MIKE de Kock will be travelling to Istanbul in Turkey on Thursday to saddle Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum’s five-year-old Musir (photo)  in the International Topkapi Trophy (Gr 2), to be contested over 1600m on turf at Velifiendi racecourse this coming Sunday, 4 September. Christophe Soumillon has the ride.

The Topkapi, with a purse of  EURO500,000, is the richest race at Turkey’s two-day International Festival and has attracted eight strong milers, including Andrew Balding’s runner Dream Eater, who finished runner-up in both 2009 and 2010 and whose supporters will be hoping it is third time lucky.

Musir has run once since finishing third in the BMW Champions Mile in Hong Kong on 25 April. He was beaten into third by Excellebration in the CGA Hungerford Stakes over 1400m at Newbury midway through August, a satisfactory preparation run for the Turkish race.

This is the ninth country Mike will be visiting to contest a race, his sixth country this year, and he said: “Jehan Malherbe and I will be travelling together and we’re looking forward to it. It’s a competitive race with a good purse and well worth taking part in. Musir has a chance.”

There is a possibility that the Turkish race meeting will be flighted live on Tellytrack on Sunday. An announcement will follow.

The website (link below) will carry more information in the lead-up to the race.

http://www.tjk.org/tjk_en/Default.aspx?hippodrome=3&l=2