Well-travelled Royal Champion favoured to claim Bahrain feature

Royal Champion, who contested two races during the 2024 Victorian spring carnival, will spearhead a European challenge on the $US1 million Bahrain International Trophy.

Trained in the UK by Karl Burke for Sheikh Mohammed Obaid al-Maktoum, the owner of the 2023 Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup winner Without A Fight, Royal Champion is a warm favourite to win the Group 2 event, Bahrain’s flagship race.

The best of Royal Champion’s two Melbourne appearances last year was a runner-up finish in the Crystal Mile at Moonee Valley on Cox Plate day, before running down the course in the Champions Stakes at Flemington behind Via Sistina.

He has been in commanding form since returning to the northern hemisphere, with a Group 2 York Stakes win in July and a minor placing in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes.

His effort at The Curragh earned an automatic entry into the Bahrain race.

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.

The Bahrain International Trophy will be run at 2.35am on Saturday (AEDT).