This season celebrates 50 years of the Rashid Equestrian & Horseracing Club and it should be one of the most exciting seasons yet.
The club has just announced that the Bahrain International Trophy, which only launched in 2019, has now been granted Group 1 status.
This has been helped by last year’s winner Royal Champion, trained by Karl Burke, going on to win the Neom Turf Cup (Gr1) in Riyadh.
To reflect this important change the club has increased the prize money for their feature race to $1.5 million. This year the Bahrain International Trophy (Gr1) will be run over 2000 metres on Friday, November 13.
On the same card the club has also announced an exciting new international race.
The Bahrain Long Distance Cup will be an open handicap over 2800m.
This new race will have $400,000 in prize money and international runners will fly in with the runners for the feature race.
This day is a prelude to the well-established Turf Series which starts on December 18 and runs until March 4.
For the 2026/27 season, the Bahrain Turf Series will increase to 14 races with the introduction of a mile division alongside the existing sprint and middle-distance races.
The season, which kicks off on October 30, will also have a strong programme of Premier Races, most notably the Crown Prince’s Cup on January 29 and the King’s Cup on March 5 – both of which have International Group 3 status.
It is planned that a large shipment of international runners will arrive in December to run in these valuable races over the winter and to bring competitive racing to the kingdom.
Tied into the racing programme is Bahrain Turf Club’s sponsorship of races at the Newmarket July Festival and at Leopardstown where their feature race is the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes (Gr.1).
Bahrain’s importance in the world of horseracing grows at great speed and their enhanced programme is attracting the eyes of the world’s top horsemen.
Adrian Beaumont,
International Racing Bureau
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