Pedigree Insights: Postponed (Ire)

Forget the Year of the Sheep, 2015 is rapidly developing into the year of a 15-3-hands Thoroughbred stallion named Dubawi. With 14 Group winners in the Northern Hemisphere he is four ahead of the normally indomitable Galileo, and with seven Group 1 winners he is no fewer than six ahead of Galileo.

Dubawi's sensational Group 1 sequence was initiated by Hunter's Light and Prince Bishop in Dubai in March,

and May was similarly fruitful, thanks to Night of Thunder, Al Kazeem and New Bay. Now July has added the Grand Prix de Paris winner Erupt and the gallant King George winner Postponed.

This helps explain why Dubawi currently holds a substantial lead over Galileo on the Racing Post's European Statistics, though the Coolmore stalwart, with a team headed by Gleneagles, is still leading the Anglo-Irish list in his bid to take his sixth consecutive championship (and seventh in all).

As if Dubawi's northern hemisphere exploits weren't enough, he also has two Group 1 winners (Srikandi and Shamal Wind) among his seven stakes winners during the latest Australian season. They have helped him finish 15th on the Australian table, even though he was at a considerable numerical disadvantage with only 92 representatives.

Although Dubawi has shown he can sire very good winners over a wide range of distances, it is worth noting that five of his seven northern hemisphere Group 1 winners in 2015 have recorded their major successes over distances ranging from a mile and a quarter to a mile and a half. The exceptions are the nine-furlong scorer Hunter's Light (whose past wins have come at up to 11 furlongs) and the miler Night of Thunder.

Although some of his connections harboured doubts about Postponed's ability to handle the soft ground at Ascot, there were no doubts about his stamina–to the extent that his trainer, Luca Cumani, commented that “we know the horse stays and we know he wants a fast pace.” Postponed had demonstrated this with his impressive defeat of Snow Sky in last year's G2 Great Voltigeur S., and his stamina certainly played its part in his narrow victory three days ago.

I would be interested to know how much stamina was expected of Postponed when he first arrived at the Cumani yard, following his purchase for 360,000gns at Tattersalls. I suspect that the youngster would have been considered a potential miler, for several reasons.

For a start, Dubawi only once ventured beyond a mile during his eight-race career, in the Derby. He was far from disgraced on that occasion, moving into second place behind the impressive winner Motivator inside the final quarter mile, but the final furlong was clearly a step too far and he faded into third. Dubawi was immediately returned to a mile.

It was a similar story with Postponed's broodmare sire Dubai Destination (who was sold to Saudi Arabia earlier this year). This high-class son of the miler Kingmambo started favourite when he had his Derby credentials tested over 1 3/8 miles in the Predominate S. Again, he was far from disgraced when he failed to wear down the lightly-weighted Coshocton, but he too spent the remainder of his career over a mile, notably winning the G1 Queen Anne S.

Postponed's second dam, Bianca Nera, was a daughter of the seven-furlong specialist Salse. She too showed speed in excess of stamina in proving herself one of the best juvenile fillies of 1996. After a debut victory over five furlongs, she progressed to win the G2 Lowther S. over six and the G1 Moyglare Stud S. over seven. She then failed to confirm the form with the Moyglare runner-up Ryafan when the two met again over an extra furlong.

For good measure, Postponed is inbred 4×4 to the speedy Mr Prospector.

So where does Postponed's stamina come from? It has to be said that his dam Ever Rigg won over a mile and a half but she was easily the least accomplished of the six horses in the first two generations of Postponed's pedigree.

I believe that Dubawi owes his reliability as a sire of top-class middle-distance horses primarily to is dam, the Oaks d'Italia winner Zomaradah. In addition to being a daughter of the stoutly-bred Deploy, she comes from a female line noted for its stamina. Indeed it provided Postponed's owner, Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, with the Derby winner High-Rise.

Postponed's rider, Andrea Atzeni, freely admitted that the colt would not have tackled the soft ground at Ascot had the decision been up to him. Even Luca Cumani had doubts about whether his colt would handle the conditions. In a very good interview with Lydia Hislop on Racing UK, Cumani said:

“We just didn't know about the ground because he's never ever run on it…Naturally, instinct tells you that, if a horse is as good as he's shown to be on fast ground, you think he may not be as good on soft. But obviously he is much more versatile than we thought and he can go on any ground.”

I usually have few fears about Dubawi's progeny on soft ground. Dubawi himself handled yielding ground and his sire Dubai Millennium sailed through heavy ground. Dubawi's son Makfi was another who was far from inconvenienced by very soft ground. And now Makfi is siring good winners capable of handling soft ground, such as his French 2,000 Guineas winner Make Believe and the recent listed winner Maimara.

Racing UK's interview with Cumani included several enlightening details about Postponed. Cumani, who has saddled Group 1 winners in 12 different countries, isn't prone to hyperbole. Yet he couldn't hide his admiration for his King George winner:

“What was so good about the horse is how tough he was in the final furlong,” he said. “And he's such a wonderful horse because he is probably one of the best looking horses you could ever feast your eyes on and the ability went with the looks today.

Asked whether he had recognised Postponed's potential at an early stage, he replied:

“Oh yes, from when he was a 2-year-old, when he had his first two races, we liked him. We knew we had something a little bit special on our hands and it was just a case of sort of chiselling around the edges and crafting him into what he has become today.”

And I suspect that Cumani may have revealed some of the secrets behind Dubawi's consistent success when he added that Postponed is “just tough, you know. He's never lost a gallop in his life, he's very competitive and he takes as much work as you can dream of throwing into a horse. He started working in early March and I don't think he has missed a gallop–twice a week, every week, seven furlongs, a mile with good lead horses–and he beats them all easily all the time…he's just a very special horse.”

Postponed also has something in common with another very special horse–the unbeaten Derby winner Golden Horn, who was withdrawn from the King George because of the ground. Both are out of daughters of Dubai Destination and their victories in Britain's most valuable mile-and-a-half events mean that this disappointing stallion holds a clear lead over Danehill, Sadler's Wells and Galileo on Britain and Ireland's broodmare sire list.

I would be exaggerating if I claimed to have foreseen such an eventuality, but I did point everyone in the right direction with an article in last October's edition of the Thoroughbred Owner & Breeder.

I stressed that, although Dubai Destination had been based at a National Hunt stud since 2010, he had originally been a member of the glamorous Darley stallion team. His blend of pedigree and performance had entitled him to spend his first four seasons at Dalham Hall at fees of £25,000 or £20,000. I wrote:

“It is important to remember that any high-priced stallion–even the ones which disappoint–will be sent mares with illustrious backgrounds. So, even if his daughters fail to shine on the track, many will have the depth of pedigree to succeed as broodmares.

“Dubai Destination appears to be a case in point. His eldest daughters are nine years old in 2014, so they are at an early stage of their careers, but they pulled off a notable Group race double at York's Ebor meeting. Firstly his daughter Endless Love enjoyed Group 3 success via her son Dutch Connection in the Acomb S. The next to strike was Ever Rigg, who appears to have produced a high-class prospect in the shape of Postponed, winner of the Group 2 Great Voltigeur S. Earlier in the year we had seen the UAE 1,000 Guineas and Oaks fall to Ihtimal, a Shamardal filly out of Dubai Destination's daughter Eastern Joy. Another to get into the act is Fleche d'Or, dam of the Listed-winning Champs Elysees filly Eastern Belle.

“Two of these mares come from Dubai Destination's first crop and the other two from his second. None earned black type. Indeed Ever Rigg was rated no higher than 83 by Timeform after winning an all-weather maiden, while Eastern Joy gained her only win at Vichy. Endless Love and Fleche d'Or never even made it to the races.”

It is Fleche d'Or who has become the dam of Golden Horn.

KING GEORGE VI & QUEEN ELIZABETH S.-G1, £1,215,000, ASC, 7-25, 3yo/up, 12fT, 2:31.25, sf.

1–&POSTPONED (IRE), 133, c, 4, by Dubawi (Ire)

1st Dam: Ever Rigg (GB), by Dubai Destination

2nd Dam: Bianca Nera (GB), by Salse

3rd Dam: Birch Creek (GB), by Carwhite (Ire)

(360,000gns Ylg '12 TAOCT). O-Sheikh Mohammed

Obaid Al Maktoum; B-St Albans Bloodstock LLP (IRE);

T-Luca Cumani; J-Andrea Atzeni. £689,026. Lifetime

Record: G1SP-Ire, 12-4-2-4, $1,539,646. Click for

the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.

Werk Nick Rating: A++.

Click for the Racing Post result, the brisnet.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. Video, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.