Best bet for the Bahrain International Trophy from Sakhir in the Kingdom of Bahrain Friday

We have the second running of the 1m2f Bahrain International Trophy at the home of the Rashid Equestrian and Horseracing Club (REHC) Sakhir racecourse out in Bahrain on Friday. The race is due off at 1.00 our time so you can take a peek during your lunch break.

It is a wide-open looking affair with plenty in with chances, several of the runners will be known to you it being a truly international field. Loxley for Charlie Appleby is one I have backed before, I left him alone last time and he duly won the Listed heat at Kempton he ran in earlier this month! This would require a career best effort though. It being an international field naturally Deirdre is in the line-up – the mare has more Air Miles than Judith Chalmers! She’s good but she hasn’t won since the G.1 Nassau Stakes at Goodwood 2019. Port Lions has an impressive number of 1’s next to his name and beat Deirdre in the Mohamed Yousuf Naghi Motors Cup at Riyadh in Saudi Arabia last time. It’s hard to know what the gelding has been beating but he is three for three at the track and that win at Riyadh suggests he is no slouch. Global Giant is the 1m2f specialist in the field and has to be on the shortlist but I just can’t see him winning this. Sovereign takes a big step back down in trip having been seen in the British Champions Long Distance Cup last time. The Irish Derby winner has an obvious chance on official ratings and his trainer Aidan O'Brien did say last month when he was supplemented for the race “He is a very strong galloper who likes to go forward in his races and we think the Bahrain International Trophy will suit him.” If he gets a good position early, he would have every opportunity to then make this a real testing mile-and-a-quarter later on and if the four-year-old does he could leave them all trailing. I had to take the 8-1 with Power on Thursday with others as short as 5’s.  

Be lucky