Second Chances: When A Veteran Refuses To Stop Winning

Under The Bahrain Lights, Nothing Felt Certain

Two furlongs out, with Galen flying clear under the Bahrain floodlights and his own horse still waiting to be asked, Karl Burke thought he had lost. Joseph O'Brien's raider had stolen a march on the field, and the Middleham trainer braced for disappointment. "I thought two furlongs out we were beat, as Joseph's horse got an easy lead and was travelling strongly two and a half furlongs out," he would admit afterwards.

Royal Champion, gathering quietly in midfield under James Doyle, had other ideas. Coiling through the final bend and angling into clear ground, he unleashed a withering late surge, running down Galen in the dying strides to win by ¾ of a length. "The leader had an easy lead, and we had to get after him," Doyle says. "But Royal Champion is a very generous horse and a furlong and a half out I knew I was going to get there."

Claiming the Gr.2 Bahrain International Trophy on November 14 last year, Burke secured his first stakes victory anywhere outside Europe. For North Yorkshire, it was the fourth win in five years at the race, a collective dominance that few in the sport had predicted.

A Horse Of Distinguished Blood

Bred and owned throughout his career by the late Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, Royal Champion carries bloodlines requiring no introduction. A son of the late Shamardal, he is out of Emirates Queen, a Street Cry mare who won the Lancashire Oaks at three. Her dam Zomaradah, a Gr.1 Oaks d'Italia winner, is the most celebrated matriarch in Sheikh Mohammed Obaid's remarkable family of mares and the dam of Dubawi by Dubai Millennium, arguably the most influential European sire of the modern era.

A homebred never offered at public auction, he is also a half-brother to Outbox, the Gr.2 Jockey Club Stakes winner by Frankel. Burke is unambiguous about the honour. "To have them in the yard was a huge feather in our cap. His colours have been renowned around the world long before we ever met him."

The Long Way Round

That the horse ever arrived at Spigot Lodge was the product of a journey that left many questioning whether his best days were behind him. Beginning his career with Roger Varian in Newmarket, Royal Champion won four races including the Wolferton Stakes (Listed) at Royal Ascot and finished second in the Gr.1 Canadian International Stakes at Woodbine. Departing for Australia at the end of 2023, the experiment with Anthony and Sam Freedman yielded no wins and he returned to Britain written off by many, the spark his connections had sought apparently extinguished.

Burke recalls those early weeks with characteristic directness. "He was a Royal Ascot winner and claimed some nice races for Roger. Before he went to Australia, he was also second in a Group One in Canada. Sheikh Mohammed Obaid asked me if I would take him when he brought him back, and obviously we were delighted to get such a high-profile horse into the yard. His work when he came back from Australia showed us that he had a lot of ability."

A Season That Kept Building

That ability translated into results immediately. The Gr.3 Winter Derby at Southwell in February provided the opening statement, Royal Champion claiming his first Group-level success under Burke's care. "He wasn't with us very long when we won our first race with him on the all-weather," the trainer says, "and then he won the Winter Derby, and he just kept improving."

The decisive domestic moment arrived at York in July, where Royal Champion destroyed a Group Two field in the York Stakes under Clifford Lee. "I didn't really expect that," Burke says. "I thought that was a massive step up on what he's done."

Lee was equally effusive. "He was very good today. I looked across going to the two-pole and I felt like I had all the field off the bridle." A third in the Gr.1 Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown confirmed Royal Champion was no longer a horse people were writing off, but one the sport was watching with fresh eyes.

Yorkshire Strikes In The Gulf

With Lee sidelined through serious injury, Doyle stepped in for Bahrain, flying into the kingdom only hours before the race having ridden a winner in Qatar the previous day. Settling Royal Champion with characteristic composure, he tracked the leaders as Galen dictated a smooth gallop, Dylan Browne McMonagle appearing to have the situation in hand. Burke steeled himself from the stands. Then Royal Champion delivered.

Overcoming Galen by ¾ of a length, with Godolphin's Military Order a further ½ length back in third under William Buick, the 7YO had done what so many had stopped expecting. Doyle dedicated the win to his absent colleague and Burke called it what it was. "It was a landmark victory for me and my career."

Turning to the broader circuit, Burke spoke with evident admiration. "I think the whole Gulf racing circuit is great, that the four major countries of Dubai, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi are working together to make it a proper racing season where you can sort of intermingle between countries. When they get to that position, and horses can travel very easily from country to country, and it will just get stronger and stronger."

The Story Refuses To End

Less than seven weeks after the Bahrain triumph, Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum passed away on December 29, 2025. His yellow silks with black spots had carried the 1998 Epsom Derby winner High-Rise, King George and Juddmonte International victor Postponed, and a constellation of Group One winners across three decades.

"It was a shock," Burke says. "I owe him a lot. He gave me a lot of responsibility to train all those good horses for him, and he was a very good man." The Bahrain victory had given Sheikh Mohammed Obaid one final great moment in racing. "I know he was delighted, although he wasn't there. It made it all more meaningful, obviously, as it was his last big winner before he sadly passed."

Royal Champion pressed on into 2026. At the Saudi Cup meeting in February, now an 8YO, he claimed the Gr.1 Neom Turf Cup at King Abdulaziz Racecourse under Oisin Murphy, sweeping 4¾ lengths clear of Facteur Cheval to earn US$1,800,000 from a US$3,000,000 purse and taking lifetime earnings past US$3,100,000. Running now in the name of the Executors of the late Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, he carries a particular weight of meaning with every stride.

Burke mapped out an ambitious programme. "My plan would be to send Royal Champion back to Bahrain to defend his crown, but in the meantime, he has a date in Hong Kong against Romantic Warrior, I think, at the end of April. I imagine he would probably skip Royal Ascot, and then we'll aim him through the summer and maybe go back to Canada with him. And then to Bahrain, and maybe into Dubai next winter. He's a horse who travels very well."

A horse repatriated from Australia and dismissed as a spent force; Royal Champion has instead written the most compelling chapter of a career that refuses to end. Burke rebuilt him patiently, the way Middleham trainers have always built horses, and in doing so added his name to a North Yorkshire roll of honour the Bahrain International Trophy has come to know rather well.

Yorkshire grit, it turns out, is not merely a philosophy for trainers. Sometimes, it belongs entirely to the horse.