A salute to the Prince’s best kings and queens
RACING this week mourns the death of Prince Khalid Abdullah (right, with Sir Henry Cecil). The Saudi owner-breeder’s iconic colours — green, white sleeves, pink sash and cap — were carried by some of the sport’s best and most popular horses. Here, DAVID YATES picks out his personal favourites.
DANCING BRAVE
(Guy Harwood)
Won the 2,000 Guineas (below, left) before finishing from the clouds for a half-length second to Shahrastani in the 1986 Derby. He also won the Eclipse but the Derby defeat triggered the replacement of Greville Starkey with Pat Eddery, who produced Dancing Brave to land the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, and in a stellar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
OASIS DREAM (John Gosden)
Middle Park Stakes winner of 2002 missed the following spring but, after a return-to-action third to Choisir at Royal Ascot, beat his Australian rival in the July Cup, before dominating his field in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York.
The best sprinter to carry Abdullah’s silks would also go on to really make his mark at stud.
MIDDAY
(Sir Henry Cecil)
Abdullah stayed loyal to Henry Cecil during the great trainer’s troubled years, and his horses were at the centre of Warren Place’s resurgence.
Her six successes at the highest level included a Breeders’ Cup Filly And Mare Turf at Santa Anita in 2009, and Goodwood’s Nassau Stake two years later at the age of five.
WORKFORCE
(Sir Michael Stoute)
Became the third of Abdullah’s Derby winners, after Quest For Fame (1990) and Commander In Chief (1993), when trouncing his opponents by seven lengths at Epsom in a race-record time in 2010.
Flopped in the King George the following month but returned to edge out Japanese challenger Nakayama Festa in the Arc.
FRANKEL (Sir Henry Cecil)
The horse (above, centre) named after the great American trainer Bobby Frankel retired unbeaten in 14 races, and recognised as the greatest racehorse of the modern era.
It’s unfair to pick out the highlights of the 10 Group 1 triumphs, but the six-length demolition job in the 2,000 Guineas of 2011 and his seven-length supremacy in the following year’s Juddmonte International at York will never be forgotten.
KINGMAN (John Gosden)
A victim of circumstance when suffering his only career defeat to 40-1 outsider Night Of Thunder in the 2,000 Guineas seven years ago. Won his remaining four starts, in the Irish 2,000 Guineas, St James’s Palace Stakes, Sussex Stakes and Prix Jacques le Marois, in impressive fashion, and now a sought-after stallion.
ARROGATE (Bob Baffert)
The highest earner of all Abdullah’s champions, capping his Classic season with a win in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Classic under Mike Smith (left). Ran away with the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream the following January, before another big pay day in the Dubai World Cup two months later.
ENABLE
(John Gosden)
Galloped through a thunderstorm to win the 2017 Oaks by five lengths, and won a further 10 times at top level, including a record three King Georges.
The move to keep her in training in last year didn’t yield a third Arc triumph – Frankie Dettori’s mount had scored at Chantilly in 2017 and ParisLongchamp the following autumn – but she boasts the most impressive CV of any modern-times thoroughbred.