MEMORIES of a wonderful weekend in Paris for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe came flooding back when I ran into Seamus and Terese Phelan at Ballylinch Stud on Saturday during the ITM Irish Stallion Trail. The owners of Weylands Stud had broad smiles on their faces, and all thanks to a three-year-old colt named Al Haram (Iffraaj).

If you put the name Al Haram into the main racing databases you will probably find him listed as being trained by Richard Fahey and being unraced. Not so. In fact, he is in Saudi Arabia and unbeaten in three starts, trained there by Thamer Aldaihani for owner Sheikh Abdullah Homoud Almalek Alsabah. No wonder that Shem and Terese were smiling, as earlier on Saturday Al Haram earned a place in next month’s Saudi Derby when he landed that Kingdom’s 2000 Guineas.