06 October 2021

Saudi Cup an option on Real World’s radar

06 October 2021

Real World may have the newly-installed Group One Saudi Cup among his options in the new year.

Saeed bin Suroor’s four-year-old has made giant strides this summer, having gone winless in four races at last year’s Dubai Carnival.

His winning run began in the Royal Hunt Cup, and he has steadily progressed with each outing – winning a Listed race, a Group Three and then a Group Two in France at the weekend, beating The Revenant in the hands of Frankie Dettori.

“It was too soft for him, and he’d never run on ground like that before, but the way he finished was good,” said Bin Suroor, whose stable stalwart Benbatl was third to Maximum Security in the inaugural running of the Saudi race.

“Now he can have a break, because he’s run in some big races so far this year all through the summer.

“We’ll take him back to Dubai and look at some big races for him.

“He’s run on dirt before – he finished second on it – but he was a little bit weak then. With time, he is much better now.

“We’ll see if he’s a horse for the World Cup. We’ll run him on turf first and see what happens – that should put him spot on for his next race and tell us where we go in future.

“There is the Dubai Duty Free on turf (nine furlongs), the World Cup on dirt – and there’s a chance we could take him to Saudi as well.”

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