James Doyle booked for Bahrain 13-8 favourite as Karl Burke and leading British trainers descend for $1m International Trophy

James Doyle has been booked to partner leading British contender Royal Champion in Friday’s Bahrain International Trophy, who has been installed as 13-8 favourite by Paddy Power in an eight-runner line-up.

 Karl Burke's classy gelding is to head up a significant European challenge for the gulf state's flagship $1 million contest.

The Group 2 over a mile and a quarter has been won by Burke’s North Yorkshire neighbours in three of the past four years with Richard Fahey (Spirit Dancer in 2023 and 2024) and David O’Meara (Lord Glitters in 2021) landing the spoils.

Royal Champion is set to figure among a nine-strong field along with John and Thady Gosden's Lion’s Pride, the Richard Hannon-trained Persica and Ralph Beckett's supplemented Pride Of Arras.

Burke has had a phenomenal year; his 129 winners in Britain is a career-best and he has earned nearly £3.7 million in prize-money, just narrowly behind last year's £4m haul, with Fallen Angel and Venetian Sun picking up Group 1 prizes along the way.

A runner in Bahrain represents new ground for the Middleham trainer and Royal Champion brings some high-class European form to the race having posted career-best efforts on his last two starts. 

After landing the Group 2 York Stakes in July, he finished third in the Group 1 Bahrain-sponsored Irish Champion Stakes, which earned the seven-year-old an automatic invitation to the Bahrain International Trophy. 

Karl Burke: set to have his first runner in BahrainCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Burke said: "James Doyle will ride Royal Champion on Friday. He rides a bit for the owner Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum and finished second on him in the Canadian International a couple of years ago.

“I’m due to fly out there on Monday but watched a video of him cantering out there this morning and he looks in super shape. The plan is to give him a pipe-opener on Tuesday morning which should set him up nicely.”

Bahrain International (4.40 Friday)

Paddy Power: 13-8 Royal Champion, 5 Bright Picture, Pride Of Arras, 7 Galen, Lions Pride, 8 Military Order, 10 Calif, 16 Persica

What is the Bahrain International Trophy and who else is trying to win it?

First run in 2019, the Bahrain International Trophy has developed into another popular contest for European trainers to target. 

French trainer Jerome Reynier won the first running with Royal Julius from John Gosden's Turgenev when it was unveiled as a conditions race, but it was upgraded to Group 2 status in 2023 and now offers a $600,000 first prize.

British-based trainers have taken the last four runnings, with only the Fawzi Naas-trained Simsir breaking the European stranglehold.

Dante and Great Voltigeur winner Pride Of Arras is Bahrain-boundCredit: Grossick Racing

Dante and Great Voltigeur winner Pride Of Arras has been supplemented for $20,000 and provides a bit more X factor this year. He has not been seen since the second of those two wins at York in August, but Beckett is confident fitness will not be an issue as he prepares to saddle his first runner in the race.

Beckett said: “I think the race is a good spot for him; a mile and a quarter on good ground will suit. He’s a gelding and he’ll be staying in training, so the aim is to enjoy racing him and as such we are really looking forward to it.”

In addition to Lion's Pride and Persica, Charlie Appleby is set to field Military Order, while there will be Irish and French representation in the shape of Joseph O’Brien’s Galen and the Andre Fabre-trained Bright Picture.

Calif provides the local opposition.

The ones who got away

Despite attracting a strong line-up, there is a sense of what could have been. 

Last year's Irish Champion Stakes hero Economics had been entered, with his owner Sheikh Isa Salman Al Khalifa the chairman of Bahrain's governing body. However, he was retired last month after finishing down the field in the Champion Stakes at Ascot.

Isle Of Jura, who won the Bahrain Triple Crown in the winter of 2023-24 before returning to Britain for a Royal Ascot win, was another standout name being targeted at the Bahrain International Trophy, but he was also retired last month after suffering another setback.

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