IN November, Richard Scahill and Michael Begley paid €10,500 at Goffs for Dabana. The then three-year-old daughter of Iffraaj (Zafonic) had been placed on four of her six starts for His Highness the Aga Khan, trained by Dermot Weld.

Transferred to Mark Fahey, Dabana has run twice for new connections, and after a promising placed effort on her first outing at Dundalk, she won 12 days later. She has also had a further boost since her purchase, as her year-younger half-brother Dabirann (Oasis Dream) won after she was bought, at Dundalk in December, and he recently sold at the Goffs February Sale for €30,000 to Youssef Mohammed Alturaif’s YMT Farm, and will continue his racing career in Saudi Arabia.

Dabana and Dabirann are the first two foals from their Siyouni (Pivotal) dam Dabulena, twice a winner in just five starts. She has a couple of youngstock to look forward to, a two-year-old daughter of Gleneagles (Galileo) and a yearling colt by Teofilo (Galileo). Dabulena has three winning siblings, the most talented of which is Dabiyr (Redoute’s Choice), and he won a listed race at Moonee Valley in Australia.

This is an Aga Khan family that has spread its wings, and also shown prowess under both codes of racing. Dabulena’s dam Dabista (Highest Honor), bought by Rathasker Stud, is a half-sister to the Group 3-placed Dabiroun (Desert Prince), and he was a runaway winner of the then Listed Fred Winter Juvenile Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, trained by Paul Nolan. Sadly Dabiroun died as a five-year-old.

Meanwhile, Dabista’s unraced half-sister bred Princess Zahra (Oratorio), whose 12 wins in Turkey included an international listed race, and she in turn bred Malones (Kaneko) who also won a listed race, but beat her dam with 13 victories.