Sajjhaa floors Igugu in Balanchine; Mushreq scales Al
Fahidi Fort
Igugu, who logged many traveling miles in her roundabout journey in
Even with such caveats, however, few observers would have projected the
According to Trakus, Igugu zipped her second quarter in :22 2/5 on Meydan’s
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Jockey Silvestre de Sousa had carved out a similar trip when Sajjhaa ran away
with the Group 2 Cape Verdi last out on January 24, and as the field swung for
home, the proverbial handwriting was on the wall. Igugu tried to dig in, but was
clearly a spent force down the stretch.
Sajjhaa delivered the coup de grace, only to find Godolphin’s unheralded
Prussian rallying into contention from the rear. It was Saeed bin Suroor versus
Mahmood al Zarooni, with bin Suroor’s Sajjhaa safely holding off al Zarooni’s
Prussian by a length.
Underscoring the effects of the blistering pace, Sajjhaa covered about nine
furlongs in 1:48.58, a record time on the Meydan turf.
“She has really thrived in the Dubai weather and has won both races in good
style,” bin Suroor said of Sajjhaa, who was conceding three pounds to her rivals
as the 129-pound highweight. “We will have to sit down and plan where to go with
her, but Super Saturday (March 9) would be a possibility.”
Godolphin Racing Manager Simon Crisford sounded more inclined to await
targets in Europe, and mentioned that North America would be on her agenda in
the latter portion of the year.
Prussian crossed the wire 3 1/4 lengths clear of Igugu, and the rest of the
field was well strung out. There was a seven-length gap back to Lily’s Angel in
fourth, trailed by Spellwork, Igugu’s pace rival Dark Orchid and the distanced
Colliding Worlds.
“They went at breakneck speed, and Igugu was fresh and pulling some to go
with them,” de Kock told his
website. “She got
involved in a duel of speed with Godolphin’s pacemaker, Dark Orchid, the
fractions were very fast.
“Igugu got tired in the stretch, but she stayed to the line and she wasn’t
disgraced at all considering the factors involved. The fact that Dark Orchid
faded right out — she was beaten almost 20 lengths, shows just how fast the
clip was.”
Igugu is still on course for the Group 1 Jebel Hatta at this same trip on
Super Saturday.
“She will improve many lengths in the next two weeks,” de Kock averred, “and
we hope to have her near her best on the day.”
Sajjhaa, now in the form of her life at the age of six, notched her fifth
career stakes victory and advanced her line to 15-6-4-0, $485,292. Initially
trained by Michael Jarvis, Sajjhaa romped in her career debut at three, earning
a tilt at the Group 1 Epsom Oaks. But the classic was a case of too much, too
soon, and she was eased when soundly beaten. Sajjhaa was stronger over the
second half of her 2010 campaign, capturing the Group 3 Premio Sergio Cumani and
Dick Hern Fillies’ Stakes and missing by a nose in the Rosemary Handicap.
Joining Godolphin for her four-year-old season in 2011, Sajjhaa was a fine
runner-up effort to Midday in the Group 2 Middleton at York and later returned
to the Knavesmire to take the Lyric Stakes. She raced only three times last
year. After resuming with another second in the Middleton, this time to Izzi
Top, Sajjhaa was not seen again until the Group 1 Premio Lydia Tesio in October,
where she wound up fourth on heavy going. She bounced back with a strong
performance in the November 10 Gillies at Doncaster, opening up a sizeable lead
before being caught late by Cubanita, and then headed off to Dubai.
Bred by Darley in Great Britain, Sajjhaa is by King’s Best and out of the
winning Darshaan mare Anaamil. Her second dam is Group 3 heroine Noushkey, the
runner-up in the 1999 Oaks. This is the family of Group 1 star Alkaased,
record-setting winner of the Grade 1 Japan Cup in 2005.
Sajjhaa was handing bin Suroor and de Sousa a quickfire double on the card.
One race earlier, de Sousa put on a front-running master class aboard Con Artist
in a handicap. The Godolphin runner was still traveling best of all into the
stretch, and kept finding plenty to defeat Plantagenet by 3 3/4 lengths.
“I was always happy on him and he quickened well at the top of the straight
to win nicely,” de Sousa said.
Con Artist negotiated about 1 3/16 miles on the Tapeta in 1:57 4/5 to break
through in his third try at the Carnival. In his latest venture at this same
track and trip on January 31, the son of Invincible Spirit was edged by his
up-and-coming stablemate Kassiano, to whom he was conceding four pounds. The
six-year-old Con Artist, a $117,266 two-year-old in training purchase at
Tattersalls in April 2009, has plied his trade in handicaps in England.
De Kock had pegged Sheikh Hamdan al Maktoum’s homebred Mushreq as the
Across the Rhine scampered to the early lead, but not at the same breakneck
The de Kock duo closed in on the weakening Across the Rhine at the head of
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Collaring Musir about a furlong out, Mushreq opened up by 3 1/4 lengths and
earned his first stakes score emphatically. The Australian-bred son of Flying
Spur sped the metric mile on turf in 1:36 3/5, a stakes record since the move to
Meydan in 2010.
“That was a second win on his fifth 2013 start for Mushreq who has been a
revelation and keeps improving,” said de Kock, who was winning the Al Fahidi
Fort for the fifth time.
“He’s made the kind of rapid improvement we last saw from Lizard’s Desire
here a few seasons ago before he ran his great race in the Dubai World Cup.
Mushreq’s getting better and stronger every day and he’s defied his penalties.
He’s just doing everything right, going the right way.
“After this top-class performance I feel like putting him on ice and going
straight into the (Group 1) Dubai Duty Free on World Cup night (March 30), but
we’ll have to discuss the way forward with Sheikh Hamdan and Angus Gold.”
Master of Hounds, the 129-pound highweight, boxed on for second by a short
head from the late-running Iguazu Falls. Musir’s lack of fitness was evident in
deep stretch, but he salvaged fourth in a prep that he can build upon. Next came
Don’t Call Me, Godolphin’s somewhat disappointing Mandaean, the slow-starting Le
Drakkar, Across the Rhine, Fiscal and Do It All.
Mushreq began his career in South Africa, where he missed by a neck in the
Group 1 Golden Horseshoe as a juvenile in 2011. He failed to cut the mustard as
a classic candidate, finishing fifth in the Group 1 Cape Derby and a tailed-off
last in the Group 1 SA Classic early last year.
After fading to 10th in his Dubai debut on Tapeta January 10, the
five-year-old gelding was a luckless fourth in a January 24 turf handicap.
Mushreq wheeled back the following week for a similar event and drove to a 1
1/2-length score. He raced for the third consecutive Thursday in the Group 2
Maktoum Challenge Round 2 on Tapeta February 7, winding up sixth to Hunter’s
Light. Mushreq appeared to prefer reverting to turf here, and had no problem in
cutting back to a metric mile for the first time since November 2011.
Mushreq is out of the stakes-placed Jeune mare Alharir, making him a
half-brother to Macau stakes winner Jazza Bell. He hails from the family of
Group 1 stars Rewaaya, Forensics and Snippets, also a noted sire.
Await the Dawn duly obliged, making short work of an about 1 1/4-mile turf
“Await the Dawn needed his first run badly, and we thought he had a lot more
Once touted as a potential Breeders’ Cup Classic hopeful for Aidan O’Brien,
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Subsequently hospitalized with a serious illness, Await the Dawn almost died.
He recovered in time to attempt the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Turf, where he was simply
used as a pacemaker for St Nicholas Abbey and beat a retreat. He made only one
more appearance for O’Brien in last year’s Dubai Duty Free, again winging it
early before giving way and trudging home a long-way last, as a shadow of
himself.
“Await the Dawn was what we call a ‘project’ horse,” de Kock told his
website. “He’s suffered a multitude of problems and we got him from Coolmore as
a challenge, a long-term project. I’m happy to say everything has come together
for him, it was a massive team effort and I’m very proud.
“Await the Dawn spent two months with Fozzy Stack in Ireland. He ran around
the paddock with an old hack, and it did him the world of good.”
The well-bred Await the Dawn is a half-brother to Group 1-placed stakes
winner Putney Bridge and to Card Shop, the dam of current Group 3 victress Ollie
Olga. Await the Dawn was produced by the multiple stakes-placed Dixieland Band
mare Valentine Band, who comes from the family of champions Commander in Chief,
Warning and Rainbow Quest.
“We have always liked him, and he has done well to win from that wide draw,”
Unbridled Ocean, who was making his first start on a surface other than turf,
A half-brother to multiple stakes scorer West Ocean, Unbridled Ocean is out
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Trainer Seth Benzel and jockey Khamzat Ulubaev combined for their first U.A.E.
winner courtesy of Dux Scholar in the nightcap, a turf sprint handicap.
Appreciating shortening up to about five furlongs for the first time in his
career, the Ramzan Kadyrov colorbearer unleashed a withering late run under his
top weight of 132 pounds. Dux Scholar blitzed in :57 3/5 and had 1 1/4 lengths
to spare over Russian Soul, with Medicean Man another neck away in third and
longtime leader Bear Behind in fourth.
The winner of the 1 1/4-mile Steventon Stakes at Newbury for breeder Prince
Khalid Abdulla, Dux Scholar scored in a non-black-type event in Slovakia last
July. The five-year-old son of Oasis Dream has placed in 10 stakes, including
last year’s Group 2 Zabeel Mile over the Meydan turf, the Group 2
Oettingen-Rennen and the Group 2 Prix Daniel Wildenstein, also at a mile. Dux
Scholar was transferred to Benzel ahead of the Carnival, and in his
reappearance, finished an encouraging second to Time Prisoner in an about
seven-furlong turf handicap on January 31.
Having possibly reinvented himself as a turf sprinter, Dux Scholar will set
his sights on the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint at this minimum trip on March 30.
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