Godolphin’s Ghaiyyath goes into Wednesday's Group 1 Juddmonte International Stakes at York on the back of superb form with hopes high of extending his winning run to four from as many races.
The Charlie Appleby-trained five-year-old has won all three races this year and is expected to stretch that record in a field that includes Aidan O’Brien’s multiple Group 1 winner Magical, the 2000 Guineas hero Kameko and the Group 1 Prince Of Wales Stakes victor Lord North.
The feature race of the four-day Ebor Festival has drawn only five runners but it’s a quality field and Appleby is excited to be part of it.
“This could be one of the best races of the season, and it is exciting to be part of it,” Appleby told the Godolphin website.
“It is the first time the top three-year-olds will be taking on the older horses at this [over 10 furlong] trip.
"The Juddmonte was always the plan for Ghaiyyath. He has proven himself at the highest level, most recently in the Eclipse, where he was coming back in distance."
Ghaiyyath began the year with an emphatic victory over stable companion Spotify in the Group 3 Dubai Millennium Stakes in the Dubai World Cup Carnival at Meydan on February 20.
Since then, he has won the Group 1 Coronation Cup Stakes in a new track-record time at Newmarket in June and the Group 1 Coral-Eclipse over the champion mare Enable at Sandown Park in July.
“I’ve been asked whether I was surprised the way he won the Coronation Cup, and the honest answer is ‘no,” Appleby said.
“You don’t win a Group 1 by 14 lengths like he did in Germany [2019 Grosser Preis Von Baden] by being just an OK horse. You’ve got to be pretty special ... and he is special.
“That day at Baden Baden, the ground rode on the fast side of good. Before that, we thought he was more comfortable on a slower surface, but what he has shown us since on quicker ground knocks that theory out of the park.
“He’s the finished article now, and that has a lot to do with it. He’s shown that he has grown up mentally and physically, and he taken his races so well this season.
“He was digging deep over the final furlong in the Eclipse, yet he came back fine. It was no harder race for him than the Coronation Cup, which he won going an end-to-end gallop over a mile and a half in record time.
“He showed maturity at Sandown. He showed he was manageable in a race, which is the result of growing up.”
William Buick who has been on board in all three wins this year is in the saddle again.
Magical spearheads the challenge and she’s coming off two impressive Group 1 victories at the Curragh.
Kameko finished fourth in his last two starts in the Epsom Derby and the Group 1 Sussex Stakes while Lord North carries the hopes of Sheikh Zayed bin Mohammed. Completing the line-up is the Group 3 Musidora Stakes winner Rose Of Kildare.
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Company: Libra Project
Based: Masdar City, ADGM, London and Delaware
Launch year: 2017
Size: A team of 12 with six employed full-time
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Funding: $500,000 in Series A funding from family and friends in 2018. A Series B round looking to raise $1.5m is now live.
Series result
1st ODI Zimbabwe won by 6 wickets
2nd ODI Sri Lanka won by 7 wickets
3rd ODI Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets
4th ODI Zimbabwe won by 4 wickets
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Prop idols
Girls full-contact rugby may be in its infancy in the Middle East, but there are already a number of role models for players to look up to.
Sophie Shams (Dubai Exiles mini, England sevens international)
An Emirati student who is blazing a trail in rugby. She first learnt the game at Dubai Exiles and captained her JESS Primary school team. After going to study geophysics at university in the UK, she scored a sensational try in a cup final at Twickenham. She has played for England sevens, and is now contracted to top Premiership club Saracens.
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Seren Gough-Walters (Sharjah Wanderers mini, Wales rugby league international)
Few players anywhere will have taken a more circuitous route to playing rugby on Sky Sports. Gough-Walters was born in Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, raised in Sharjah, did not take up rugby seriously till she was 15, has a master’s in global governance and ethics, and once worked as an immigration officer at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi. In the summer of 2021 she played for Wales against England in rugby league, in a match that was broadcast live on TV.
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Erin King (Dubai Hurricanes mini, Ireland sevens international)
Aged five, Australia-born King went to Dubai Hurricanes training at The Sevens with her brothers. She immediately struck up a deep affection for rugby. She returned to the city at the end of last year to play at the Dubai Rugby Sevens in the colours of Ireland in the Women’s World Series tournament on Pitch 1.
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Game Of Thrones Season Seven: A Bluffers Guide
Want to sound on message about the biggest show on television without actually watching it? Best not to get locked into the labyrinthine tales of revenge and royalty: as Isaac Hempstead Wright put it, all you really need to know from now on is that there’s going to be a huge fight between humans and the armies of undead White Walkers.
The season ended with a dragon captured by the Night King blowing apart the huge wall of ice that separates the human world from its less appealing counterpart. Not that some of the humans in Westeros have been particularly appealing, either.
Anyway, the White Walkers are now free to cause any kind of havoc they wish, and as Liam Cunningham told us: “Westeros may be zombie land after the Night King has finished.” If the various human factions don’t put aside their differences in season 8, we could be looking at The Walking Dead: The Medieval Years.
