ENGLISH TEXTS
� PAGE 18
HORSE
By Emmanuel Roussel
FOREVER YOUNG , THE NEW WORLD ’ S BEST RACEHORSE
Two heavyweights of world racing clashed , almost on their own , in the 6 th Saudi Cup , and the memorable duel they fought out has been the talk of the global turf world . In the end , Japan ’ s Forever Young beat Hong Kong ’ s Romantic Warrior , but the way the race unfolded leaves room for all sorts of speculation . Forever Young , however , now stands alone at the summit of world racing . He deserves it .
The sixth edition of the Saudi Cup ( Gr . 1 ), the world ’ s richest race with a purse of twenty million dollars (€ 19.1m ), has been spontaneously renamed the “ Rumble in Riyadh ” almost everywhere . The term echoes the great boxing match , “ The Rumble in the Jungle ,” which pitted George Foreman against Muhammad Ali fifty years ago in Kinshasa , Zaire . Indeed , two heavyweights of modern racing clashed on Saturday , February 22 nd on the dirt track at King Abdulaziz Racecourse , two champions from the Far East who both achieved champion status thanks to their victorious raids outside their own territory . Before lining up for the 1,800 meters of the Sau- di Cup in Riyadh , the 7-yearold Romantic Warrior , the Hong Kong champion we introduced to you in Issue No . 4 , went to win in Australia , Japan and Dubai to break the all-time earnings record for a racehorse with nearly 26 million euros now to his name .
Exotic journeys Forever Young is three years his junior but already has an almost unbelievable record . He is trained by Yoshito Yahagi , the “ man in the hat ” who came to Paris last autumn for the Arc with Shin Emperor and also saddled the thirdplaced Entscheiden in the Prix de la Forêt ( Gr . 1 ) who finished runner up on three occasions while he was there . Yahagi saddled the winner of the 2023 Saudi Cup , Panthalassa , too . He has won at the highest level in the USA , Dubai ( notably with Real Steel , Forever Young ’ s sire , in 2016 ), Australia ( 2019 Cox Plate with Lys Gracieux ), and Hong Kong in two races , the Hong Kong Cup and the QEII Cup , which Romantic Warrior has also won . In short , Forever Young ’ s trainer has won all the international races that Romantic Warrior has subsequently won . Forever Young ’ s path is even more exotic than those his trainer willingly takes . Bought as a yearling for about € 700,000 , he started his career in Japan at 2 with three consecutive victories , including a Group 1 ( Listed ), before going to Riyadh to contest the local Derby , which he won . He confirmed his class in the UAE Derby , in Dubai , five weeks later . He then went to the USA and lined up for the Kentucky Derby last May . Drawn 11 , his Japanese jockey didn ’ t have the best trip and ended up being bumped around by his rivals all the way to the line to finish third , beaten a nose twice ... The young samurai had entered a saloon with his sword , and the Colts had the last word . By shooting him in the back a little , though .
The habit of tough fights After a quiet summer , our globetrotter made a winning return in the Japan Dirt Classic ( Listed ), and once again finished third in the USA in the Breeders ’ Cup Classic ( Gr . 1 ), beaten more clearly than in the spring , notably by one of those who had already beaten him then , Sierra Leone . He concluded his season at home with another victory . This 4-year-old was therefore no kid when he joined Romantic Warrior at the start of the Saudi Cup , drawn 14 , all the way on the outside , for his comeback after a two-month break . It would become apparent 1,200 meters later that there were only these two horses in the race , in reality . With his wide draw , Ryusei Sakai , Forever Young ’ s jockey , attacked early . He crossed the track and was able to settle outside the leader , while James McDonald , on Romantic Warrior , didn ’ t dare
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