Sir Alex Ferguson won the £1 million Bahrain International Trophy with Spirit Dancer for the second year in succession on Friday when the Richard Fahey-trained seven-year-old ran down Lead Artist late on to win by a length and a half.
Once again the former Manchester United manager, who has a couple of chances at Cheltenham on Saturday with Protektorat and Il Ridoto in the Paddy Power Gold Cup, was on hand in Bahrain with joint owner Ged Mason to greet his victorious runner in the winners’ enclosure.
Last year Spirit Dancer went on to win an even more valuable race, the Neom Cup, in Riyadh in February and he has turned into something of a money-spinner having now earned £2 million, the vast majority of it in the Middle East.
It is a measure of the money on offer in these relatively new countries on the international racing circuit that Spirit Dancer has now banked considerably more than Ferguson’s first horse Rock of Gibraltar, who won 10 of his 13 starts including six Group Ones and two Classics. Spirit Dancer has yet to win a Group One.
However, he looked like a Group One horse in Friday’s Group Two and was always travelling well under Oisin Orr. Briefly it looked like Kieran Shoemark and Lead Artist might have got first run on him but he got there comfortably in the end to become the first horse in the short history of the Bahrain International Trophy to win it twice.
“He had about four lengths to make up on the leading horse and he got there,” said an ecstatic Ferguson afterwards. “It really is fantastic. I’m really proud of the horse and I’m proud of the jockey. He sat there motionless, he didn’t panic, it was a fantastic ride.”
