Golden Horn's 3,100,000gns half-brother Dhahabi makes a winning debut

Dhahabi, the Frankel two-year-old half-brother to Golden Horn, scored narrowly on his debut in a 7f Newmarket maiden on Saturday.

The bay colt is trained by Charlie Appleby for Godolphin, who paid 3,100,000gns to secure him at Book 1 at Tattersalls October – making him the second most expensive yearling sold at public auction in Europe last year.

View full result and watch race replay

Dhahabi won by only a neck, having started slowly and needing to be kept up to his work early, and running green and hanging when making his challenge a furlong from home. He should improve for having the run under his belt.

“I'm very pleased with Dhahabi and it will have been a great experience for him,” said Appleby after the race. “He's a very good-looking individual and has a great stride.

“Stepping him up in trip will certainly bring about improvement, but we'll give him a bit of a break now, and may have one or two more runs this season with an eye on next year.”

Dhahabi was one of two exciting debut two-year-old winners by Frankel on the day, with Zabeel Queen – a filly out of Dubai Queen, a winning Kingmambo half-sister to Dubawi – scoring by one and a quarter lengths from Snow Lantern, a daughter of Frankel and Sky Lantern, in an Ascot 7f novice stakes.

Banstead Manor Stud resident Frankel's juvenile crop has now yielded six individual winners, including Superlative Stakes third Seventh Kingdom.

Dhahabi is the fifth winner out of the unraced Dubai Destination mare Fleche D'Or, best known as the dam of champion Golden Horn, whose four Group 1 victories included the Derby and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Fleche D'Or, who has also produced Listed scorer and US Grade 2 runner-up Eastern Belle, has a Frankel yearling filly and visited Sea The Stars last year.

The mare was bought from her breeder Hascombe and Valiant Studs by BBA Ireland on behalf of her current owners for just 62,000gns at the Tattersalls December Breeding-Stock Sale of 2012, when Golden Horn was just a foal.

She hails from one of Hascombe and Valiant Studs' most famous dynasties, as a half-sister to Coronation Stakes heroine Rebecca Sharp, Lingfield Derby Trial scorer Mystic Knight and Cheshire Oaks winner Hidden Hope.

Further back it is the family of Cracksman and On The House, who carried the operation's storied black and white silks to multiple Group 1 successes.

The family has been in fine form in 2020, with relations Frankly Darling landing the Ribblesdale Stakes and Dame Malliot taking the Princess of Wales's Stakes.

Read more...

Kitten's Joy filly helps breeze-up season to end on a high

Marcel's first winner Marcella Mia bred by his late owner Paul Makin

'It's been phenomenal' – vendors look back on a breeze-up season like no other