High-class global entries for Bahrain International Trophy

Promoted this year to Group One level, the 2026 running of the Bahrain International Trophy has attracted its highest calibre entry in the race’s history, featuring a host of top-flight winners among the 69 entries, including representatives from ten racing nations.

Established in 2019, the 2000m (ten-furlong) race is the most valuable in Bahrain and over the course of just seven runnings it has climbed the ladder to top-level status and become an elite international sporting event. 

With an increased prize fund of $1.5million, the 2026 Bahrain International Trophy takes place on Friday, November 13 at the Rashid Equestrian & Horseracing Club. The same day sees the inaugural running of the Gulf of Bahrain Cup, an open handicap run over 2800m (14 furlongs) with a prize fund of $400,000 for which there are 62 entries, with eight racing nations represented.

Ireland’s champion trainer Aidan O’Brien is bidding to break his own world record of 28 Group One winners in a calendar year. So far in 2026 he has trained 18 such winners, and this year he is hoping to win his first Bahrain International Trophy and add to his haul. The Master of Ballydoyle has five entries, headed by three-time Group One winner and last year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe runner-up Minnie Hauk. The four-year-old filly is joined by the 2025 dual Derby winner Lambourn and this year’s Prix du Jockey Club runner-up Hawk Mountain.

Royal Champion’s success in the 2025 Bahrain International Trophy was trainer Karl Burke’s first Stakes winner outside of Europe. The eight-year-old gelding gave his handler further international success when winning the Group One Neom Turf Cup in Riyadh in February and is joined in the entries for Bahrain’s first Group One by stable companions Zeus Olympios and Boiling Point, who, like Royal Champion, run in the colours of the late Sheikh Mohammed Obaid.

Trainer Ed Crisford is preparing to saddle his first runners in his own name and one of them could be a Group One contender in Sallaal, who recently moved to Crisford’s care from Roger Varian. Sallaal was last seen recording an emphatic win in a Group Three at Haydock Park in August and, were the son of Frankel to step up and take the Bahrain International Trophy, it would not only be a notable landmark for his young trainer, but also a poignant success following the recent passing of his owner, Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid al Maktoum. Also holding an entry in the same colours is top-level winner Almaqam, trained by Ed Walker.

No filly or mare has yet won the Bahrain showpiece, but, in addition to Minnie Hauk, among the entries for this year’s race are See The Fire, Jancis and Venetian Lace who all boast recent top-level form over 2000m (1m2f) having finished second, third and fourth respectively in the Grade One E.P. Taylor Stakes in Canada in September. 

Goliath has enjoyed Group race success in France, Germany and the UK and may seek to extend that to Bahrain, being one of two entries in the race for France’s champion trainer, Francis-Henri Graffard. France has a total of six entries, two of which are trained by Andre and Lavinia Fabre, including recent Group Two winner, Baroud. Andre Fabre has saddled runners in four of the last five runnings of the Bahrain International Trophy, including the third placed Magny Cours in 2021.

Wimbledon Hawkeye was purchased earlier this year by Victorious Forever with the Bahrain International Trophy in mind and the George Scott trained four-year-old posted a career best effort when narrowly beaten in the Group One Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown, in the process earning an automatic invitation to the Bahrain International Trophy. Also entered, and like Wimbledon Hawkeye also owned by Victorius Forever, is Bay City Roller, winner of the Group One Coronation Cup in June. 

The Bahrain Turf Club guarantee two slots in the field for domestically trained horses and the entries from Bahrain based trainers include last season’s Crown Prince’s Cup winner, Sovereign Spirit, and Hi Royal, who rounded off his 2025-26 campaign in Bahrain with a domestic Group One victory. 

The full list of entries for the 2026 Bahrain International Trophy can be viewed here. They include 14 entries from Japan, headed by Giovanni, fresh from a Group Three success at Hanshin in September, as well as horses trained in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and the UK. The UK contingent includes a potential Royal runner for HM The King and HM The Queen in Warrant Holder, trained by John and Thady Gosden. 

The new Gulf of Bahrain Cup has attracted 62 entries. The weights for the open handicap run over 2800m (1m6f) with a prize fund of $400,000 will be published on October 7. The entries include two Group One winners and several Stakes performers, including Al Qareem, Amiloc, Caballo De Mar and Dubai Future, along with the Aidan O’Brien-trained Pierre Bonnard and Queenstown. 

As well as the Aidan O’Brien-trained pair, there is a strong Irish contingent with trainers Joseph O’Brien, Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Henry de Bromhead and Johnny Murtagh all represented. Bolstering the challenge of the home team will be Tarriance, formerly trained by Andrew Balding for Juddmonte, but now in the care of Daniel and Claire Kubler for Al Adiyat Racing. The full list of entries for the Gulf of Bahrain Cup can be viewed here.

It is fitting that the upgrade to the Bahrain International Trophy to Group One status coincides with a key anniversary in the history of horseracing in Bahrain, as this coming season celebrates fifty years since the founding of the Rashid Equestrian & Horseracing Club, from which the Bahrain Turf Club itself was born. For more information on the upcoming season visit the Bahrain Turf Club website.