Japan's Forever Young hunted down Hong Kong racing royalty Romantic Warrior to win the the $20 million Saudi Cup, the world's richest race, in Riyadh on Saturday.
Romantic Warrior is the highest-earning racehorse of all time and arrived at the Saudi capital with almost $23 million in the bank.
The 7-year-old gelding looked destined to add to his prize pot when he went well clear around the home turn in his first-ever outing on dirt.
Under his regular New Zealand jockey James McDonald, Romantic Warrior set sail for home with dollar signs flashing.
But Forever Young, with Ryusei Sakai on board, was in hot pursuit.
The pair relentlessly closed the three length-gap and passed Romantic Warrior 50 meters from the post.
"Unbelievable," beamed winning trainer Yoshito Yahagi.
"Romantic Warrior is such a strong horse, we respected him, but our horse was better today.
"When Romantic Warrior passed us, I thought we could still come back."
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