Shadwell maintain support of Muhaarar ahead of keenly awaited freshman season

Hamdan Al Maktoum's Shadwell breeding operation will this year once again grant strong support to champion sprinter Muhaarar, who looks set for a big season ahead as his well-bred first two-year-old runners reach the racecourse.

Muhaarar was a high-class juvenile himself, winning the Gimcrack Stakes and taking third in the Middle Park Stakes and July Stakes, and at three he developed into a brilliant sprinter, landing the Commonwealth Cup, July Cup, Prix Maurice de Gheest and British Champions Sprint.

The son of Oasis Dream covered 129 mares at a fee of £30,000 in his first season standing under the Shadwell banner at Nunnery Stud, including 72 black-type performers, 31 of whom struck in Group races.

The resultant offspring have subsequently proved popular in the sale-ring, with his debut yearlings achieving an average price of £177,655, hitting a high of 925,000gns for a half-sister to Cheveley Park Stakes winner Fairyland.

There are 11 Shadwell mares visiting Muhaarar in his approaching fourth season at stud including Efaadah and Tantheem, newly retired homebred four-year-old Pattern winners trained by Freddy Head.

Efaadah, a daughter of Dansili, scored in the Group 3 Prix de la Porte Maillot and Listed Prix des Lilas, while the Teofilo mare Tantheem won three Group 3 contests – the Prix de Cabourg, Prix de Meautry and Prix du Petit Couvert.

Muhaarar will also cover Rifqah, a daughter of Elusive Quality who is the dam of Group 2-winning sprinter and Irish 2,000 Guineas third Mustajeeb, as well as Sharqeyih and Talaaqy, winning half-sisters to star Meydan sprinter Ertijaal by Shamardal and Dansili respectively.

“Sheikh Hamdan and the whole team at Shadwell are huge believers in Muhaarar and we were keen to support him again in 2019 with some of our better mares,” says the operation's director Richard Lancaster.

“His yearlings were well received and we’re hearing positive vibes about his two-year-olds, but they have to go and prove it on the racecourse now.”

Muhaarar's colleagues on the Nunnery Stud roster are also receiving the backing of Shadwell through access to its blueblooded broodmare band.

Mukhadram: Eclipse hero has quietly made a fine start to his stud careerCredit: Shadwell

Eclipse hero Mukhadram – who has quietly made a very encouraging start with his first crop, which includes this month's US Grade 3 winner A Bit Special and William Haggas's three-time scorer Jahbath – will cover seven home mares.

They include 1,000 Guineas third Hathrah, dam of Listed winner and Prix de l'Opera third Hadaatha, and the Listed-placed Montjeu mare Mooakada, who has produced Group 3 Earl of Sefton Stakes winner Mahsoob.

“We're thrilled with the start Mukhadram has made to his stud career,” says Lancaster. “Thirteen individual two-year-old winners, including a pair of stakes performers, was a very pleasing return and he already has a pair of very exciting three-year-olds in the form of A Bit Special and Jahbath.”

The new faces to Nunnery Stud, Poet's Word and Tasleet, also appear among Shadwell mating plans.

“We’re sending a quintet of classy mares to Tasleet, who has been very popular,” says Lancaster. “He fits the mould for commercial breeders, being a son of red-hot sire Showcasing from the family of Battaash who won stakes races at two, three and four.

“He’s competitively priced at £6,000 and has been popular with breeders, although we do have a handful of nominations still available.

“Sheikh Hamdan will also be supporting Poet's Word, who was an outstanding racehorse and the only horse to defeat Cracksman in 2018, and available at only £7,000.”

Among the Shadwell mares destined for Tasleet are Eshaadeh, a daughter of Storm Cat who produced Queen Mary Stakes winner Maqaasid to her next suitor's paternal great-grandsire Green Desert; dual Group 1 heroine Indian Ink; and Albany Stakes winner Habaayib.

Sheikh Hamdan's stallions standing at Derrinstown Stud in County Kildare will also receive some of their owner's choice mares, including ten for Irish 2,000 Guineas victor Awtaad – most notably Ezima, the dam of the great Taghrooda – and seven for Tamayuz.

The source of Group/Grade 1 winners Blond Me, G Force and Precieuse, Tamayuz will cover Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Bethrah and Hawraa, her daughter by Dansili; 1,000 Guineas winner Natagora and Shurooq, her daughter by Dubawi; and Safwa, a daughter of Green Desert who has already produced last season's Joel Stakes scorer Mustashry to Tamayuz.

A host of elite stallions at other studs have been chosen as suitors for Shadwell's other blue-chip broodmares.

Ten will visit Dalham Hall Stud doyen Dubawi including Oaks and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Taghrooda, whose first foal is a three-year-old filly by Kingman called Jahafil and whose second produce, a colt by Dubawi, has been named Atheel.

Taghrooda's sire Sea The Stars has been good to Sheikh Hamdan, also giving him the high-class pair Mutakayyef and Hadaatha, and the Gilltown Stud resident receives ten members of the Shadwell harem in 2019.

They are headed by Aaraas, a Group 3-placed daughter of Haafhd who is the dam of the unbeaten Classic prospect Madhmoon, and Asheerah, a Listed-placed Shamardal mare who clicked with Sea The Stars' sire Cape Cross to produce Awtaad.

Also scheduled to be covered by Sea The Stars are Tarfasha – a daughter of Teofilo who finished second to Taghrooda in the Oaks and whose three-year-old son by the 2009 world champion, Rakan, looks smart based on his smooth victory in a 20-runner Leopardstown maiden in October – and Albaraah, dam of Group winners Alrahma and Efaadah from her first three runners.

The Banstead Manor Stud-based pair of Frankel and Kingman have been designated as dates for six and five Shadwell mares respectively.

Frankel's sextet are led by Rumoush, a Classic-placed half-sister to 1,000 Guineas winner Ghanaati whose first three runners Muntazah, Talaayeb and Wadilsafa – the last-named by the dual world champion son of Galileo – are all stakes winners.

The others are stakes winners and/or producers Ethaara, Farmah, Rayaheen and Tajaanus, along with Awtaad's stakes-placed half-sister Aneen.

Kingman, meanwhile, is due to cover Ghanaati and South African champion two-year-old filly Majmu.

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