Martin Dixon of The Horse Watchers provides an update ahead of Royal Zabeel's run in the $2 million Riyadh Dirt Sprint on Saturday.
Royal Zabeel
I'm flying out there, not in expectation but it will be a good experience. We made the decision to go because he won two races on the all-weather last season and there weren't a huge amount of options for him. We applied for the Saudi race, he got accepted, and we felt like it was a no-brainer to roll the dice. They were very accommodating - his travel was covered by the Saudi Jockey Club - and as it wasn't costing the owners a fortune to give it a try we felt like it was the best option to have a go.
Royal Zabeel safely loaded at Birmingham Airport for his journey to @TheSaudiCup @Horsewatchers1 @RacingTV @AtTheRaces @itvracing pic.twitter.com/XsijyIqHjC
— Mick Appleby Racing (@MickApplebyUK) February 8, 2026
It's a real unknown because he has never raced on dirt before. There are dirt winners in his family - there are quite a lot of dirt horses on the dam's side of his pedigree - and that gives us a bit of hope, as does his UK all-weather record. But this will be by far and away the best race he's ever run in and on a surface that he's never raced on. We're going into it eyes wide open that he's up against it, but if he were to finish in the first half of the field and get in the prize-money, which goes down to sixth, we'd be happy with that.
If it doesn't work out at least we've tried and he can come back to the UK and have a normal campaign. If he took to the dirt well you've got a whole new race programme you can consider. It's essentially a bit of a shot in the dark and we're not going there expecting fireworks, but if he performs with credit and can get in the prize-money we'd be delighted.
Recent winners
Profit Street
Profit Street ran in the Value Racing Club silks, as we own him in partnership with them, but he was a winner at Lingfield on Tuesday. That was good because he was initially bought for the all-weather bonus scheme and that win took him up to 24th, which puts him in the prize-money for the bonus. He's won a couple of times this all-weather season, has generally been consistent and if he can hold his form across the next couple of months and five more races we'll hopefully get a bit of a payout.
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He was a good winner at Wolverhampton last week and keeps on improving. We're going to be targeting AW Finals Day with him for the stayers' race and then thinking about races like possibly the Chester Cup, Northumberland Plate and maybe even the Ebor if he keeps on improving. He's been amazing as we paid only 8,000 guineas, so he's done incredibly well.
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