'There is nothing impossible in horseracing' - Commissioner King cements $9,000 bargain status

It was Commissioner King’s tussle in the Saudi Derby that drew the loudest reaction from the Riyadh crowd last Saturday as he sated the appetite of the Saudi Arabian industry to have a winner on its biggest night of racing.

A year after Emblem Road had become the first home-trained winner of the $20 million Saudi Cup, local spending has continued apace, with plenty of the names to have gone through the ring at the last few European horses in training sales among the line-ups in the Group races and handicaps on the undercard.

Commissioner King managed to be involved in perhaps the most engrossing spectacle of the whole meeting too, engaging in a full-scale duel with Bob Baffert’s Havnameltdown and wearing his rival down only late in the home straight to land a first prize of some £750,000.