Pointing out “he had the 2 hole last time” in winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic, trainer Rick Dutrow said Wednesday he was fine with White Abarrio drawing the rail post for the Grade 1, $20 million Saudi Cup, a one-turn race going 1 1/8 miles on the dirt Saturday at Riyadh.
“This cannot be a problem,” he said when he unrolled the ribbon that revealed post 1 for the 5-year-old horse who was the early 3-1 favorite in Europe betting for the world’s richest race. “We’ve got the best rider. We’ve got one of the best horses, so we’re fun. We’re ready. ... He really takes my breath away every time I see him.”
Irad Ortiz Jr., who has won five of the last six Eclipse Awards as the champion rider in the U.S. and Canada, will have the mount for the third time in a row on the son of Race Day who is owned by C2 Racing and La Milagrosa Stable. This will be only the third race for White Abarrio since last summer. Before the Breeders’ Cup he won Aug. 6 in the Whitney (G1).
National Treasure, the 4-year-old colt who won last month’s Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1), drew post 7. He was 8-1 in early betting.
“This horse has just gotten better and better, and he’s just beginning to put races together,” said Jimmy Barnes, the traveling assistant to trainer Bob Baffert. “He’s really matured, and he really loves it here. It’s going to be up to Flavien (Prat). He’ll give him a good trip. That’s all I can ask for.”
Señor Buscador in post 4, Saudi Crown in 5 and Hoist the Gold in 8 were the other U.S.-based horses in the 14-horse field.
The Saudi Cup will be the last of nine races Saturday at King Abdulaziz Racecourse. The scheduled post time is 12:40 p.m. EST. Shown here is the full field in which program numbers, which were assigned alphabetically, do not match the post positions in most cases. Odds shown below reflect early betting in Europe as reported by Racing Post.
| Saudi Cup 2024 | Post | Trainer | Jockey | Odds* |
| 1. Carmel Road | 14 | Abdullah Albadah | Camilo Ospina | 25-1 |
| 2. Crown Pride | 6 | Koichi Shintani | João Moreira | 33-1 |
| 3. Defunded | 9 | Abdulaziz Khalid | Luis Sáez | 25-1 |
| 4. Derma Sotogake | 13 | Hidetaka Otonashi | Christophe Lemaire | 6-1 |
| 5. Hoist the Gold | 8 | Dallas Stewart | John Velázquez | 40-1 |
| 6. Isolate | 2 | Doug Watson | Joel Rosario | 20-1 |
| 7. Lemon Pop | 3 | Hiroyasu Tanaka | Ryusei Sakai | 5-1 |
| 8. Meisho Hario | 12 | Inao Okada | Suguru Hamanaka | 40-1 |
| 9. National Treasure | 7 | Bob Baffert | Flavien Prat | 8-1 |
| 10. Power in Numbers | 10 | Ahmed Mohamoud | Adel AlFouraidi | 50-1 |
| 11. Saudi Crown | 5 | Brad Cox | Florent Géroux | 14-1 |
| 12. Señor Buscador | 4 | Todd Fincher | Júnior Alvarado | 16-1 |
| 13. Ushba Tesoro | 11 | Noburu Takagi | Yuga Kawada | 8-1 |
| 14. White Abarrio | 1 | Rick Dutrow | Irad Ortiz Jr. | 3-1 |
| 15. Scotland Yard - ae | Moutaib Almulawah | 40-1 | ||
| ae - also eligible | *Source: Racing Post |
