From an unfancied prospect to an all-time great: the story of Dubawi

If only we all knew back in 2009 what we know now, when the bargain of the century was right there just waiting for us to take a chance.

It may be hard to believe, but it is true that less than a decade ago Dubawi, one of the great sires of our time, was available to service your mare for a mere £15,000. What fools we were.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, of course, but with Dubawi having become the first British-based sire to produce 100 individual Group winners, the simple question has to be asked: what was going on?

"It was extraordinary, that first year," recalls Darley's director of stallions, Sam Bullard. "He retired as a genuine Guineas winner by a potentially top-class stallion and came with a pretty high reputation but there is absolutely no doubt that the first crop of foals were not well received and that was a concern."

So concerning was it that Dubawi, now the undisputed king of Dalham Hall Stud, was sent packing from Newmarket and offered at Darley's Kildangan Stud in Ireland in order to, as Bullard puts it, give him a fresh chance in a different market.

"He wasn't well received there either," says Bullard. "He covered about 70 mares, so universally, the market did not take to him in the first place."

It was after that year in Ireland when Dubawi returned to Newmarket to stand for that bargain fee. But fast forward to 2018 and one could be forgiven for thinking the conversation had switched to another stallion entirely.

The great son of Dubai Millennium is at the end of a second season standing at a career high of £250,000 and that figure, ten times higher than his introductory fee of 2006, has not put breeders off one bit.

Bullard had the unenviable task in recent months of narrowing down to some 40 mares a list of applications for Dubawi of 360, an undertaking he describes as the hardest part of his job.

What makes it all worthwhile though is reflecting on the quality of mares he has covered at the conclusion of it all and this year has been stellar, to say the least.

"This year, he's covered Danedream, he's covered Dank, he's covered Dar Re Mi and Moonlight Cloud," Bullard says. "There are very few [nominations] to sell on the outside, so one is able to select some queens of the turf, but it's undoubtedly one of the hardest parts of my job telling people they can't send their very, very best mare to this horse."

It is worth taking a moment to consider what lifted Dubawi to such heights. Having failed to catch fire early, that much maligned first crop boasted more Group winners than any other sire had achieved since the start of the Pattern.

A 2010 advertisement for Dubawi highlights the achievements of his first crop

He went on to become the fastest ever to 50 individual Group winners and when Crown Walk won the Prix Chloe at Chantilly on Monday he made it a century, joining Danehill, Sadler’s Wells, Danzig, Zabeel, Mr Prospector, Storm Cat, Giant’s Causeway, Redoute’s Choice and, of course, Galileo.

Perhaps harshly for Dubawi, it seems everything he does is viewed through the prism of Galileo's greatness but, like arguing over Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, such a pursuit only serves to reduce the brilliance of both.

Out of interest though, the comparison at the same stage between the two stallions does little to diminish Dubawi.

From more than 400 fewer runners, Dubawi has only two fewer individual Group winners than Galileo had. His 152 stakes winners have won a total of 357 stakes races, compared to 167 for Galileo at that time landing 346.

He has two Group 1-producing stallion sons, compared to Galileo's three at the same time and equal even to the great Northern Dancer at the same point.

As a broodmare sire too, Dubawi is by no means off the pace, despite a feeling among some to that extent. By way of comparison, even the great Pivotal only had three stakes winners as a broodmare sire eight years after his first runners and given the quality of the books Dubawi is now covering, it is not hard to imagine him making up significant ground in the years to come.

"The pedigrees of the mares he's had in the last four years, there will be some good broodmares in there," says Bullard.

On what makes him a great stallion, Bullard adds: "Time and time again, people ask me what stands him apart and it's his mind. He has the ability, he has the looks, which lots of horses have but very few pass on this extraordinary temperament. They all run, they all eat, they all sleep, they all try and they want to win. That is, without doubt, the one quality that stands him aside.

"The vast majority of above average stallions like him, when they retire, they have a depreciating curve after that. They might keep going for a shorter or longer time but they generally tail off. There are very few that genuinely go up and up and he is one."

Strutting his stuff: Dubawi in the sunshine at Dalham HallCredit: Edward Whitaker

Above all else, that fact is the one that is a tremendous source of pride, not only to Bullard but the entire Darley team and most of all, Sheikh Mohammed. He is, after all, Darley through and through, being a son of Dubai Millennium who carried the famous blue silks to Classic glory.

"I came to work here in 2000, as a result of Dubai Millennium and the brief was to make the best stallions of tomorrow," Bullard explains. "So Dubawi being a son of Dubai Millennium, born on the farm and trained in the blue, to have done what he's done and become the best stallion in the country he's standing in is what it's all about.

"It's what I wake up thinking about every day and so to have got one who really is the best, it's massive. He really means a lot to us and he means an awful lot to the boss."

Golden Horn continues to turn heads

Dubawi's landmark 100th Group winner came at an appropriate time, only days before Darley's much anticipated annual stallion parade at Dalham Hall.

While he and the likes of New Approach, sire of Derby hero Masar, naturally caught the eye, there were admiring looks throughout the week for 2015's champion colt Golden Horn, who has let down into a deeply impressive specimen.

A striking bay easily identifiable by his dapples, Golden Horn's first foals averaged a tidy £183,000 and Bullard has high hopes for the forthcoming yearling sales.

"We're seriously excited about his yearlings," he says. "I have seen them all now and talking to Jenny and Liam Norris, who sold the 4 million guineas Dank last year, they have a Golden Horn and they say he's a star.

"Golden Horn is just a beautiful horse. He's got that wonderful dark skin, and it's all dapply at the moment and he's just classy. He takes it all in his stride and makes people look at him."

Bullard adds: "In the last 12 years, there have been three outstanding racehorses in my book, and they are Sea The Stars, whose Derby was not as highly rated as Golden Horn's, and Frankel, who ran over a shorter distance. They are serious horses and Golden Horn is right up there, which is quite something."

If you are interested in this, you should read:

Dubawi getting a fine tune out of daughters of Singspiel

Edward Whitaker captures sires strutting their stuff at the Darley parade