In his own words, Dubai Honour’s trainer reflects on his latest lucrative success in Australia after a brilliant G1 victory in the Ranvet Stakes at Rosehill Gardens.
William Haggas, who in 2022 engineered the great Baaeed’s European championship campaign, has sent four horses to Australia for the lucrative Sydney autumn carnival, where he is no stranger to success having twice won the featured A$4m Queen Elizabeth Stakes with the now-retired globetrotter Addeybb.
What is more, the Newmarket trainer looks to have found a perfect replacement in Dubai Honour, whose Australian odyssey got off to a brilliant start when he ran away with the G1 Ranvet Stakes – a race won by Addeybb in 2020 – at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.
With stable jockey Tom Marquand sidelined through injury, Dubai Honour was ridden by Ryan Moore, who completed a memorable G1 double on Coolmore’s Shinzo for trainer Chris Waller in the Golden Slipper, the world’s richest two-year-old race.
Haggas, whose Aussie team also struck last weekend in G3 company with Protagonist, is now eyeing a crack at Aussie superstar Anamoe in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes [April 8] with Dubai Honour, while stablemate Earl Of Tyrone is likely to run in the G1 Sydney Cup on the same card. Here, Haggas talks about his latest Sydney success.
We’ve got big shoes to fill following the retirement of both Addeybb and Baaeed, and we’ll never fill them this year, but we’ll do our best.
Dubai Honour is a very special little horse. He had a great year in 2021 but probably wasn't at his best last year, wasn’t quite himself, but he's definitely back to it now and it's great to see him get his head in front again.
It was nice to win with Protagonist last weekend in Australia and now Dubai Honour winning the Ranvet has made it a great start to the year for us. It meant a very early start to the morning, but it was worth getting up for, as you can imagine.
Dubai Honour won very well. He got a lovely run round and picked up in the straight to win easily I thought. I was impressed with him, and his last three furlongs were quicker than Anamoe on the same card and also the [six-furlong] Golden Slipper. I think he did well.
I was very concerned about the ground, because last weekend for Protagonist’s race it was like a road, firmer than ideal for him. But they assured me the track was on the five side of a good four and Chris Waller told me the track was fantastic, so we decided to gamble and run and that was a great result.
While it was quick it was safe, and all we ask in England is that when it’s quick it’s safe. He's won on good ground before. He won on good ground at Newmarket but most of his Group form has been on softer ground including the second in the Champion Stakes. We're lucky, we got away with it today. We'd still like some more rain but delighted with the horse, he's been really tough.
He just looks amazing, he's really been enjoying the Australian lifestyle. He thinks it's a big holiday and he really really enjoys it. Another crack at the Queen Elizabeth Stakes has always been the plan for him next, and I just hope we get a bit of rain that week and some slowish ground. All the horses we’ve sent to Australia want a bit of cut in the ground but it’s been hot and the ground is quick.
It was sad for Tom {Marquand], but Ryan {Moore] was out there to ride in the Golden Slipper, which he also won, and when I heard he was going it wasn’t a difficult decision for us as Ryan is world class, as we all know.
Dubai Honour’s owner [Moihammed Obaida] is a Dubaian and he wanted to have a crack at the Sheema Classic last year, but the ground was too hard for him there and he probably wasn’t good enough. He had a poor year, really. He didn’t 
run badly, but we were training him through a very hot summer and it just didn’t really happen for him.
But he wintered so well this time and was looking so much better than he had 12 months ago that we hoped we had him back on song, which he proved he was.
I’m going to make an entry for him on Monday in the mile and a quarter race in Hong Kong [FWD QEII Cup], but at the moment that’s just 50-50. We’ll just see how we go.
• William Haggas was speaking at Graham Dench
• Visit the Great British Racing International website
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