Horseracing Returns to Taif This Weekend
Image: King Khalid Racecourse. Credit: Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia / Ibrahim Almuzini
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New 10-week summer season is launched
Thursday July 23, 2026 – King Khalid Racecourse becomes the centre of attention for Saudi Arabia’s horseracing fraternity this Friday as the new 10-week summer season gets underway in Taif.
Two weekly meetings will be held every Friday and Saturday until the end of September when the season climaxes on the final Saturday of the month with the National Cup Raceday.
Highlights over the period include the SAR450,000 National Day Cup on September 26 and the newly-upgraded Group 3 Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Cup the day before, staged alongside with the various divisions of the Taif Cup. Other notable meetings are the Sprint Championships on September 18 and the Taif Derby and Arabian Derby on August 22.
This weekend will see 15 runners go to post in Saturday’s feature Taif Flower Festival Cup prep for three-year-olds over 1600m, with one to watch being the Sheikh Abdullah Homoud Almalek Alsabah-owned, Abdullah Alsidrani-trained and Muhammad Aldaham-ridden Muqtahem (IRE) in race eight.
The five-year-old was a massive improver last season winning five on the bounce and placed in the Group 2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint on Saudi Cup night finishing third having been runner-up 12 months earlier.
He faces 15 rivals in the 1200m Open worth SAR 120,000 including his reliable stablemate Transferred (IRE), who was eighth in the Dirt Sprint, with Alsidrani also responsible for the Tariq Almansour-ridden Malyan (GB).
The trainer-owner combination also team up with top-rated Dance Desire (GB) in the SAR120,000 Um Alqura Cup Prep over 1200m, with her main danger in the fillies and mares’ event being the White Stable of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz & Sons, Kondra (FR) under
Abdullah Alfairouz.
Further Purebred Arabian Saudi Cup night form is on display in race three as Group 1 Al Mneefah Cup ninth Jade De Faust makes her return against 14 others in an Arabian Mares’ Open over 1200m.
Several warm-up events are scheduled to take place on Friday with the Red Stable of Prince Faisal bin Khaled bin Abdulaziz fielding three runners in the SAR120,000 JCSA Almaseef Cup Prep, while they also have a trio in the Shubra Cup Prep Open including top-rated Harbi (KSA).
The owner-trainer-jockey combination of Alsabah, Alsidrani and Aldaham also have an excellent chance of success on Friday with Garamy (IRE) in the Fillies’ Open with the four-year-old last seen down the field in the Tuwaiq Cup having been second previously to the aforementioned Dance Desire in the domestic Group 3 Japan’s Cup in January.
The JCSA has also announced the adoption of a new mechanism for calculating points in the Owners, Trainers, Jockeys and Horses Championship for the new season which will be determined through a calculation system based on the classification of races and the quality of performance.
The calculation of points depends on the number of wins, with higher points going to the winning owners in high-ranking and major races.
“The implementation of this mechanism is in the interest of Saudi horseracing and contributes to raising the level of competitiveness, which is reflected in the quality of the local horse population and enhances the concept of continuous competition throughout the season,” said His Highness Prince Salman bin Abdullah Al Saud, CEO of the JCSA.