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The 2025 Saudi Cup went to Japanese superstar Forever Young who was landing the biggest prize of his burgeoning career. He ran down Romantic Warrior in a thrilling finish at the King Abdulaziz racetrack in Riyadh.
The 2024 Saudi Derby winner, who ran such a big race in defeat when third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar, was sent off a well-backed 11/8 favorite for the $20 million showpiece. This was off the back of his impressive success in the Grade 1 Tokyo Daishoten in December.
He repaid his backers’ faith with a stirring late charge up the stretch, getting the better of Romantic Warrior, who had gained an early advantage, in the final 30 yards of the 1m1f contest.
Forever Young is establishing himself as one of the best dirt horses in the world. He will likely have the chance to confirm that status when he lines up in the Dubai World Cup at Meydan in April. There, he might once again bump into Romantic Warrior. Also waiting in the wings is last year’s winner of the race Laurel River. This one was forced to miss the Saudi Cup because of a setback.
Reaction from the winning connections of Forever Young
Winning rider Ryusei Sakai said afterward: “He jumped well from a hard spot and he did a great job,” said winning rider Ryusei Sakai. “Those were my kind of instructions.”
“I felt him [Romantic Warrior] come to me. Of course, I believed in Forever Young so I never felt bad about this competition.”
It’s a second Saudi Cup for trainer Yoshito Yahagi, although it’s a success he didn’t think was likely mid-race.
“I was thinking if my horse passed Romantic Warrior, that was more romantic than the movies,” Yahagi said. “I was concerned about Romantic Warrior because he had never run on the dirt. So, I didn’t know how much he’d show on the dirt.”
Because the 2025 Saudi Cup has been added to the Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series program, Forever Young has now earned an automatic entry into the November, Del Mar contest.
Reaction from connections of the brave runner up – Romantic Warrior
Despite the defeat, the connections of the vanquished Romantic Warrior felt delighted with the performance. The son of Acclamation, a ten-time Grade 1 winner in Hong Kong, had never previously raced on dirt. However, by going down by just a neck and pulling over 10 lengths clear of the third-placed horse, he confirmed without any reasonable doubt that he’s fully effective on the surface.
However, Danny Shum, Romantic Warrior’s trainer, suggested afterward that they might now redirect the horse back to the turf. That would be for a tilt at the Dubai Turf on World Cup night.
He said: “Romantic Warrior ran on dirt for the first time and only Forever Young, a very tough dirt horse, beat us. We lost by a neck. What can you do? I tried something like this for the first time with Romantic Warrior, and hopefully, some other trainers and owners will follow our example.”
“We did the best we could. We hope to win every time, but racing is racing. He tried his best. It was a really good race and most of the people enjoyed the race. He’ll go back to Meydan for the Dubai Turf.”
