News - PRIDE OF DUBAI (AUS)
Coolmore have announced their 2024 roster with 13 outstanding stallions and while perennial favourite Fastnet Rock has earned a well deserved retirement and boom young gun Justify (USA) will remain in Kentucky, there is still a wealth of talent and diversity on offer for Australian breeders seeking to produce their next champion with not one but two Golden Slipper winners in the mix.
The Grahame Begg stable was in hot form on Saturday winning the Group I ATC All Aged Stakes at Randwick with high class mare Magic Time and also the $200,000 Listed Hareeba Stakes (1200m) at Mornington with talented Pride of Dubai three year-old Maharba.
Pride Of Jenni (pictured) is raced by Cape Schanck Stud’s Tony and Lynn Ottobre and their family, who purchased her for $100,000 at the Classic Yearling Sale, where she was offered by Segenhoe Stud.
Going into the $5million Group I ATC Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) at Randwick on Saturday there was no clear front runner for 2024 Australian Horse of the Year honours with so many wonderful horses doing amazing things in the current racing season, but coming out of the race there is only one candidate and it’s Pride of Dubai’s exceptional daughter Pride of Jenni.
This time last year Pride of Dubai gelding Dubai Honour (IRE) was in Sydney getting ready to win the $5million Group I ATC Queen Elizabeth Stakes in which he defeated Anamoe and 12 months on he’s back in the UK and kicked off his 2024 season with a powerful win in the Listed Magnolia Stakes (1m2f) overnight at Kempton.
There was only one stakes race in Australia on Good Friday and it produced a new stakes-winner for Pride of Dubai when Willie Pike steered Buckets Ridge to an impressive win in the Listed WATC Melvista Stakes (2200m) at Ascot.
Exciting mare Pride of Jenni has dazzled racegoers with her free running style of racing that has her rivals off the bit turning for home, but can she stretch that speed to the 2000m of the $3million Group I VRC Australian Cup at Flemington on Saturday.
Breednet is the only place where you can see distance sire tables that highlight the merits of stallions according to the distance aptitude of their progeny which pits apples against apples rather than apples against oranges.
The MRC All Star Mile (1600m) might not carry Black Type, but with $3.75million in prizemoney it was the richest race run in Australia on Saturday and Pride of Dubai mare Pride of Jenni was in scintillating form to outgun the favourite Mr Brightside, who was looking to repeat his victory in the race last year.
Waikato hoop Vinnie Colgan will trek down to Otaki on Saturday to partner exciting four-year-old Desert Lightning in the Gr.1 Trackside Otaki-Maori WFA Classic (1600m), and he is hoping his charge can live up to his favourite’s tag.
Desert Lightning has spent the majority of his career flying under the radar, but there was no denying his place at the top of the tree in the inaugural $1 million Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic (1600m) at Ellerslie on Saturday when he defeated the hot favourite Legarto earning an invitation to the $3.6million All Star Mile in Victoria in March.
The $125,000 Listed Miss Andretti Stakes (1200m) at Pinjarra on Wednesday produced a new stakes-winner for Pride of Dubai with victory going to progressive mare Wild Belle.
Quality Pride of Dubai four-year-old Desert Lightning stood tall and claimed his first Group I victory in Saturday’s TAB Classic (1600m) at Trentham writing another chapter of success for Australia’s revered female family of legendary sire Redoute’s Choice.
Peter and Dawn Williams have fond memories in past editions of the Gr.1 Captain Cook Stakes (1600m), and the Byerley Park trainers are hoping another crown lies ahead with Desert Lightning on Saturday.
The vast prizemoney on offer during spring the spring carnivals in Sydney and Melbourne can skew the leading sire lists by earnings, so we’ve taken a look at the leading sires by stakes-winners although even that measure of success can now be taken with a grain of salt given the lack of Black Type on a couple of the best races in the country, while some traditional Black Type races have been
You don’t have to walk too far to find this year’s spring sire standout, aside from the obvious in legendary I Am Invincible and his heir apparent Zoustar, the progeny of Pride Of Dubai have excelled throughout the carnival.
The incredible run of success enjoyed by Pride Of Dubai shows no signs of slowing down, with his daughter Hypothetical joining the party with a dominant performance in the Neds Village Stakes at Caulfield.
The past week has been a fascinating one for those interested in pedigree with the best stallions rising to the top at the best racing carnival in Australia and we saw a world first involving two champion sires, not to mention the emergence of a couple of colts destined for stud careers.
Pride of Jenni did something last week that hasn’t been achieved in nearly a quarter of a century – record a Group One double during Melbourne Cup Week – and breeders Brent and Cherry Taylor of Trelawney Stud couldn’t be prouder.
Pride of Dubai mare Pride of Jenni scaled the mountain at Flemington last Saturday when snaring her first Group I win in the $1million VRC Empire Rose Stakes and she wasted no time getting another when backing up to beat the best WFA milers to win the $3million VRC Champions Mile (1600m).