Darley’s outstanding stallion Dubawi proved the dominant force at this past weekend’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
Dubawi (Dubai Millennium – Zomaradah)
The son of Dubai Millennium supplied three winners over the two days, with his son Modern Games scoring a controversial win in Friday’s Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. Dubawi also produced Juvenile Turf also ran, Dubawi Legend.
Watch the race replay here:
Another of his sons, Space Blues, landed Saturday’s Gr1 FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile presented by Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, and yet another son, Yibir, captured the G1 Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf on the same day.
Watch the race replay here:
Dubawi sons Albahr and Master Of The Seas were late scratchings from the Juvenile Turf and Mile respectively.
Dubawi has now been responsible for 48 Gr1 winners, with this tally also including another Breeders’ Cup winner in the form of Wuheida (Filly & Mare Turf). Yibir’s triple Gr1 winning own sister, Wild Illusion, ran second to Sistercharlie in the 2018 Gr1 Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf.
The triple Gr1 winner has enjoyed another stellar year with his near 40 black type winners headed by the aforementioned Breeders’ Cup winners, as well as Gr1 Summer Stakes hero, Albahr, Gr1 Dubai Turf winner, Lord North, and Gr1 Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes winner, Creative Force.
Dubawi also made headlines as a broodmare sire in 2021, with his Gr3 Prix De La Grotte winning daughter, Anna, responsible for this year’s Gr1 Cazoo Derby/G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Qipco Stakes victor, Adayar (Frankel).
Adayaar wins the Cazoo Derby
The increasingly influential Dubawi also scored as a sire of sires this year, through the likes of Night Of Thunder, Zarak, and New Bay.
Night Of Thunder, one of two sons of Dubawi to have captured the 2000 Guineas, came up with a pair of Gr1 winners in 2021, with his son, Kukeracha, capturing the Gr1 Moet & Chandon Queensland Derby and his daughter, Thundering Nights, winning the Gr1 Alwasmiyah Pretty Polly Stakes back in June.
The blue-blooded Zarak made a cracking start to his stud career, with Dubawi and Zarkava’s Gr1 winning son’s first two-year-olds including Gr3 winner, Lizaid, and the Gr1 placed pair of Purplepay and Times Square, while Dubawi’s French classic winning son, New Bay, is the sire of, among others, the 2021 Gr1 Kingdom Of Bahrain Sun Chariot Stakes winner, Saffron Beach, and promising two-year-old, Bayside Boy.
Dubawi’s remarkably durable son Benbatl, who won ten group/graded races, will make a bid to further his sire’s growing legacy having recently been retired to stud in Japan.
Dubawi’s classic winning son, Makfi, is the sire of dual Gr1 winner, Make Believe, whose son, Mishriff, captured all of the Saudi Cup, Gr1 Dubai Sheema Classic and Gr1 Juddmonte International in 2021.
Willow Magic (Pic- Candiese Lenferna)
Arguably the best stallion currently active at stud anywhere in the world, following the passing this year of Galileo, Dubawi has already enjoyed success in South Africa through his G1 winning offspring, Happy Archer and Willow Magic.
And he looks poised for more success in this country in the coming seasons, through the likes of Willow Magic, whose daughter, Magical Flight, ran second to champion War Of Athena on Saturday, and Erupt. The latter, winner of both the Gr1 Grand Prix de Paris and Gr1 Canadian International, will be represented by his first runners this season.
