The 2024 Saudi Cup: White Abarrio’s Pace Battle With Derma Sotogake, Saudi Crown, And National Treasure

This year, the eye-watering $20 million in play at the 2024 Saudi Cup will be hotly contested by at least three strong front-loving runners. The gargantuan purse has a way of drawing all hands on deck, and this year, a strong U.S.-based contingent have made the strenuous hop to King Abdulaziz Racecourse, chief among them the 2023 the front-running Preakness winner National Treasure and the front-running 2023 Breeders' Cup Classic winner White Abarrio.

Top favorite (3-1) White Abarrio drew the rail at midweek's glitzy post position draw event staged by the hosting Saudi Jockey Club at King Abdulaziz in Riyadh, but that stall did absolutely nothing to dent White Abarrio's connections' confidence in their grey powerhouse's ability to take down the field.

As we know, these are all four-year-olds and up vying for their slice of the $20 million. Put another way, it's not just the 6-plus multiple of purse size that differs the Saudi Cup from the Kentucky Derby. Every athlete in this weekend's feature at King Abdulaziz is a grown-up.

White Abarrio's storied trainer Richard Dutrow, Jr., fresh off a solid decade's grind of a ban from his sport, sounded as excited as a kid in a candy store about his Breeders' champion in Riyadh last night. "He had the two-hole last time, this can't be a problem," the trainer said. "We've got the best rider, one of the best horses. It'll be fun. We'll be ready. He really takes my breath away every time I see him.”

But, before we get into the intricacies of White Abarrio's Preakness champion rival and what the Baffert camp has to say about National Treasure — who drew the 7-hole last night, smack in the middle of the gate — herewith, a view of the field and the odds.

At Abdulaziz, of course, there is no such thing as a morning line. Our odds are sourced below. One other note about racing in the kingdom: Saddle cloth numbers are given alphabetically according to the horse's name and do not necessarily reflect the post position of that athlete, though they can, accidentally, agree with the post position number. Favoring classical tradition, we list the athletes from the rail out, by post position.

Post Position, Horse, Odds

1-White Abarrio, 3-1

2-Isolate, 20-1

3-Lemon Pop, 5-1

4-Senor Buscador, 16-1

5-Saudi Crown, 14-1

6-Crown Pride, 33-1

7-National Treasure, Bob Baffert, 8-1

8-Hoist The Gold, 40-1

9-Defunded, 25-1

10-Power In Numbers, 50-1

11-Ushba Tesoro, 8-1

12-Meisho Hario, 40-1

13-Derma Sotogake, 6-1

14-Carmel Road, 25-1

(Source: Racing Post)

While White Abarrio did undeniably prove himself in the Breeders' Cup Classic and does have Irad Ortiz in the irons — the winner of five of the last six annual best-jock Eclipse Awards — National Treasure's trainer, Bob Baffert has won a record seven Preaknesses, a furlong, or 220 yards, longer than the Saudi Cup's one-and-an-eighth miles. At King Abdulaziz, a race of that distance can be fashioned with one turn, and that will favor speed. Put another way, though favored, White Abarrio is going to meet his match out there, and the justly-famous Ortiz will have is work cut out for him fending off National Treasure, Senor Buscador, and Saudi Crown while conserving enough energy to take on the Japanese threat, Derma Sotogake.