Is Pride Of Dubai on the cusp of a surprise victory?
Trevor Marshallsea takes a closer look at the Coolmore stallion’s extraordinary season so far
Since late last year, the Australian breeding world has been waiting for him to drop from his lofty perch and shuffle back to a more expected place on the nation’s general sires’ table.
But with 15 Saturdays left in the season, it’s drawing closer to the time when we may have to start believing the unbelievable: Pride Of Dubai (Street Cry) might just pull off the champion sire title.
Coolmore’s vastly underrated stallion – who stood at $22,000 (all fees inc. GST) last season, ranking seventh among the farm’s 13 stallions – had led the charts since Bella Nipotina’s win in The Everest (Gr 1, 1200m) in October.
He was finally passed on top by Widden flagbearer Zoustar (Northern Meteor) after his daughter Joliestar won the VRC Newmarket (Gr 1, 1200m) on March 8, and most assumed normal order had been restored.
But a late cameo from an Irish-bred son in Dubai Honour – injecting $1.75 million from two Sydney runs – has helped shunt Pride Of Dubai back to the number 1 spot.
That gelding’s $850,000 second in Saturday’s Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), as well as bolter Surf ’N’ Sand’s heroic second in the Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) at $51, have given Pride Of Dubai a lead of more than $1.2 million over Zoustar on the progeny earnings list.
And with the autumn’s major riches over – and with his daughter Pride Of Jenni set to target the Brisbane winter – that might just be enough to claim one of the most unlikely champion sire titles in modern history.
Pride Of Dubai shot to the top of the progeny earnings chart when one of his star daughters, Bella Nipotina, took the $20 million The Everest at Randwick last October.
For good measure, she added to that $7.5 million prize two weeks later by taking the Russell Balding Stakes (1300m) which, while itself worth only $3 million, brought her a $3.7 million payday including a $2 million bonus for completing that double.
That two-race, a $11.2 million windfall would boost any sire to the top of the table, in the same way the even more unsung Scissor Kick (Redoute’s Choice) got there, temporarily, when his son Giga Kick won the Everest of 2022.
But while most have expected Pride Of Dubai to eventually return to a more likely place somewhere lower down the general sires’ top ten, the 12-year-old has continued to defy expectations, refusing to go away as a host of “support act” runners have kept his flag flying.
Last spring, the 12-year-old stallion proved himself no one-trick pony when some other of his progeny put themselves forward.
Pride Of Jenni – a superstar in 2023-24 who helped him finish a lofty fourth on the sires’ table that year – might not have replicated that form in the spring but still tipped in almost $1.4 million, thanks mainly to her King Charles III Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) second placing ($850,000) and her sole victory of the campaign in the Feehan Stakes (Gr 2, 1600m).
Import Deny Knowledge – a “reinforcement” to her sire’s Australian stocks, having been borne of his two seasons shuttling to Ireland – had one placing in four spring runs, but it came in winning the $1 million Caulfield Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m).
Still, Pride Of Jenni was retired at the end of that spring preparation, and considering Bella Nipotina would go the same way without another run in 2025, as far as Pride Of Dubai’s champion sire claims, hindsight would suggest that was that.
But other events have kept him at the top.
Pride Of Jenni made an autumn comeback, winning the $500,000 Peter Young Stakes (Gr 2, 1800m). She then failed in the Australian Cup (Gr 1, 2000m) – but in the same race Deny Knowledge took second, and $450,000, one start after winning Caulfield’s $175,000 Victoria Gold Cup (Listed, 200m).
However, Zoustar (Northern Meteor) was still closing in on Pride Of Dubai’s top rung, with Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) and the winner of the past three titles – I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) – surging behind him.
Surely Pride Of Dubai had had his fun. How many $22,000 stallions can expect to be crowned king, after all? The previous eight titles had been won by sires standing that year at an average of $200,000 – in I Am Invincible (three times), Written Tycoon, and Snitzel (four times).
Then, just as Zoustar took his spot, seemingly out of nowhere the cavalry rode in for Pride Of Dubai.
Another Irish-bred, Dubai Honour – the seven-year-old presumably long gone having been last seen in these parts two years ago – returned to take the Tancred Stakes (Gr 1, 2400m), restoring Pride Of Dubai to the top of the standings.
William Haggas’s gelding followed that $900,000 payday with his $850,000 effort on Saturday, when second behind Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock) in the Queen Elizabeth.
Two races earlier, from even further out of left field, an unheralded Pride Of Dubai daughter – Sun ’N’ Sand – very nearly caused a major upset in the Australian Oaks, coming within 0.39 lengths of the raging odds-on favourite Treasurethe Moment (Alabama Express).
Trained out of Canberra by Barbara Joseph and Paul and Matt Jones, Sun ’N’ Sand – who cost $40,000 at Inglis Classic – won a relatively modest $190,000 for her second place.
But the two seconds for that filly and Dubai Honour have helped give Pride Of Dubai a kick into the home straight that will make him hard to run down in the last three-and-a-half months of the season, now the height of the autumn is done.
After Saturday, his progeny’s earnings for the season stood at $21,087,927. He’s $1,277,276 ahead of Zoustar, on $19,823,601. Then comes Snitzel with $18,341,997, and I Am Invincible on $17,154,867.
There are still sizeable riches to come this season at the Adelaide and Brisbane carnivals, but the likelihood the main chasing trio may share much of that out amongst themselves gives Pride Of Dubai an undeniable chance of clinging on for what would be a remarkable first champion sires’ title.
Furthermore, while Surf ’N’ Sand has been sent for a spell, Pride Of Jenni’s owner Tony Ottobre confirmed to ANZ Bloodstock News on Sunday the mare would push on to run in the $1 million Doomben Cup (Gr 1, 2200m) on May 24, possibly also contesting the lower grade but still richer $1.2 million Q22 (Gr 2, 2200m) at Eagle Farm on June 15.
“She’ll go around in the Doomben Cup at this stage,” Ottobre said. “She had a couple of issues [out of the Australian Cup] that we’ve worked on but she’ll be fine for the Doomben Cup, and maybe the Q22 after that. It’ll only be a couple of runs and that’ll be her for the campaign.”
Ottobre added the triple Group 1 winning seven-year-old would likely campaign into the spring.
“We’re not thinking about retiring her at the moment,” he said. “She’s going well, and enjoying what she’s doing.”
As for this season, Pride Of Jenni might fittingly be the one to put the seal on her father’s champion sires’ title, which would be a lasting tribute to the two-time Group 1–winning stallion, even if it were also to be his last.
If that proved the case, he would join other one-time winners this century in Flying Spur (Danehill) in 2006-07, Lonhro (Octagonal) in 2010-11, Exceed And Excel (Danehill) in 2012-13, Street Cry (Machiavellian) in 2015-16, and the still active Written Tycoon (Iglesia), who won the 2021-22 title.
Regardless of the outcome of this tense general sires’ race, Pride Of Dubai could potentially receive a service fee bump when Coolmore set their 2025 schedule in the next fortnight, which will include a starting price for three-year-old Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Switzerland (Snitzel).
Pride Of Dubai, who raced only five times for two juvenile top tier wins in the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m), is set to have a couple of quieter seasons in the next few years.
After serving 202 mares at $38,500 in Covid-hit 2020, in the next two seasons he served small books of 30 (at $22,000) and 54 (at $16,500). He sired 21 and 29 live foals in those two years respectively.
Dubai Honour’s dual Group 1-winning 2023 autumn, and the emergence of Pride Of Jenni, helped him to cover 102 mares at $27,500 that year, before the mare’s stunning 2023-24 season lifted him to 162 covers last spring.
Those smaller books have contributed to Pride Of Dubai barely figuring on the yearling sale landscape this year and last.
In 2024, he had seven yearlings sold at an average of $48,428, while this year, he’s had four at $40,000 – with none sold in either year at the prime Magic Millions Gold Coast or Inglis Easter auctions.
Those are intriguing stats for a stallion who may be about to be crowned Australia’s champion sire – joining names such as Redoute’s Choice (Danehill), Fastnet Rock (Danehill), Snitzel, I Am Invincible and Danehill (Danzig) himself among those to take the title this century.
When contacted on Sunday by ANZ, Widden’s Antony Thompson was left to doff his cap to Pride Of Dubai, but was not quite running up the white flag for Zoustar – who stood for more than 12 times his rival’s fee last year at $275,000 – as he also pursues his first general sires title.
“We did have the lead for a week or two there, but then Dubai Honour snatched it back for Pride Of Dubai,” Thompson said.
“We’re still a chance, especially with Bella Nipotina retired, and it looks like Dubai Honour won’t run again in Australia this time out.
“There’s still Brisbane and Adelaide to go, so if Zoustar won a couple of nice races and had a few other winners he might get there, but it’d be touch and go.”
Going by winners alone, Zoustar is in front on 332, ten clear of I Am Invincible. Pride Of Dubai ranks a more sobering 20th, with 71.
Snitzel leads the way by stakes winners with 14, ahead of the 12 of Zoustar, I Am Invincible and Written Tycoon, with Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) next on ten.