AS Cheltenham was rained upon, and winds battered Ireland on Friday, it was much more pleasant in the Kingdom of Bahrain for the seventh running of the 10-furlong, $1 million Group 2 Bahrain International Trophy.

Just eight went to post, seven challengers from Ireland, England, France lining up against the sole local representative.

The race produced a stirring finish, the Joseph O’Brien-trained Galen failing in just the last half-furlong to hold the late challenge of Karl Burke’s Royal Champion. Military Order was closest at the finish in third, while Pride Of Arras ensured a clean sweep for overseas starters.

With just his first runner in Bahrain, Burke racked up his 38th stakes winner of the year, and the 20th group win, and goes home with the $600,000 first prize, while winning rider James Doyle made amends for his second on Barney Roy a few years earlier.

Most people’s idea of the winner, following his third in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes, the Shamardal gelding Royal Champion is the top-rated horse to win the race. Organisers are pushing to have the race upgraded to Group 1 status.

There were no excuses for any of the runners, though some may have wished for a couple of furlongs more to strike a blow. Doyle always felt he had the winning of the race after the field turned into the straight, and immediately paid tribute to Clifford Lee, sidelined after a motorcycle accident, and whose injuries meant that Doyle was in the saddle.

If Doyle was confident, winning trainer Burke was less so. “I was not feeling too comfortable with two furlongs to race. I thought the second horse, Galen, was given an easy lead and travelling well, and two furlongs out that we were in trouble. We got there in the end, and this was a fine way for [Royal Champion] to finish the season.

“He is rising eight, and very experienced. He is in the Neom Turf Cup in Saudi Arabia in February, and I will speak with Sheikh Mohammed Obaid [owner and breeder] about going there. This is my first stakes winner outside Europe, though I was second in a Breeders’ Cup, and I am delighted to get that monkey off my back.”

Earlier on the card, the Irish champion jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle was in the winners’ circle after Midhaal won a race for Bahraini-bred horses, while the reigning local champion rider, Ebrahim Nader, took the six-furlong Beyon Cup on the Highfort Stud-bred Burdett, recording his fourth career win but first locally. The son of Inns Of Court won three times for Jack Channon before selling at the Tattersalls Autumn Sale last year for 47,000gns.

The Shadwell-bred Tawaareq, a son of Shamardal, took his tally of wins to nine with success for Victorious Forever, and trainer Fawzi Nass. Another son of Shamardal, he took the 11-furlong Bapco Energies Cup, and was a Tattersalls graduate, selling for 180,000gns after winning for Michael Stoute. The Yeomanstown Stud-bred Royal Scimitar, a son of Territories, won the race preceding the main feature.