. Then on Tuesday, a sign in Churchill’s paddock recognizing Medina Spirit as the 2021 Derby hero was replaced by one bearing Mandaloun’s name.
Cox and jockey Florent Geroux became first-time Kentucky Derby winners with the announcement. Now they will team up again Saturday in hopes of taking the $10 million winner’s share of the Saudi Cup purse.
Steve Asmussen trains Midnight Bourbon, a 4-year-old who in 14 starts has won just twice but also finished off the board just twice. His second-place run in the Louisiana followed runner-up finishes at the Grade 1 level in the Pennsylvania Derby, Preakness Stakes and Travers Stakes.
Art Collector has won three of four starts for trainer Bill Mott since moving to his barn last summer, including in the Woodward Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park. The 5-year-old last raced Nov. 6, finishing sixth at Del Mar in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Baffert is represented in the Saudi Cup five days after he was both stripped of his 2021 Kentucky Derby training win and handed a 90-day suspension that is scheduled to begin March 8. He last saddled Country Grammer on May 31 when the colt won Santa Anita’s Hollywood Gold Cup Stakes (G1) before going on the shelf the rest of his 4-year-old season.
Among international runners, two names are most familiar to U.S. racing fans. Mishriff (9-2) topped Charlatan and Knicks Go to win the 2021 Saudi Cup, while mare Marche Lorraine (20-1) upset the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at 50-1 odds.
Here is a look at the field for the 2022 Saudi Cup (trainer and jockey in parentheses) with morning-line odds. The two numbers by each runner’s name first represent the program number, then the post position.
1, 2. Aero Term (Antonio Cintra, Vagner Leal), 30-1
2, 9. Art Collector (Bill Mott, Luis Saez), 8-1
3, 1. Country Grammer (Bob Baffert, Flavien Prat), 12-1
4, 5. Emblem Road (Mitab Almulawah, Wigberto S. Ramos), 40-1
5, 7. Magny Cours (Andre Fabre, Mickael Barzalona), 20-1
6, 10. Making Miracles (Mitab Almulawah, Alexis Moreno), 40-1
7, 6. Mandaloun (Brad Cox, Florent Geroux), 5-2
8, 3. Midnight Bourbon (Steve Asmussen, Joel Rosario), 4-1
9, 14. Mishriff (John and Thady Gosden, David Egan), 9-2
10, 4. Real World (Saeed bin Suroor, Frankie Dettori), 20-1
11, 11. Sealiway (Francis-Henri Graffard, Ryan Moore), 20-1
12, 12. Secret Ambition (Bhupat Seemar, Tadhg O'Shea), 30-1
13, 8. T O Keynes (Daisuke Takayanagi, Kohei Matsuyama), 10-1
14, 13. Marche Lorraine (Yoshito Yahagi, Christophe Soumillon), 20-1
AE, 15, 15. Great Scot (Abdulrahman Moshrif Al Kahtani, TBD), 50-1
AE, 16, 16. Alkhateeb (M. Aldugish, TBD), 50-1
