5 April 2020
Photo scoopdyga.com
Sunday, April 6, 2019, ParisLongchamp. - Winner last September of the Prix Prince d'Orange (Gr3) on this same course and distance at 3, Ghaiyyath (Dubawi) could have followed on with a tilt at the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Gr1). His connections, however, felt it was more appropriate to let him rest for a big campaign at 4. This campaign, therefore, began where it was planned, Sunday in the Prix d'Harcourt (Gr2), as the Parisian racecourse was reopening its doors. ParisLongchamp had been shut down on October 18 to leave some extra time to the turf to grow and be in peak condition for a new season.
Ghaiyyath didn't disappoint those who backed him as he outrageously dominated his rivals without seeming to break a sweat. He broke away at the start of the final straight and went on to pass the post with one and a half length to spare over another Godolphin horse, Soleil Marin (Kendargent), but only because his rider William Buick stopped riding him in the last hundred yards, freewheeling to the finish.
Soleil Marin finished well, too, three and a half lengths ahead of Intellogent (Intello), third for his comeback and a test over 2,000m, that is 10 furlongs.
The Prix Ganay (Gr1), scheduled for April 28 at ParisLongchamp, seems to be a natural goal for Ghaiyyath.
Bred by Springbank Way Stud in Ireland, Ghaiyyath was bought for €1.1m at Goffs as a weanling, and his full sister was sold for £ 700,000 at the same age in November 2018 at Tattersalls. Their dam Nightime (Galileo) won the Irish Thousand Guineas (Gr1) and she has already given Zhukova (Fastnet Rock), winner of the Man O'War Stakes (Gr1) in the United States, and sold for £3.7m to… Godolphin!
Since then…
It has been a bit of a roller coaster ride for Ghaiyyath after that. He finished only third in the Prix Ganay (Gr1), won three weeks later by nothing less than Waldgeist, future Arc winner. He did not race until September then and, once again for his comeback, he won easily the Grosser Preis von Baden (Gr1) over 2,400 meters in Baden-Baden, fourteen lengths ahead of his rivals. Tenth in the Arc then, he has just won for his return in a Group 3 run over 10 furlongs at Meydan, his stable's home turf ...
His full sister was initially sold £ 700,000 as a weanling, made € 1.2 million as a yearling and was sold to Godolphin, who gradually acquired almost all of this bloodline from the Irish trained Dermot Weld's family.