The Weekly Wrap for Apr. 4

The overlapping of the racing seasons can make this transitional time of the year disconcerting for some while offering an abundance of riches for others. Just over a week ago the world's richest race day was staged in unusually boggy conditions in the desert, 24 hours before the Irish Turf season cranked into gear. Last Saturday may have signalled the start of the British Turf season but come this weekend the focus will be back on National Hunt for the most famous jumps race of them all, the Grand National.

Forty years ago, Red Rum (Ire) (Quorum {GB}) won his third Grand National to become the most successful horse in the race's long and colourful history and to spark a lifelong obsession with horseracing for this correspondent. As a Newmarket resident for the last 14 years, my focus is now largely on matters of the Flat but a teary eye will turn to the television on Saturday afternoon as the obligatory replay of the 1977 Grand National shows, on faded celluloid, the little sprint-bred bay with his sheepskin noseband galloping past the post alongside which he was eventually laid to rest some 18 years later.

Nahrain's firstborn a star in the making
Sentimentality may play a larger part in jump racing but it has its place on the Flat, too. Even if we don't always have time enough to attach ourselves to some horses before stud careers come calling for them, it's possible to develop a fondness for certain families. For this reason alone, the horse I was most longing to see prove himself last weekend was Benbatl (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), the first foal of the G1 Prix de l'Opera and GI Flower Bowl Invitational winner Nahrain (GB) (Selkirk). He didn't disappoint, earning TDN Rising Star status for his seven-length romp in the hands of the excellent Josephine Gordon.

Nahrain was the standout performer during Roger Varian's first season as a trainer, having started her training under the guidance of his former boss and mentor Michael Jarvis. The robust chestnut filly didn't race until she was three was but was nigh-on faultless throughout 2011. On Oct. 2 of that year, she became Varian's first top-level winner, that joyful afternoon at Longchamp providing some comfort to a stable which, less than a fortnight earlier, had lost the much-loved man who had been at its helm since the late 1970s.

Nahrain raced in Sheikh Ahmed's yellow silks with black epaulettes, seen less frequently these days but, in this mind at least, synonymous with Jarvis, whose first Classic winner, Ameerat (GB) (Mark Of Esteem {Ire}), carried those colours, as did the wayward Hala Bek (Ire) (Halling), who provided the trainer with an agonising near miss in the 2006 Derby.

Her son bears the royal blue of Godolphin and, while he'll have to prove himself further still to be considered a serious Derby horse, genetically he has every right to be in the reckoning. A top-class miler, Dubawi nevertheless had the guts to hang on for third at Epsom behind the Montjeu-sired pair of Motivator (GB) and Walk In The Park (Ire) in the 2005 Derby. Nahrain was at her imperious best at ten furlongs but her dam Bahr (GB)––by a Derby winner in Generous (Ire) out of a daughter of another, Mill Reef––failed by just three-quarters of a length to land the Oaks in 1998, before bouncing back to win the G2 Ribblesdale S. over the same distance.

Dubawi dominant at Doncaster
Dubawi has had just two Derby runners in the eight years in which his offspring have been eligible for the race, with both Mickdaam (Ire) and Red Galileo (GB) finishing fifth in 2012 and 2014 respectively. As the quality of his mares has improved along with his burgeoning reputation, it surely shouldn't be long before we see him having greater representation in the Derby and the Oaks.

His name figured prominently in some informative races at Doncaster over the weekend, mostly in tandem with Saeed Bin Suroor's branch of the Godolphin empire which has sent out five winners from its last five runners. A couple of hours after Benbatl had blazed his trail, Dubawi provided the quinella in the classy ten-furlong handicap with two well-related individuals. The winner, perhaps surprisingly, was Bin Battuta (GB), a half-brother to Dream Ahead (Diktat) from a properly fast family, while his runner-up by a neck, First Nation (GB), has the St Leger winner Mastery (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}) among his talented half-siblings. The previous day Dubawi Prince (GB) struck for his sire's owner Sheikh Mohammed Obaid in a ten-furlong maiden at the track.

Perhaps more significant is the appearance of Dubawi's name in the pedigree of Dream Castle (GB) (Frankel {GB}), who won the second division of Sunday's maiden after Benbatl had landed the first. A son of G2 Flying Childers S. winner Sand Vixen (GB), Dream Castle could yet provide Dubawi with a first stakes victory as a broodmare sire, thus rectifying a glaring omission to his otherwise excellent stud record.

From Doncaster To Bendigo
We're unlikely to see any Aidan O'Brien runners in Britain before the Craven meeting but the trainer nevertheless played a part in the big race at Doncaster on Saturday when Bravery (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), whom he bred with wife Annemarie under their Whisperview Trading banner, won the valuable Betway Lincoln H. on his first start for trainer David O'Meara.

Bravery left Ballydoyle for O'Meara's Yorkshire stable after being bought for 44,000gns at last October's Horses-in-Training Sale, while his erstwhile stablemate Hans Holbein (GB) (Montjeu {Ire}) has flown further afield to the Australian stable of Robert Hickmott.

The winner of the 2015 G3 Chester Vase initiated a long-range Saturday double for O'Brien exiles when coming within quarter of a second of breaking the 2400-metre track record at Bendigo, which is held by another European import Puissance de Lune (Ire) (Shamardal), who now stands at Swettenham Stud in Victoria.

The champion returns
Jim Crowley has wasted no time in reminding everyone that he's the defending champion jockey since his return from Dubai. He notched a victory for his new boss Sheikh Hamdan on his first day back in action in the UK aboard Wurood (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) before firing in a four-timer at Lingfield and Kempton on Wednesday. On Sunday he contributed to Saeed Bin Suroor's good run of form when winning on Bin Battuta and, while winless on Saturday, his seven rides at two different meetings were preceded by his appearance in Roger Varian's string on Newmarket's Limekilns gallop early that morning.

Easily identified by a striped cap silk in Sheikh Hamdan's colours, matching that worn by Shadwell's former retained jockey-turned-assistant racing manager Richard Hills in the same bunch of gallopers, Crowley is just one of a number of leading jockeys who can be seen regularly on Newmarket work mornings now that the Classic countdown has begun in earnest.

Another famous face among the riders on Saturday morning was Kieren Fallon, who last week announced that he is preparing to “reveal all” in an autobiography, entitled Insolence, to be published later this year.

In signing up the skilled writer Paul Haigh to collaborate on the project, Fallon has ensured that the story of his dramatic racing career will be well told. However, despite the fact that he announced his retirement from the saddle last July, seeing him return from exercise on one of William Haggas's string, smiling, relaxed and looking considerably younger than his 52 years, one has to wonder whether there will be several chapters of the Fallon story still to be written, even after the book is published in September.