Equilateral A First For Hills

[Wandering Eyes]

Juddmonte Farms’ Equilateral (GB) (Equiano {Fr}) holds the disctinction of being the first winner at the Dubai International Racing Carnival for trainer Charlie Hills after cruising to victory in the listed Dubai Dash on the turf at Meydan.

Held up early on in the five-furlong sprint, the 5-year-old eased into contention in the second half to run home two lengths clear of Sheikh Hamdan’s Waady (Ire) (Approve {Ire}), with a close call for third when Shadwell’s other runner Rusumaat (Ire) (Arcano {Ire}) narrowly gained the verdict over the Michal Appleby-trained Caspian Prince (Ire) (Dylan Thomas {Ire}).

James Doyle is no stranger to Prince Khalid Addullah’s silks and previously rode Cityscape (GB)—who is a half-brother to Equilateral’s dam—to glory for the owner-breeder in the G1 Dubai Duty Free in 2012. He made the most of a chance ride on Equilateral and said after their victory, “I sat on him earlier this week and he was pretty full of himself. He gave me a really nice feel. He couldn’t have felt better and we were pretty excited tonight. He was fresh and well in the race. We were going a good gallop and he was eager to get on with it. It was a just a case of hanging onto him as long as I could. I spoke to Ryan Moore, who has a good record with the horse, and he said the key is to just try and time it right and get there as late as you can. It wouldn’t have mattered today. He’s won very well.”

Making his first start since being gelded, Equilateral is now a five-time winner, having struck on debut at two and progressed to land last season’s listed Scarborough S. at Doncaster. His trainer is now looking ahead to group contests later in the carnival.

Hills said, “We have tried to win in Dubai for a while, so it was good to get that monkey off your back. It’s important because this country has been such a great supporter of ours through the years. There’s a Group 2 [Meydan Sprint] in a few weeks’ time with him. If we can win that, then we’ll definitely try him at the [Group 1 $2 million Al Quoz Sprint] over six furlongs.”

As previously noted, Equilateral’s dam Tarentaise (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) is a half-sister to Cityscape as well as top sprinter and Juddmonte stallion Bated Breath (GB). It is a family which boasts top-class form at both ends of the distance spectrum as another half-sibling, Scuffle (GB) (Daylami {Ire}), is the dam of last year’s St Leger winner Logician (GB) (Frankel {GB}).

Tarentaise was herself unraced and Equilateral is her first foal. She was sold at the Tattersalls July Sale of 2016 for 36,000gns to Haras d’Haspel. Her 3-year-old Tampa Dream (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) is in training in France with Francois Rohaut and she has a yearling colt by Siyouni (Fr). The mare made a return journey to Equilateral’s sire Equiano last season.

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