WE’RE used to seeing horses trained by Bob Baffert make all the running and win a Derby, and that’s what happened in Riyadh last Saturday when Pinehurst landed the $1.5 million Saudi Derby.

Frenchman Flavien Prat timed it to perfection on the Twirling Candy colt, gamely holding off the Japanese-trained pair of Sekifu and Consigliere by half a length and three-parts of a length.

The locally trained Alnaader finished fourth, a place ahead of Godolphin’s Meydan listed race winner Sovereign Prince.

Pinehurst won the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity last September and finished fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, well behind his stable companion Corniche on that occasion.

Baffert, who would later saddle Country Grammer to finish second in the Saudi Cup. said: “It’s exciting to win after coming up short a couple of times over there. I hate when they show that 100m line on the screen because I’ve lost so much money in that last 100m at that track the past two years, but we got it done today. I think I carried him the last 100m. I think he will go to Dubai for the UAE Derby after this.”