Ya Hayati provides his sire with his 195th stakes winner while Soft Whisper lands 1000 Guineas
The Charlie Abbleby-trained Ya Hayati (4 g ex Wedding Toast by Street Sense) provided Darley’s Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) with his 195th stakes winner on Thursday when he won the Zabeel Turf (Listed, 2000m) at Meydan.
Ya Hayati, who had not raced since Royal Ascot last year, was settled in mid division early and then ran on well in the closing stages to beat stablemate Bright Melody (Dubawi) by a length and a quarter. It was a trifecta for Appleby with 5-2 favourite Star Safari (Sea The Stars) finishing another two and three quarters of a length back in third under William Buick.
Ya Hayati is the only winner out of dual Grade 1 winner Wedding Toast (Street Sense) from the family of multiple Grade 1 winner Congaree (Arazi) and he has now won three times from six career starts.
Winning jockey Mickael Barzalona said: “That is my first Godolphin winner in a pink cap! I won on Star Safari last year, so was happy to track him as I knew he was a good horse who would be thereabouts at the finish.
“We had a lovely run round, then he quickened well before staying on strongly. It was a good performance in a typically competitive carnival turf handicap.”
Two races later the Saeed bin Suroor-trained Soft Whisper (3 f ex Placidia by Sea The Stars) provided Dubawi with a stakes double when winning the UAE 1000 Guineas (Listed, 1600m) under Frankie Dettori.
She tracked early leader Heshmah (Kitten’s Joy) before taking the lead with 600 metres left to run and scored an easy seven length victory over the Doug Watson-trained Mnasek (Empire Maker).
“I’m not sure how good the race was, but we could have won by twice as far and she could not have been more impressive,” said Dettori.
“She seems to love that dirt surface and now has loads of options. Saeed and his team are talking about Saudi Derby, UAE Derby, UAE Oaks and all those types of races.”
Soft Whisper is out of the dual winning Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) mare Placidia who is herself a half-sister to multiple Group 2 winner Policy Maker (Sadler’s Wells). This is also the family of the three-time Group 1 winner Persian King (Kingman) who retired to stud in France this year.
