Friday evening at the Sakhir racecourse in Bahrain, Spirit Dancertrained by Richard Fahey, became the first horse in the young history of the Bahrain International Trophy to win the event for the second time in a row. Edited by Oisin Orr, in more or less the same way as last year, Spirit Dancer came to pick up Lead Artistwho had taken the lead and who seemed capable of becoming the first 3-year-old to win in this group II. Califwho tripped while leaving the boxes, secured second place, whileAndromeda achieved a good end of the race to place fifth. But all eyes were obviously on owner Sir Alex Ferguson, who had bred Spirit Dancer and who declared: “He was so far into the course, I didn’t think he was going to do it! I don’t know where he got this victory, but it was fantastic. And Oisin was fantastic too. He didn’t panic and just waited for the right moment to throw his partner who responded well. After last year, this is my best moment at the races!” Sir Alex Ferguson is right to be proud of this son of Frankel et Queen’s Dreamwho still missed a large part of the season due to health concerns. The French also ran very well. Adrie de Vries, who was in the saddle of Califonly regretted: “He was unfortunate, since he tripped while taking out the boxes and thus we found ourselves far from the lead. But the winner was next to me and they went very fast. He makes a nice straight line, but I would have preferred a better start.” Christophe Soumillon, who discovered the track in Bahrain, said aboutAndromeda : “She runs well, unfortunately we took a few hits during the course. We know that she is more of a 1,600 meter mare, but she made a very good effort until the end, but I would have preferred to have had a clearer course.”
