Caulfield on Mubtaahij

UAE DERBY (SPONSORED BY THE SAEED & MOHAMMED AL NABOODAH)-G2, $2,000,000, MEY, 3-28, NH & SH 3yo, 1900m, 1:58.35, ft. 
1–@MUBTAAHIJ (IRE), 121, c, 3, by Dubawi (Ire) 
     1st Dam: Pennegale (Ire), by Pennekamp 
     2nd Dam: Gale Warning (Ire), by Last Tycoon (Ire) 
     3rd Dam: Gay Apparel, by Up Spirits 
(€450,000 yrl '13 ARQAUG). O-Sheikh Mohammed 
bin Khalifa Al Maktoum; B-Dunmore Stud Ltd (Ire); 
T-Mike de Kock; J-Christophe Soumillon. 
$1,200,000. Lifetime Record: 7-4-1-0, $1,461,335. 
*1/2 to Lily Of The Valley (Fr) (Galileo {Ire}), Co- 
Ch. 3yo Filly-Eur, G1SW-Fr, $473,009; and Calbuco 
(Fr) (Kendor {Fr}), MSW-Fr, $576,284. Werk Nick 
Rating: B+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. 
Click for the Racing Post result, the AmWest.com PPs, or the free brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO. 

There was nothing unusual about the Southern Hemisphere half of Dubawi's extraordinary sequence of group successes last Saturday. The Emancipation S. success of Catkins was the third Group 2 victory of the year for this Australian mare and the Group 3 South African win by Amber Orchid also came on turf. Incidentally, these two mares come from the second of Dubawi's three Australian crops, which have contributed handsomely to his high number of group winners. 
However, the emphasis then switched to Dubai, where two of Dubawi's sons shone, not on turf, but on Meydan's new dirt track. Firstly we saw Mubtaahij burst into the GI Kentucky Derby picture with his eight-length romp in the G2 UAE Derby, and then the veteran Prince Bishop produced a career-best performance to overcome the gallant California Chrome in the G1 Dubai World Cup. 

I suppose we shouldn't have been too surprised by these outstanding victories on dirt, as Dubawi's progeny have repeatedly shone on non-turf tracks in the UAE. Prince Bishop had himself enjoyed Group 1 success on the former Tapeta surface, as had Hunter's Light, and we had of course seen another son, Monterosso, triumph in the 2012 G1 Dubai World Cup. There is, though, a substantial difference between all-weather and traditional dirt and Dubawi had never struck me as the type to sire top dirt performers. 

For a start, he is a neat, muscular horse standing 15.3 hands–not the type one normally associates with first-rate success on dirt (though I did make the point, when writing about Dubawi's son Night of Thunder last May, that several of today's highest-priced American stallions also stand around 16 hands). 

It was probably Dubawi's own racing record which seemed the main obstacle to his becoming a sire of top dirt performers. Not only did he spend his entire career on turf, but he also showed what Timeform described as a “short, choppy action” and he disappointed on the only occasion he encountered firm ground (when favorite for the G1 2,000 Guineas). Plenty of his progeny have since shown that they too appreciate some give in the ground. For example, the ground was very soft when his son Makfi landed the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois–a race which had earlier been won by Dubawi and his exceptionally talented sire Dubai Millennium (who scored on heavy ground). 

Of course there are exceptions to every rule, but the general view in Britain is that American-bred horses are best suited by fast conditions when racing on European turf. Conversely, could a horse who arguably preferred an easy turf surface make his mark as a dirt sire? 

Back in 1989, when Britain was just beginning to expand into all-weather tracks, I asked a couple of experts with considerable experience of American racing for their views on the differences between dirt and turf. Coincidentally, one of them was the late Michael Osborne, an exceptional man who Sheikh Mohammed credited with establishing the Dubai World Cup as a great international race. The second was John Gosden, another of racing's deep thinkers. 
Inevitably some of their comments sound a bit dated more than 25 years later, but parts of the article are worth repeating: 

Both seemed convinced that certain American lines have proved less effective in Europe than in their home country. As Osborne put it, “the returned Yanks as I call them, the Anglo- or Irish-American horses who have spent a bit of time in Europe at some stage of their career, can take the European mixture much better than the true American-bred. A good example would be the Royal Charger, Turn-to, Sir Ivor line. 

“Raja Baba and his sons, Raise a Native and his sons, I don't ever see them making it. The returned Yanks are the ones that make it on the whole.” 

In Gosden's view, “certain families and certain sires obviously predominate on one surface or the other. Particular examples would be Raja Baba, Cox's Ridge, In Reality and Raise a Native, they're all very much dirt sires, dirt lines. 
“Cox's Ridge, Fappiano and In Reality–with the exception of Known Fact–haven't done well in Britain. Raise a Native hasn't done too badly through Mr. Prospector, though everyone seems to um and ah whether it's entirely the right thing.” 

What explanation could there be for this situation? Could the two racing surfaces demand different physical attributes? According to Osborne, “the only big difference is the size of their feet.” Osborne added that “a horse's stride pattern, of course, is different between dirt and turf. Horses will get away with varying stride patterns–such as a high knee action or a low action, and so on, on turf, but they won't necessarily get away with that on dirt.” 

Could years and years of racing on dirt have engrained certain characteristics and preferences into the truly American-bred animal? For example, we've seen American-breds enjoying tremendous results in Europe this year [1989], a year when the weather has been unusually hot and the ground unusually fast. Could there be a link between the fast ground and the success being enjoyed by Alydar's European performers, notably Cacoethes and Alydaress? 

Once again Osborne and Gosden were in agreement. 

“American dirt performers generally prefer fast ground over here,” said Osborne. “American-bred horses–the true American-breds, the Bold Rulers, the Raise a Natives, the Native Dancer lines–all those need good-to-firm ground, not many of them go on soft. This year is the year of the American racehorse, because the ground is perfect for them–fast ground, from good to firm to hard, they love that.” 

“I think it's fair to say,” added Gosden, “that the faster the ground and the warmer the summer, the more it favours a lot of American-bred horses. The American-breds generally are definitely better on fast ground than soft. They are used to running on pretty fast ground. All dirt tracks are pretty fast. They've got the cushion on top, but there's a hard base to them all. And then when it rains, they race on slop, which is straight onto the bottom. They lose their cushion and it gets even faster sometimes.” 

Indeed, even American turf performers are unused to racing on soft ground because most American courses switch turf races to the dirt when it rains heavily. 

Further into the article I did question whether Osborne and Gosden were right to include Raise a Native, citing the number of accomplished European turf horses sired by Raise a Native and Mr. Prospector. Dubawi, of course is a member of the Mr. Prospector branch, being a grandson of Seeking the Gold, whose career was spent entirely on dirt. 
Despite his dirt background, Seeking the Gold was represented by several good quality turf horses in Europe, including the Japanese filly Seeking the Pearl and the G1 Middle Park winner Lujain. But it was his son Dubai Millennium who stood out from the crowd, with his magnificent record of nine wins from 10 starts and his Timeform rating of 140. Arguably his most memorable display came when he left the American contenders toiling in his wake as he set a track record on Nad Al Sheba's dirt track in the Dubai World Cup of 2000. 

Take a look at Dubai Millennium's pedigree and you may notice that all four of his grandparents were bred in North America and the same applied to all eight great-grandparents, as well as most of the 16 horses in the next generation. It was therefore not surprising that he shone on dirt in Dubai. His physique also equipped him well for the demands of a dirt track. The polar opposite to Dubawi, Dubai Millennium developed into an imposing, deep-girthed, leggy individual standing 16.3. One thing he did share with Dubawi, though, was a less-than-impressive action in his slower paces–Timeform described it as a short, unimpressive action. 

Dubai Millennium's size and physique occasionally emerges in Dubawi's progeny, a good example being his tall son Poet's Voice, whose first runners race this year. Mubtaahij appears to be a conventional-sized individual, but he is clearly very progressive, he is experienced and he has now won four of his five starts on dirt in the UAE (having been unfancied in his two starts on turf in England). Stamina clearly isn't an issue with him and he quickened very impressively on the Meydan dirt. 

I don't know how the Meydan dirt compares with the track at Churchill Downs–where there is probably more kick-back–but Mubtaahij appears to have much stronger claims than most of the previous UAE Derby winners which have challenged for the Kentucky Derby. 

For the record, the first was China Visit, the impressive winner in 2000 who went on to finish sixth behind Fusaichi Pegasus. The next two winners, Express Tour and Essence of Dubai, respectively, finished eighth behind Monarchos and ninth behind War Emblem. 

The next to attempt the UAE-Kentucky Derby double was the 2009 winner Regal Ransom, who finished eighth to Mine that Bird and then came Daddy Long Legs, who failed to finish in 2012, and Lines of Battle, seventh a year later. It would have been interesting, though, to see how Toast of New York might have fared against California Chrome last year, as there was little between them in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. 

The fifth generation of Mubtaahij's pedigree features duplications to three outstanding stallions in Northern Dancer, Northern Dancer's son Lyphard and the brilliant Mill Reef. The colt represents another triumph for his dam Pennegale, who has played a major part in the transformation of her sire Pennekamp from disappointing stallion to accomplished broodmare sire. 

Pennekamp had been good enough to win the first six of his seven races, including the G1 Dewhurst S. and G1 2,000 Guineas. After a fertility issue restricted his first crop to 29 foals, he was soon struggling for support and he left Ireland for France before returning to Ireland to cover modest numbers of jumping mares. 

Although Pennekamp is credited with more than 330 foals, only five of them became stakes winners on the flat and only one of them, Alexander Three D, managed a group success, in the G3 Park Hill S. 

However, three of his broodmare daughters have so far produced Group 1 winners. One, Shadow Line, has hit the Group 1 target with her Montjeu colt Jan Vermeer and her Galileo filly Together, and Pennegale looks poised to match her achievement. She too enjoyed Group 1 success with Galileo, producing the Prix de l'Opera winner Lily of the Valley, and now has Mubtaahij. 

Both these mares are vivid illustrations of the fact that moderate racemares can become very different propositions as producers. Shadow Song's only victory came in an 11-furlong maiden race at the minor French track of Segre, and Pennegale didn't even win. Her best finishing position in a nine-race career was a remote third at the minor track of Castera-Verduzan. 

Needless to say, Pennegale comes from a distinguished family. The number of group-winning descendants of her second dam Gay Apparel stands in double figures.