Dubai Love (GB) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) had already proved she stayed a mile as a juvenile and back up to that distance in the Listed UAE 1000 Guineas she was able to turn the tables with the favoured Final Song (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), to whom she had finished fourth in the trial three weeks earlier.
In this instance Final Song had to settle for third behind her stablemate, continuing a good start to Thursday's Meydan meeting for trainer Saeed Bin Suroor and Godolphin, who also won the opening handicap with progressive 4-year-old with Dubai Future (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and later notched a treble with Laser Show (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) in the Al Bastikaya Trial.
“I knew this filly would stay,” said jockey Pat Cosgrave after Dubai Love had become the eighth black-type winner for her young sire. “She has a mile and a quarter written all over her and I think she's come on from her first run here. I was quietly confident and she ran a massive race. She beat [Final Song] and I was impressed with the way she ran in the straight. I said to Saeed that after her last run, she will be a staying filly for the Oaks.”
On his first- and third-place finishers, bin Suroor said, “Final Song is classy and has ran well, but not stayed. Whereas Dubai Love, who ran well behind her in the Trial, has seen the trip out very well. The 1900m of the UAE Oaks should really suit her.”
Breaking well, Dubai Love, one of four runners for Godolphin in the nine-strong field, took up a stalking position on the rail behind early leader Down On Da Bayou (Super Saver) with Final Song also prominent through the race to the outside. Steadying the tempo on the turn, Down On Da Bayou stepped up the pace again in the stretch to be briefly headed by Final Song before the eventual winner laid down her determined challenge and took command with a furlong to run. Down On Da Bayou came out on top in the battle for the runner-up slot, finishing 3¼ lengths behind Dubai Love, with Final Song another two lengths back ahead of a strung-out field.
Making just her fourth start and second in the country for which she is named, Dubai Love, a wining debutante last October, is another promising individual from the first crop of the Darley stallion Night Of Thunder, who was the leading first-season sire in Europe in 2019. Bred by Petches Farm, the filly was bought as a foal by Godolphin at Tattersalls for 120,000gns. Her dam Devotion (Ire) (Dylan Thomas {Ire}) was a winner at two and later runner-up in the G3 Derrinstown Stud 1000 Guineas Trial and has produced two other multiple winners, Faithful Promise (GB) (Acclamation {GB}) and Nick Vedder (GB) (Rip Van Winkle {Ire}). Grandam Bright Bank (Ire) is a half-sister to the Irish 1000 Guineas-placed My Branch (GB), who is in turn the dam of crack sprinter Tante Rose (Ire). Dubawi and another of his sons, Makfi (GB), have also worked well with the family in the past to produce the Group/Grade 1-winning three-quarter siblings Dubawi Heights (GB) and Make Believe (GB), both of whom are out of My Branch's daughter Rosie's Posy (Ire).
Devotion has a 2-year-old colt by Pivotal (GB), a yearling colt by Iffraaj (GB) and was covered last year by Cracksman (GB).
UAE 1000 GUINEAS (SPONSORED BY MINA HAMRIYA)-Listed, $250,000, Meydan, 1-23, NH3yo & SH3yo, f, 1600m, 1:37.98, ft.
1–DUBAI LOVE (GB), 126, f, 3, by Night of Thunder (Ire)
1st Dam: Devotion (Ire) (GSP-Ire), by Dylan Thomas (Ire)
2nd Dam: Bright Bank (Ire), by Sadler's Wells
3rd Dam: Pay the Bank (GB), by High Top (Ire)
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN. (120,000gns Wlg '17 TATDEC).
O-Godolphin; B-Petches Farm Ltd (GB); T-Saeed bin Suroor;
J-Pat Cosgrave. $150,000. Lifetime Record: 4-2-0-1, $162,908.
*8th SW for his second-season sire (by Dubawi {Ire}).
2–Down On Da Bayou, 126, f, 3, Super Saver–Bayou Tortuga, by
Empire Maker. ($220,000 RNA Wlg '17 KEENOV; $150,000 Ylg
'18 KEESEP; €190,000 2yo '19 ARQMAY). O-Sheikh Hamdan bin
Mohammed Al Maktoum; B-McCann Bloodstock, Mark Kelder
& Doug Richards (KY); T-Salem bin Ghadayer. $50,000.
3–Final Song (Ire), 126, f, 3, Dark Angel (Ire)–Rahiyah, by Rahy.
O/B-Godolphin (IRE); T-Saeed bin Suroor. $25,000.
Margins: 3 1/4, 2, 5HF.
Also Ran: Rio Angie, Ascot Brass (Swe), Silent Night (Swe), Havana Red (GB), Silent Wave (GB), Chasing Dreams (GB).
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