Saeed bin Suroor saddled a one-two in the fourth running of the £600,000 Bahrain International Trophy as Dubai Future held off stablemate Passion And Glory under Danny Tudhope.
Only eighth 12 months ago, Dubai Future returned to Bahrain this year as a Royal Ascot winner having produced a career best to run away with the Listed Wolferton Stakes during the summer.
The winning margin wasn’t quite so emphatic this time round, but the six-year-old was ultimately well on top at the line having travelled sweetly throughout against the rail, tracking the front-running Magny Cours.
Passion And Glory was the first to challenge the leader early in the straight, but Dubai Future soon had his move covered and just needed to be kept up to his work by Tudhope to provide Godolphin with a first success in this valuable contest, ultimately landing the spoils by three quarters of a length.
Riocorvo ran on strongly from mid-division to snatch third from Magny Cours close home.
For Tudhope, the victory was extra sweet having been forced to miss the ride on last year’s winner Lord Glitters due to injury. He said: “It was disappointing not to be here last year, but it was nice to see the old horse do it for connections. He’s been a superstar.
“It was great to come back here. Godolphin had a strong hand in this race and thankfully it was me who won it. We were hopeful before the race. His last run wasn’t too bad, he was in form and likes fast going. He’s a handy little horse to have, he whizzes round the bends.
“The race went to plan. I had a good draw, so it was important to get a nice position just behind the leaders. He travelled so well and relaxed nicely. He picked up well and was just doing what he had to do.
“Obviously, it’s great riding winners anywhere you go. They put on a great show here and they look after you so well. It’s a lovely place to come and I’m just grateful to have won this race.”
Expanding on the reason for him missing the victory of Lord Glitters 12 months ago, Tudhope added: “Unfortunately, I slipped a disc in my neck a few weeks prior to that, so I couldn’t make it.
“I actually rode work on him a week before he came out and I just wasn’t fit enough to come and ride him. But he felt great and I was glad he came out and won. It’s been a great story behind him with the owners and for David [O’Meara, trainer] as well. He has been an absolute legend of a horse.”
Dubai Future had finished a long way behind Lord Glitters last year, but Bin Suroor said after the race that he was always confident of a better showing 12 months on.
He said: “Both horses ran big races and Dubai Future had been here last year. Since he left Bahrain we took him back to Dubai and he won at Royal Ascot and the horse physically has improved.
“I spoke to the jockey before the race and I said to him this is a different horse to last year. I said just try to keep him handy and the pace suited both horses. They ran well and first and second is a good result.
“He’s a tough horse and he always tries hard. Even over a mile and a half or a mile and six furlongs, he’s done well. The pace today suited him and he showed his good turn of foot. It was great because we tried last year and the year before and didn’t have luck. It’s great for Godolphin to come to Bahrain and win this race.”
Adam Houghton analysis
Royal Fleet was well backed for the latest edition of the Bahrain International Trophy as he tried to cap another brilliant season for Charlie Appleby, the man soon to be crowned champion trainer in Britain for the second year in a row.
However, this proved to be a rare international raid which didn’t come off for that team – Royal Fleet trailed in eighth of the 10 runners – and instead Friday belonged to another man synonymous with the Godolphin blue, namely Saeed bin Suroor, who went away with eighty percent of the £600,000 prize fund having saddled the first two in Dubai Future and Passion And Glory.
There was once a time when triumphs like this were commonplace for Bin Suroor and he was the one mopping up big races around the world, but it’s fair to say that Godolphin’s longest-serving trainer has endured some lean times since he won his fourth trainers’ championship in 2004, particularly domestically.
Whilst the foundations for Appleby’s title challenge this year were laid by the likes of Coroebus and Native Trail – first and second, respectively, in the 2000 Guineas – Bin Suroor began the day ranked twentieth in the trainers’ championship having saddled just one winner above Listed level on British soil all year.
The ammunition to compete against the best around in Britain has certainly proved harder to come by since Bin Suroor last won the trainers’ championship. Mastery’s victory in the 2009 St Leger remains the only classic success for Bin Suroor during that period, while it’s now been over nine years since Farhh won the Champion Stakes at Ascot, the last time the yard won a Group One on British soil.
To put that drought into some context, Bin Suroor saddled 50 runners in Group One races in Britain between 2014 and 2021 and only Ihtimal (third in the 2014 1000 Guineas), Beautiful Romance (third in the 2015 Fillies & Mares Stakes), Very Special (second in the 2016 Falmouth Stakes), Always Smile (second in the 2016 Sun Chariot Stakes) and Thunder Snow (third in the 2017 St James’s Palace Stakes) even finished placed.
And, whilst the Covid-19 pandemic was obviously a mitigating factor, the 2020 campaign was arguably the nadir of Bin Buroor’s training career in Britain as he saddled only 39 winners, his lowest tally since 2003, and earned total prize money of only £407,825, his worst return by that measure since he first started having runners in Britain.
There has been the odd green shoot of recovery this season. Real World (runner-up in both the Lockinge Stakes and Queen Anne Stakes) and Mawj (third in the Cheveley Park Stakes) have added to the above list of Group One placings, while Dubai Future has developed into a solid campaigner capable of competing at the biggest meetings.
Dubai Future had already won twice at Listed level in 2022, notably at Royal Ascot where he was a most impressive winner of the Wolferton Stakes, but this trumped even that achievement as he saw off stablemate Passion And Glory to gain his first Group-race success.
Incidentally, the first two pocketed a total of £480,000 for their connections, surpassing their trainer’s total prize money haul for the calendar year in Britain in 2020.
In pure form terms, Dubai Future probably didn’t need to improve to beat his stable companion in the manner that he did, but he’s already shown himself to be better than ever this year at the age of six, rewarding his trainer’s patient approach having not made his debut until the July of his three-year-old season.
A fixture at Meydan for the last three winters, Dubai Future again looks well named with a return to the Carnival surely next on the agenda, though he could prove more difficult to place now that he’s got a Group Three penalty to contend with.
As for what the future holds for Bin Suroor, he’ll be hoping that next top-class horse is just around the corner, another Dubai Millennium, Daylami or Lammtarra to put his name back in lights.
The name Saeed bin Suroor was certainly being toasted as the sun set on the fourth running of the Bahrain International Trophy – a race with its own pretensions of becoming a force at the very top end of the sport in years to come.
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