SUPER Saturday at Meydan in 2026 will forever be recalled for events off the racecourse, with many of the international visitors to Dubai subsequently stranded there due to the outbreak of war in the Middle East.

It was something of a special day for the father and son Crisford team of Simon and Ed who recorded a treble, the first two legs of which were especially memorable for Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, both being out of Group 1-winning mares who raced in his familiar yellow and black silks. Meydaan is out of the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes scorer Nezwaah (Dubawi), while Quddwah’s dam, Sajjhaa (King’s Best), recorded four consecutive wins at Meydan, notably the Group 1 Jebel Hatta and Group 1 Dubai Turf. Both wins on Saturday were in Group 2 contests.

Juddmonte will also have been thrilled with these two successes, as both winners are by stallions at Banstead Manor Stud. The five-year-old Meydaan took his winnings close to €600,000 with his first pattern victory, the Group 2 Al Maktoum Classic, and he is the 71st Group/Grade 1 or 2 winner for the great Frankel (Galileo).

Daughters of Dubawi covered by Frankel have also yielded Group 1 winners Adayar, Mostahdaf, Homeless Songs and Dream Castle, in addition to Group 2 winners With The Moonlight and English Rose, both of whom placed at the top level.

Quddwah was winning for the third time in Group 2 company when triumphant in the Singspiel Stakes, as he also won the Summer Mile at Ascot and the Zabeel Mile in Meydan. This six-year-old, with €700,000 in earnings, is one of 28 Group/Grade 1 or 2 winners for Kingman (Invincible Spirit), and is bred on the same cross as fellow Group 2 winner Headman. Frankel’s fee for 2026 is £350,000 and Kingman stands at £125,000.

Meydaan is the only winner from the first four foals of racing age out of the former Roger Varian-trained Nezwaah, two of which have raced. Her win in the Curragh Group 1 was the only time that Nezwaah was in the frame in a pattern races, but she won or placed in four listed contests. She is the best of four winners to date for Ferdoos (Dansili), a 200,000gns yearling purchase who also won in Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum’s colours for Varian after he took over the licence from Michael Jarvis.

Smart racemare

Almost three decades ago, 1997 to be exact, John Gosden went to the Tattersalls Houghton Sale – then the equivalent of Book 1 today – and spent 55,000gns on a daughter of Polish Precedent (Danzig) from Meon Valley Stud. Named Noushkey, she raced six times for Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, a leading owner then thanks to racing stars such as Group 1 winners Mtoto, Possessive Dancer and Mashallah, while In The Wings carried his colours until transferring to the ownership of his brother, Sheikh Mohammed.

Noushkey was a very smart racemare who ran second to Ramruma in the Group 1 Oaks at Epsom before winning the Group 3 Lancashire Oaks on her next outing. However, she disappointed in two starts after that and headed to stud where she had five minor winners. One of these, Anaamil (Darshaan), won on her debut and ran down the field in the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes, never to appear again. Anaamil had seven winners at stud, with Quddwah’s dam Sajjhaa by some distance the most talented.

Sajjhaa raced six times at three for Sheikh Ahmed and Michael Jarvis in 2010, ending that season with a Group 3 win in Italy. She had shown decent form in England, with a win and a place in listed races. As was common at the time, she transferred to Saeed bin Suroor and put up some fine efforts in defeat, chasing Midday and Izzi Top home in group races.

At the age of six, and in a two-month period, Sajjhaa transformed herself, winning four in a row at Meydan, two Group 2 races followed by victories in the Group 1 Jebel Hatta and the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free Stakes. She had just five foals at stud, four winners and a placed runner. Quddwah’s three-parts sister Lawahed (Invincible Spirit) is the dam of the 2024 French listed-winning juvenile Yaroogh (Dubawi) who placed second in the Group 3 Horris Hill Stakes.

Can Title Role emulate Ruling Court?

THE CRISFORD treble on Super Saturday was completed when Title Role (Too Darn Hot), owned by Derrick Smith, Sue Magnier and Michael Tabor, won the Listed Jumeirah 2000 Guineas, his third victory in five starts. The race was won a year ago by Ruling Court, and on his next start he defeated Field Of Gold to capture the Group 1 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Whether Title Role is as good as last year’s winner will be revealed in time, but he has finally given his dam Valiant Girl (Lemon Drop Kid) a blacktype horse, and started to justify his 500,000gns price tag at last year’s Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale. One of the last lots in the sale, Jamie McCalmont outbid Blandford Bloodstock’s Richard Brown and signed the buyer’s chit. The sale was a spectacular pinhook success.

“I am a massive fan of the stallion, the horse did a very nice breeze, but it was the last part of the breeze that was particularly good; he galloped out very strong,” commented McCalmont at the time. “I really like the horse, and he is from a very good breeder and an Oppenheimer family. It is Anna’s only horse in the sale and a nice result for her.”

The sale was the best result yet achieved in the sales ring by Anna Calder’s Leamore Horses, and she revealed: “He was bought in partnership with New Zealand’s Go Racing in Book 2, and I am very grateful that they decided to partner with me. He has been the most straightforward horse I have had to deal with. When I was updating the owners it seemed so boring, as he is so simple. I would love to have a yard full of horses like that. All his work had been outstanding, and I knew that if he breezed as well as that we would be okay.”

Seventh winner

Title Role was purchased for 90,000gns at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale from Hascombe & Valiant Stud. He is the ninth foal out of Valiant Girl, and the seventh winner from the same number of runners. Incredibly, his win on Saturday was the first piece of blacktype earned by any of them. That said, Valiant Girl’s unraced daughter, Plucky Lass (Medaglia D’Oro), is the dam of last year’s smart juvenile Calendar Girl (Advertise). She won three of her four starts, ending with victory in the Group 3 Oh So Sharp Stakes at Newmarket. She has an entry in the 1000 Guineas.

Valiant Girl raced in the USA at four, having been a winner in England, and landed the Grade 3 My Charmer Stakes at Calder. Her full-brother Bronze Cannon (Lemon Drop Kid) was more talented, and his eight wins included a pair of Group 2 races, notably beating Campanologist in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot. Their half-brother Across The Stars (Sea The Stars) was also a Royal Ascot winner, in the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes.

As if all of that was not impressive enough, Valiant Girl’s winning full-sister Crimson Ribbon (Lemon Drop Kid) is the dam of five stakes winners, the outstanding among them being Courage Mon Ami (Frankel), the 2023 Group 1 Gold Cup winner at Royal Ascot.