How quickly can a young horse graduate from the sales ring to competing in a prestigious juvenile contest at Royal Ascot? In the case of the No Nay Never colt Dhabab, it was just 7½ weeks.
Dhabab, a John and Thady Gosden trainee bought at the Goffs UK 2yo breeze-up sale in April, made a winning debut 5½ weeks after going through the ring. Only two weeks later, he went off favourite for the G2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, where he impressed again, albeit in defeat. This colt is a quick learner and has made a fine start to what could be an excellent juvenile campaign.
Bred by Mocklershill in Ireland and knocked down to Blandford Bloodstock for £200,000 on behalf of Poseidon Thoroughbred Racing after a strong breeze, Dhabab is a son of No Nay Never, who won the G2 Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot and G1 Prix Morny at Deauville for trainer Wesley Ward eight years ago.
Another son of No Nay Never, Arizona, won the Coventry in 2019. Currently world #57 in the TRC sires’ standings, No Nay Never was also represented at the 2021 royal meeting by G1 Coronation Stakes winner Alcohol Free – and Dhabab might have gone close for him with a better run in the Coventry, where he was an eyecatching sixth after a troubled trip.
Nice and composed before the race, he seemed calm and collected when one of the first to be loaded into the stalls. Spending relatively long in the stalls did not seem to bother him, though he raced a touch freely when positioned in the middle of the field through the first couple of furlongs after breaking alertly.
Robert Havlin, who also partnered him on his racecourse introduction, gave the colt the cue two furlongs out (see video below - Dhabab is in pale blue colours with a yellow cap), but he could not get a clear run up the middle so edged towards the stands side (towards the right of the screen) and aimed for a sizable gap between horses.
The colt responded well. However, as he was advancing inside the final furlong, rivals drifted into his path from both sides. His jockey had no choice but to snatch up and forfeit ground. Dhabab regained his momentum with eight to ten strides to go and stayed on by far the best of the 16 horses beaten by Berkshire Shadow. Checking in 2¼ lengths behind the winner, he galloped out well.
Two runners in this event finished the race off strongly: The winner and Dhabab.
To say that Dhabab would have won the Coventry with a clean run may be stretching it, as Berkshire Shadow did capture the race with authority. That said, Dhabab was virtually level with the off-the-pace winner when his traffic problems occurred just over half a furlong from home and he could certainly have been the runner-up.
It is too soon to make a confident assessment of the quality of this year’s Coventry, but it’s worth remembering that this event has been won by the likes of Dawn Approach, Canford Cliffs and Henrythenavigator in recent years. And quite a few beaten in the Coventry went on to be top-class performers too.
As of today, Dhabab’s record is exactly the same as Rock Of Gibraltar’s at this stage of 2001, when the future world champion had won a Curragh maiden before filling sixth place in the Coventry (behind stablemate Landseer). Indeed, Rock Of Gibraltar's Ascot experience was quite similar to Dhabab’s. Here’s his Racing Post close-up comment from the Coventry: “Squeezed out after 1f and well in rear, progress when not clear run 2f out until inside final furlong, ran on but no chance.”
Finishing sixth in the Coventry may not be the end of the world. That was the outcome also for Thunder Snow (behind Caravaggio, 2016) and Zoffany (behind Strong Suit in 2010) when they went for this race, while Oratorio ran seventh in the 2005 edition (behind Iceman).
Even the mighty Generous, runner-up to Mac's Imp back in 1990, tasted defeat in the Coventry.
Dhabab’s first start came in a maiden at Leicester, where he won comfortably by two lengths, beating another nice newcomer, Sweeping, trained by Archie Watson. Sweeping progressed to run fourth to Aidan O’Brien’s hot favourite Point Lonsdale in the listed Chesham Stakes on the last day of Royal Ascot.
Although it has a bit of black type here and there, Dhabab’s pedigree was probably not a big factor as he caught the attention of buyers at the Goffs UK sale. His dam, Habbat Reeh, is a daughter of Mastercraftsman. Dhabab is her second foal and she has a yearling filly by Gleneagles. Habbat Reeh was herself a €180,000 yearling, sold at Goffs back in 2015, but she never made it to the races.
Out of the Barathea daughter Allegrina, who was successful in a 7-furling maiden at Thirsk as a 3-year-old, Habbat Reeh is a half-sister to Boomshackerlacker, a very useful 5-time winner by Dark Angel.
Boomshackerlacker was a tough and durable runner and won three times at listed level in France and Germany (over 1,300 metres and 1,600 metres). He was runner-up in a G3 Grosser Preis der Landeshaupstadt at Dusseldorf and third in the G2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte and G3 Horris Hill Stakes at Newbury. He was precocious at two, but Boomshackerlacker kept on producing 100-plus rated performances right up to the age of seven.
Dhabab has already broken the 100-barrier and he looks an exciting prospect. When it was put to him in a pre-race interview that Dhabab had been backed down to favouritism for the Coventry, John Gosden said his colt was very much a horse for later in the season.