Royal Champion under Clifford Lee

Classy Royal Champion to be Karl Burke's first runner in Bahrain

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Wed October 22, 2025 · 4d ago

Two of Europe’s leading trainers, Karl Burke and Francis Graffard. are targeting the Bahrain International Trophy next month.

Run over 10 furlongs, the Group 2 race on Friday November 14 has a prize fund of $1million and is next on the agenda for horses in the care of Burke and Graffard, both of whom have enjoyed fantastic seasons domestically.

With well in excess of 100 wins in the UK and domestic earnings of £3.5million in prize money, Burke is having another hugely successful campaign, and he is looking forward to saddling his first runner in the Kingdom of Bahrain with Royal Champion on course for the race.

Royal Champion brings some high-class European form having posted career-best efforts on his last two starts. In July the gelding won the Group 2 Sky Bet York Stakes, beating Almaqam, and in September he finished third in the Group 1 Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes - a performance that earned the seven-year-old an automatic invitation to the Bahrain International Trophy.

Owned by Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, Royal Champion has already gathered plenty of air miles having had a spell based in Australia when trained by Anthony and Sam Freedman. He returned to Europe last year, joining Burke’s increasingly powerful yard at the end of 2024.

Burke said: “Royal Champion came to us from Australia in late November having run three times down there and he has kept on improving all season. Indeed, his last race was as good a run as he has ever put in, finishing on the heels of Delacroix in the Irish Champion Stakes.

“He enjoys good ground, nice ground with no jar, and he is a horse who is probably at his best when fresh, as he showed with his last run. He has always worked well at home and is currently working as well as ever.”

Burke is well aware of the success Yorkshire-based trainers have had in the Bahrain International Trophy with three of the last four runnings won by horses based in the county. In 2022, David O’Meara’s popular grey Lord Glitters won the race and the last two renewals, following the event's elevation to Group 2 status, have been taken by Spirit Dancer in the colours of co-owner Sir Alex Ferguson and trained by Richard Fahey.

Burke added: “Royal Champion will be my first runner in Bahrain and I am really looking forward to visiting the Kingdom and seeing the facilities there. The bar has been set high, but we will be doing our best to uphold the fine tradition of Yorkshire trained horses in the race.”

Set to join Royal Champion in this year’s line-up is another horse bringing European Group 1 form to the table. Sibayan is the winner of his last three starts and represents French trainer Francis-Henri Graffard and owners, the Aga Khan Studs, connections fresh from success in two of the world’s most prestigious races following the victories of Daryz in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at ParisLongchamp and Calandagan in the Champion Stakes at Ascot.

Sibayan is a horse on an upward curve, having won two Group 2 races in France before going to win at Group 1 level last time out at Cologne in Germany.

Graffard said: “I couldn’t be happier with the progress Sibayan has made, he has really strengthened over the course of the year. I am looking forward to an international campaign with him over the winter, starting with Bahrain. Later in the year his target is the Hong Kong Vase so Bahrain is perfect because it is also a right-handed track and it has good prize money.”

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