From the desert of New Mexico to the desert of the Middle East, Senor Buscador broke through to the big time at just the right time to win the $20 million Saudi Cup over a world-class field Feb. 24 at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh.

Senor Buscador, the 6-year-old son of Mineshaft rallied from far back in the Saudi Cup field as the early pace collapsed. Under a confident ride by Junior Alvarado, he passed most of the field in the final 300 meters of the 1,800-meter race (about 1 1/8 miles) over the Saudi dirt track.

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At the end, Senor Buscador not only edged Japanese star Ushba Tesoro by a head for the victory but, in the process, avenged losses in in his last two races to White Abarrio, National Treasure, Derma Sotogake, and Hoist the Gold.

Asked if he was confident going into the race, trainer Todd Fincher, a long-time New Mexican, said, "No. Something bad always happens to him. He had 11 horses to weave in and out of. We knew he was going to run good. We just had to hope he'd get through."

Get through he did. But then, Alvarado said, his job wasn't done.

"He was unbelievable," the jockey exulted. "That horse that finished second passed us at the sixteenth pole. I was saying, 'C'mon boy. C'mon boy. Keep going here.' He kept going right down to the wire."

Bred by Joe Peacock and his son, Joe Peacock Jr., Senor Buscador is out of their mare Rose's Desert, by Desert God. He started his career in Louisiana and briefly was on the Triple Crown trail in 2021 -- an experiment that ended after a fifth-place finish in the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds.

He then traveled the country, contesting stakes races from Arkansas to California and back to New York, with mixed success. There was even as stop in Fincher's old stomping grounds in the Land of Enchantment, where he won the Curribot Handicap at Sunland Park March 5, 2023.

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"We always knew he'd put it together," said the younger Peacock. We didn't know it would be for the Saudi Cup."

Becoming emotional at the post-race news conference, he added, "My (late) father and I started in racing about 55 years ago. This is the last horse my dad and I bred together."

In his three previous races, Senor Buscador had finished seventh in the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic behind White Abarrio and Derma Sotogake among others, second in the Grade 2  Cigar Mile Handicap behind Hoist the Gold, and second in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational presented by Baccarat behind National Treasure. All of those rivals were behind him at the finish of the Saudi Cup.

White Abarrio finished 10th -- a major disappointment for the Breeders' Cup and Pegasus winner. Derma Sotogake was fourth. National Treasure was third in another disappointment for trainer Bob Baffert, whose Saudi Cup horses had finished second the three previous years. Cigar Mile winner Hoist the Gold was last of 14 home in the Saudi Cup.

It was the fifth running of the Saudi Cup, which distributes half of its $20 million purse to the winning connections.