RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – FEBRUARY 24: Junior Alvarado (L) wins the Saudi Cup (Group 1) with his horse … [+] ‘Senor Buscador’during the Saudi Cup, the world’s most expensive horse race at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia on February 24, 2024. (Photo by Mohammed Saad/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Anadolu via Getty Images
Laying ten horses behind the leading Saudi Crown with two furlongs to go for the $20-million Saudi Cup at Riyadh’s King Abdulaziz Racecourse on Saturday night, the Todd Fincher-trained Senor Buscador went well wide of the field and put on a blazing stretch run that saw him nose out Ushba Tesoro for the $10-million victor’s share of the richest pot in horse racing on this earth. Just a few strides before the finish, Japan-owned Ushba Tesoro had put the Brad Cox-trained Saudi Crown behind him. Saudi Crown held on to show.
Pace, as set by Saudi Crown for much of the race, remained the narrative of the upset. Saudi Crown just could not muster the fuel to fend off Ushba Tesoro. Similarly, Bob Baffert’s front-running Preakness winner National Treasure ran a commendable race but just could not get up past the pace-setting Saudi Crown. National Treasure ran fourth. Highly touted Derma Sotogake ran fifth. All four of those top runners had gone off with — so the globe’s best handicappers thought — better chances at the pot of gold than the horse that beat them. Top favorite White Abarrio, who exited the gate as the race’s darling at 6-5, spent the majority of his time in middling-to-lackluster form in the middle of the pack, then faded even from that unexpected performance to run tenth. It was his first race since his Breeders’ Cup Classic win last year.
In the last furlong, and most visibly in the last few strides the leading four athletes took in that last furlong, not a horse among them could provide a surge to stop Senor Buscador. His charge, under beautiful riding by jockey Junior Alvarado, was simply too furious for any of them to fend off. The $10 million win raised his career earnings by orders of magnitude, to $11 million and change. The race made the horse a champion, and not least, raised his eventual stud fees considerably.
The victor’s trainer, New Mexico-based Todd Fincher, seemed just as stunned as the rest of the racing world in the heady moments after the race. He said: “I’m about to cry, it’s amazing. He never got the credit he deserved and he finally got to show it today. I didn’t believe it, as something always happens to him in every race. He always has 10 or 11 horses to weave in and out of. We know he was going to run good, we just had to hope for the right set up. It’s awesome.”
Senor Buscador typically recovers from races quickly, according to Fincher. “The plan is Dubai,” the trainer said, “but we will leave it up to the horse. He usually doesn’t take long to bounce back.”
In March’s Dubai World Cup, if all goes well, we will be fortunate to see Senor Buscador run up against some of these same talented actors, in particular, the Japan-owned horses Derma Sotogake and Ushba Tesoro, veteran campaigners on the Persian Gulf tracks.
