Dayjur To Battaash: Shadwell’s Life In The Fast Lane

[Wandering Eyes]

Once in a while a track record is set which we believe may stand forever. It is, however, the nature of things that even the seemingly unbreakable marks are eventually lowered. The :56.16 seconds which it took Dayjur (Danzig) to run the straight five furlongs of the G1 Keeneland Nunthorpe S. at York on Aug. 12, 1990 seemed at the time to be a benchmark which might remain in the record books indefinitely. Needless to say, it has finally fallen, but what is particularly pleasing is that it has fallen to another horse racing in the royal blue, white epaulettes, striped cap of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum: the brilliant 5-year-old gelding Battaash (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), who ran the same course in :55.90 seconds when taking the G1 Coolmore Nunthorpe S. on Aug. 23.

Battaash was bred to sprint and at no stage in his career has he looked like being anything other than a short-distance specialist. In that he is in good company within the Shadwell fold because Sheikh Hamdan is a rarity amongst major owners of sizeable European strings in deliberately focusing on sprinters (as well, of course, as breeding and racing many high-class middle-distance and staying horses). Each year Angus Gold identifies a few likely sprinting prospects at the yearling sales to augment the homebred stock. Shadwell bought Battaash for 200,000gns at Tattersalls’s October Yearling Sale in 2015 and was back been in action at Goffs UK’s Premier Yearling Sale at Doncaster last week, including laying out £145,000 for a colt by Battaash’s sire Dark Angel out of the winning Dandy Man mare Relation Alexander (Ire), and £125,000 for a full-brother to the stakes-winning Dark Angel filly Easton Angel (Ire).

With Dayjur it was slightly different because, although he had plenty of speed on both sides of his pedigree and was a ball of muscle, he was initially tried over farther, being campaigned as if a mile might be within his compass. The first start of his 3-year-old campaign in 1990 came over seven furlongs in the Free Handicap at Newmarket’s Craven Meeting, a race often used to see if prospective Guineas contenders are likely to have the stamina to step up to a mile two and a half weeks later. By finishing unplaced behind Anshan (Ire) (Persian Bold {Ire}) after travelling easily through the race, Dayjur made it plain that he needed to drop down in distance rather than to step up, but that was fine. In those pre-Commonwealth Cup days it was the norm to try very fast horses as potential Classic contenders before reverting to sprinting if and when they had shown that that would be their forte. Dayjur was not alone in that respect among top sprinters of that era, the likes of Marwell (Ire) (Habitat), Habibti (Ire) (Habitat), Chief Singer (Ire) (Ballad Rock {Ire}), Green Desert (Danzig), Ajdal (Northern Dancer), Royal Academy (Nijinsky) and Mr Brooks (GB) (Blazing Saddles {Aus}) all winning their championship sprints only after having competed over farther. In the cases of Ajdal and Mr Brooks, farther meant running in the Derby.

The seven furlongs of the Free Handicap, though, was as far as Dayjur ever ran. Kept subsequently to sprints, he showed himself to be one of the greats by taking successively the G2 Temple S. over five furlongs at Sandown, the G2 King’s Stand S. over five furlongs at Royal Ascot, the G1 Nunthorpe S. over five furlongs at York, the G1 Vernons Sprint Cup over six furlongs at Haydock and the G1 Prix de l’Abbaye over 1000m at Longchamp. Only self-induced misfortune (when he jumped the shadow of part of the grandstand in the final strides, thus ceding the lead to Safely Kept {Horatius} and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory) prevented him from topping off his record with a win in the GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint over six furlongs on the dirt at Belmont Park.

By the time that Dayjur was winning those races, Sheikh Hamdan had already raced one Derby winner, his homebred 1989 hero Nashwan (Blushing Groom). He would shortly breed and race another, Erhaab (Chief’s Crown) scoring at Epsom in 1994. However, it seems likely that Dayjur’s brilliance fired his owner’s enthusiasm for racing sprinters because ever since then he has generally always had a few specialist short-distance horses in among the ranks of the Classic-bred stars which are the stock in trade of any top-level racing operation.

Battaash, whose pedigree points strongly towards him racing over short distances and being very good at it, is the perfect example but there have been many others in the 29 years between Dayjur’s record-breaking run up the Knavesmire and Battaash’s even more brilliant performance over the same strip of turf. Most notable among those who came in the interim was Muhaarar (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), who earned himself a particular place in the Shadwell heart with his four Group 1 sprinting triumphs in the summer of 2015 by virtue of the fact that he is a homebred. He now stands on the Shadwell roster at Nunnery Stud in Norfolk and it would be no surprise to see him come up with Sheikh Hamdan’s next Nunthorpe hero.

Sheikh Hamdan might, of course, have to wait a while before having another horse who can follow in Battaash’s footsteps by winning the Nunthorpe for no reason other than that, as a gelding who appears to be thriving on his racing and becoming even better as he matures, Battaash could well have several more years of racing ahead of him. And, judging on the utter dominance which he displayed last week, he is going to be very hard to beat in any future runnings of that race which he contests. No doubt there is a certain feeling of wistfulness in the Shadwell ranks that Battaash will never be able to retire to join the roster at either Nunnery or Derrinstown, but the breeding side of the operation’s loss is very definitely the racing side’s gain.

Shadwell Stud Director Richard Lancaster has seen some wonderful horses carry Sheikh Hamdan’s silks over the 34 years in which he has worked for the operation. Fresh from a trip to York last Friday to cheer home not just Battaash in the Nunthorpe but also the exciting 2-year-old Molatham (GB) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) in the British Stallion Studs EBF Convivial Maiden 40 minutes later, Lancaster reflected on the brilliant sprinters who have showcased Shadwell’s love affair with speed.

“Dayjur and Battaash are very similar horses, just typical specialist sprinters,” he said. “Dayjur was a small, very muscular, typical Danzig horse. Battaash is only a bit bigger and he too is very much in the sprinter mould.

“Muhaarar is slightly different in that he is more in the miler mould–maybe that’s the Linamix in him–but he just had exceptional speed. And actually when you look at him now, you see the strength and power that generates that speed, and that’s a comment which you could have made about all three of these brilliantly fast horses.

“Sheikh Maktoum raced Green Desert [who is Muhaarar’s grandsire and also appears in Battaash’s pedigree via Invincible Spirit] but he stood here at Nunnery throughout his stud career. He was another very typical Danzig horse and if you ever wanted to see power, you only had to stand behind him and see where it was all generated from. We’ve been privileged to have some fabulous sprinters, and at the stud it was very fitting when Muhaarar arrived to take the place of his grandsire.”

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