bloodstock WBRR review
Front runners
W
leading the field
HEN GHAIYYATH – a record-breaking €1,000,000 Goffs November weanling – took the Autumn Stakes (G3) on the third of three juvenile starts, Godolphin must have felt confident that they had a star in the making. It’s no surprise that events confirmed that hope, but it’s unlikely that his connections thought that it would take more than two and a half years for that early promise to be truly realised. There was nothing wrong with the form that Ghaiyyath showed at three, but that form came on his sole appearance with victory in the Prix du Prince d’Orange (G3) by 3l over the useful Sacred Life. As a four-year-old in 2019 he was more active making four starts spread over eight months. He kicked off his season in April easing home a length and a half clear in the Prix Harcourt (G2) after opening up by more than 5l at halfway. Three weeks later in the Prix Ganay (G1), he was made to look one-paced as Waldgeist and Study Of Man pounced on him in the straight. Away for just over four months, he reemerged with a sensational performance. Trying 1m2f for the first time in the Grosser Preis von Baden (G1), he galloped home 14l clear of the subsequent Group 1 winner Donjah. He attempted similar front-running tactics in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1), but was found out by the very soft ground. Wintering in Dubai, Ghaiyyath opened his 2020 campaign running the opposition off their feet in the 1m2f Dubai Millennium Stakes (G3). Back in England
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Alan Porter reviews the World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, and finds that, despite the top two horses Ghaiyyaith and Authentic racing in different parts of the world, they were similar performers for the Coronation Cup (G1), Ghaiyyath’s cruising speed proved far too much for the opposition. Returned to 1m2f, Ghaiyyath had little trouble taking the Eclipse Stakes (G1) from a ring-rusty Enable. The race that put the seal on Ghaiyyath’s rating was the Juddmonte International Stakes (G1). Once again his cruising speed took the sting out of his rivals well before the finish, leaving him 3l clear of Magical, with Lord North, Kameko and Rose Of Kildare further back. He couldn’t reproduce that form in his final outing in the Irish Champion Stakes (G1), when harried throughout by Magical, who extracted revenge by three-quarters of a length. To place Ghaiyyath’s year into an historical context, he’s ranked as a very good horse just a little shy of the threshold to greatness.
His rating of 130 has been surpassed in the last decade by Frankel (136 and 140, the latter the highest figure of all-time), Arrogate (134, twice) and American Pharoah (134), and is equal with Cracksman and Winx (joint-leaders in 2018 although that doesn’t take into account Winx’s sex allowance), the mares Treve and Black Caviar (joint-leaders in 2013) and Just A Way. He is above the 128 of Crystal Ocean, Waldgeist and Enable. As indicated by his purchase price as a foal, Ghaiyyath is as well-bred a horse as one could imagine – he’s by one of the great sires of the era and out of a Classic-winning daughter of the other. He stands as the highest-rated of the 195 stakes winners, 44 Group or Grade 1 by Dubawi. Given the line’s predominance in North America, it’s interesting that the Europeanbased Dubawi holds a position as the world’s leading Mr. Prospector-line stallion. He descends from that horse through Seeking The Gold – who lacks a top commercial representative in North America – and the tragically short-lived Dubai Millennium. Ghaiyyath’s dam Nightime has the singular distinction of her victory in the 2006 Irish 1,000 Guineas (G1) being the first Classic score for a son or daughter of Galileo. She’s produced another real standout in the Fastnet Rock mare Zhukova, leading European older mare at intermediate distances on the classifications in 2016, and conqueror of colts in the Man O’ War Stakes (G1) in the US. It’s an extremely international family as the second dam, the Irish Listed winner Caumshinaun, is also grand-dam of Ondina, successful in a Listed race in Australia, and
