Cicero’s Gift becomes the fourth top-flight winner for Haras de Montaigu's new recruit Muhaarar

Royal Ascot proved a fine advertisement for Group 1 winners bought for modest sums and that narrative continued at Champions Day when the Charlie Hills-trained Cicero’s Gift produced a shock victory in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. 

Saturday's triumph came a couple of weeks after it was announced Muhaarar would be relocating from Haras du Petit Tellier to Haras de Montaigu for the 2026 season. 

Providing the stallion with his fourth top-flight winner, the Charlie Hills-trained gelding followed up his recent success in the Listed Fortune Stakes at Sandown with a length and a quarter win over Group 3 winner The Lion In Winter.

Bred by Fiona Williams, Cicero's Gift was purchased by his trainer and McKeever Bloodstock for 32,000gns at Book 3 of the 2021 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and is raced by Rosehill Racing. 

He is a half-brother to four winners, including the stakes-placed Crossing The Line, being out of the winning Diktat mare Terentia, who is a half-sister to Listed winner Cartimandua. Terentia died in 2023. 

Johnny McKeever: 'It’s not something you imagine when you buy a Book 3 yearling for a small sum'Credit: Alisha Meeder

Johnny McKeever said: “It was a miraculous result and very much deserved because the horse has had a host of problems and it really is testament to the training skills and care of Charlie. It’s not something you imagine when you buy a Book 3 yearling for a small sum. It’s absolutely thrilling and humbling. 

“I remember seeing the horse with Charlie at the sales and he’s always been a big fan of Muhaarar as have I because he is a stallion who is definitely punching above his weight. We both thought he was a lovely horse. 

"We were aware he wasn’t going to be an early two-year-old hence the price of 32,000gns. You buy one like that and you just hope for the best and you never think you’re going to end up winning a Group 1 of that calibre - it’s like a dream!"

Golden Whirl (Lot 73), a Golden Horn half-brother to Cicero’s Gift, will be offered as part of the Brookhouse draft at the Goffs October HIT Sale on Tuesday, while Moyowasi, another half-brother by Mohaather, will come under the hammer as Lot 1233 at the Tattersalls Autumn HIT Sale. He will be offered by Hills on behalf of his owner, Fitri Hay. 

Muhaarar's 32 stakes winners include US Grade 1 scorer Be Your Best, British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes winner Eshaada and Marhaba Ya Sanafi, a winner of the 2023 Group 1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains.

He stood the 2025 season for a fee of €14,000.

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