HRH Prince A A Faisal was studying in America as Secretariat carried all before him. The horse’s sweep of the Triple Crown remains a benchmark for Thoroughbred excellence nearly 50 years on, yet it is for his versatility, namely those equally dominant successes on turf in the Man O’War Stakes and Canadian International, that prompts Prince Faisal to today reflect fondly upon his achievements.
“I was studying in the U.S. back then and would watch Secretariat on TV,” he recalls. “I spent about six months going back through the old films of racehorses after that, watching all the top horses, and then I’d go through and research their pedigrees.
“Secretariat could run on anything, dirt or turf, which is something that you don’t see very often. And Dubai Millennium was the same.”
History tells us that it takes a rare horse to perform at the top level on both surfaces, whether through the constraints of adaptability or a lack of desire by people to experiment. Which brings the performances of the Prince’s own homebred, Mishriff, for John and Thady Gosden into sharper focus.
Rather like his great-great-grandsire, Dubai Millennium, here is a horse with an extraordinary ability to act effectively on differing surfaces. With his head bowed low, his long stride often propelling him towards a target, he has answered every question posed during a tough 4-year-old campaign that began with victories in the $20 million Saudi Cup at Riyadh and Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan, and most recently continued with a 6-length romp in the Juddmonte International at York.
In addition, he was also one of the leading lights of last year’s 3-year-old generation when successful in the G1 Prix du Jockey Club and G2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano.
Mishriff is currently the third-highest-ranked Thoroughbred in the world on the TRC Global Rankings.
In the process, the son of Make Believe has won seven of 13 starts at 2-4 years and over £11 million in prize money.
Talk to anyone involved with Mishriff and admiration of the same qualities come to the fore, notably a mental and physical toughness that stood him in good stead when travelling back and forth from Newmarket to Saudi Arabia and Dubai earlier this year. Along the way, he has defeated various international stars, lowering the colours of the top American colts Charlatan and Knicks Go (currently world #11) in the Saudi Cup on Riyadh’s dirt and running down the Japanese mares Chrono Genesis (world #10) and Loves Only You to win the Sheema Classic back on turf.,
He was given a break following those travels and has since progressed markedly through a 3-race summer campaign in Britain, succumbing only to a lack of match race fitness when third in the G1 Eclipse Stakes before finding 1m4f a stretch too far when second in the G1 King George. It all then came together for the Juddmonte International, in which he powered away from the likes of Alenquer and 5-time G1 winner Love to win by a widening margin.
With the colt reported to have thrived physically since, it would take a brave man to suggest that he won’t progress again.
“He is an amazing horse and certainly the toughest I have owned,” says Prince Faisal. “Right at the beginning, it was hard to tell how good he was as he’s not scintillating in the morning. With that low head carriage and long stride, it never looks like he’s doing too much. But he can carry his speed right the way through a race and he can quicken off a good pace.
“John had the impossible mission, to go to Saudi Arabia and then to Dubai. None of us were sure what would happen when he arrived in Dubai, but he looked magnificent and Thady did an excellent job with him. He’s a horse that takes travelling well as well, and he has this fantastic mental strength.”
The colt has also forged an excellent relationship with Prince Faisal’s retained jockey, 22-year-old David Egan.
“Mishriff runs well for David,” says the Prince. “He doesn’t fight him, he lets him get his rhythm and then asks him to do what he wants. I’m confident that he is a top-class jockey in the making."
Assisted by Ted Voute, Prince Faisal is well placed through his long-held experience to appreciate the intricacies surrounding breeding such a good horse. An avid rider in his native Saudi Arabia, he jumped into racehorse ownership during the early 1980s and celebrated his first winner when Kareem won at Chester’s May meeting in 1980 for Peter Walwyn.
Bedrock of success
“I was born into racing,” he remembers. “We had 126 horses right next to the house. They were all Arabs and they raced every Friday. I loved riding. I first sat on a horse when I was 3 or 4-years-old, and we would ride as a family with friends every day.”
British racing, in particular, has been all the richer for his interest. In an involvement that spans four decades, his maroon silks with grey epaulettes have been carried by numerous high-class performers, many of them reflective of a successful association with John Dunlop. Today, the string is split between the Gosdens, Andre Fabre, William Haggas and Roger Varian.
Several of Prince Faisal’s better runners have been sourced at auction, including early highlights Midyan and Sanam, both of whom were selected by the owner at the Kentucky summer sales, alongside the recent European G1 winners Make Believe and Belardo. Others, including Mishriff, hail from an umbrella breeding operation, Nawara Stud, that has been nurtured for decades.
The bedrock of its success is the Artaius mare Eljazzi, notably through her daughter Rafha, the 1990 Prix de Diane heroine who later foaled the leading sires Invincible Spirit, a G1-winning sprinter in his own right, and Kodiac.
Standout performer
It is another talented foal out of Rafha, the G3 winner Acts Of Grace, who today features as the granddam of Mishriff. And, in a further testament to connections, Mishriff hails from the first crop of the Prince’s Classic winner Make Believe. The son of Makfi, an 180,000gns foal purchase through Hugo Merry, stands at Ballylinch Stud in Ireland.
“I remember when we bought Make Believe that I hadn’t planned to buy anything that year,” recalls the Prince. “I just came to Tattersalls to look at the foals by the new stallions. And at the back of where Ted’s [Voute] consignment was, I saw this foal, a good-looking foal with a rather nice walk. I fell in love with him and bought him.”
Sent to Andre Fabre, Make Believe turned out to be the standout performer of Makfi’s first crop, winning the 2015 Poule d’Essai des Poulains and Prix de la Foret. To date, he is the sire of six stakes winners, three of whom were bred by the Prince.
“From five mares to Make Believe, we have got three black-type horses, so we’ve been very lucky with him,” says the Prince. “After Mishriff won the Newmarket Stakes so easily last year, it was suggested that he should go for a Group 3, but I said to John, ‘let’s run him in the French Derby, he’s by a first-year stallion, if he places, it’s good for Make Believe’. Much to my delight, he won.
“We’ve also had Tammani by Make Believe, who won a listed race, and Notable Grace has won the Prix Chloe this year.”
He adds: “Make Believe stamps his stock. They’re all nice, very correct, quality horses with great power. He’s a quality horse himself. I remember Andre Fabre saying after the Foret that, if he stayed in training as a 4-year-old, then he would like to cut him back and try him over 6 furlongs, so he also had a lot of speed."
The Eljazzi family has been a key element to Nawara’s success for over 30 years, with the mare having been purchased by the Prince for 92,000gns as a yearling at the 1982 Tattersalls Houghton Sale through Major Johnnie Lewis.
Bred by Captain Tim Rogers’ Airlie Stud, she was a daughter of the Eclipse and Sussex Stakes winner Artaius, a Round Table horse who was one of an army of stallions Rogers stood at that time under his Airlie umbrella, and out of the 1968 Yorkshire Oaks runner-up Border Bounty. That made her a half-sister to the high-class miler Pitcairn, the British and Irish champion sire of 1980 in the year that his son Ela-Mana-Mou won the King George.
“I liked her pedigree,” recalls the Prince. “She was small but she had fantastic hindquarters. She was a funny filly because she walked beautifully if you looked at her from behind but not so beautifully in front. I had to be very careful who I sent her to because of that.”
Major influence
Eljazzi showed promise for Henry Cecil when winning a Leicester maiden by four lengths on debut in the autumn of 1983. But she never won again after that and it was at stud that she ultimately flourished, primarily as the dam of Rafha and G2 winner Chiang Mai. A major influence, her line is currently at its strongest through Rafha yet also covers the likes of Pinatubo, Pride Of Dubai and James Garfield through other daughters.
Rafha, her first foal, was a daughter of Lord Howard de Walden’s top miler Kris.
“I sent her [Eljazzi] to Kris, who was doing very well at stud [as the British and Irish champion sire of 1985] and stood for £80,000,” says the Prince. “Everyone said it wasn’t worth it. They thought I was crazy because she had only won a maiden. They also told me that her family ‘had never done anything with Kris’. I looked it up and they were right - but only because none of them had gone to him!”
It has become part of racing folklore how Rafha’s diminutive stature prompted her trainer, Henry Cecil, to liken her as being ‘knee high to a bumble bee’. It didn’t stop her, however.
Size no problem
“I decided early on that Rafha was going to be the one for me,” says the Prince. “Yes, she was small. But I’ve never looked at a horse as small or big, I look at them as a horse. If you go through history, some of the best in the world have been small, like Hyperion and Northern Dancer. And then a lot of them have been big as well.
“Rafha had speed, she had a turn of foot and she was gutsy.”
Rafha made four starts at 2 and progressed through each one to ultimately land the May Hill Stakes at Doncaster. At 3, it was decided that she would not run in the 1000 Guineas to avoid a clash with Salsabil. Instead, she was trained with an Oaks in mind and was ultimately sent to the Prix de Diane, which she won well under Willie Carson.
Rafha was retired after that and went on to become an astonishing producer as the dam of 11 winners to a wide range of stallions. Of those 11, four were stakes winners, namely Invincible Spirit (by Green Desert), winner of the G1 Haydock Sprint Cup, Sadian (by Shirley Heights), winner of the G3 John Porter Stakes, Acts Of Grace (by Bahri), winner of the G3 Princess Royal Stakes, and listed scorer Massara (by Danehill; dam of champion Nayarra and the G1-placed Gustav Klimt). There was also the G3-placed Kodiac (by Danehill), like Invincible Spirit now a major sire.
Mishriff is the third foal out of Acts Of Grace’s winning Raven’s Pass daughter Contradict. Each of Contradict’s foals of racing age have won black type, with Mishriff following listed winner Orbaan (a son of Invincible Spirit and therefore inbred to Rafha) and the G3-placed Momkin. The mare has suffered ill breeding luck in recent seasons although did foal a colt by Frankel earlier this year.
“I sent Rafha to Kentucky to use Bahri [then standing at Shadwell Farm] because I wanted to use a Never Bend line horse,” says the Prince. “Bahri had been a very good miler for John Dunlop, and that’s how I bred Acts Of Grace, who John trained to win the Princess Royal Stakes. Her daughter Contradict was a lovely filly who also won for us.”
He adds: “It is very rewarding to breed any good horse but Mishriff especially. He has got Rafha’s personality. He’s a good-natured horse but in a race he fights - that family are very competitive and they love to win.
"He surprised me after the race at York as he wasn’t tired. He was playing around when he came back in, as if he was going back out of the paddock to race again. You can see that he enjoys it.”
So what next for Mishriff? A host of options await him, although enthusiasm for the Breeders’ Cup Classic is tempered by Del Mar’s short straight.
Will he run at five?
Naturally, he has also prompted a wealth of interest from stud masters worldwide.
“You can see in his last three races that he has improved in every one of them,” says the Prince. “I saw him at John’s the other day and he’s a happy horse - he’s filled out again even since his last ace.
“I don’t know where he’ll run next but he’s in the Arc, Champion Stakes, Breeders’ Cup Classic and Japan Cup, and they are all options.
“We have been approached by quite a few studs and we are talking to them all. But the decision will be made later on, not now. I’m sure he’ll be an even better 5-year-old because he’ll fill that frame and then he’ll be a monster. So that’s an option as well.”
Some big decisions are on the horizon, but in the meantime, connections continue to enjoy the journey. Regardless of where he stands, the Prince hopes to support him, as he does with all his horses who have gone on to stand at stud.
Good inbreeding pattern
One such animal is the 2001 Prix Jean Prat winner Olden Times. Now aged 23 and at Throckmorton Court Stud in Worcestershire, the son of Darshaan is utilised as a route into the Never Bend sire line.
“It’s a shame we’re losing that Never Bend and Darshaan line,” says the Prince. “Olden Times is a beautiful horse and was a very good miler - I remember seeing him outwork Invincible Spirit at John Dunlop’s. I believe in that Never Bend branch of breeding - just think, they all did their bit to make Sadler’s Wells.
“Right now, I have three mares by Olden Times and I think he’s going to be a great broodmare sire. The first one I have out of one of his daughters is Notable Grace and she has already won a Group race.”
As for Mishriff, the Prince has already earmarked daughters of Nayarra, his G1-winning granddaughter of Rafha, to visit the horse.
“I think inbreeding to Rafha will become a good pattern,” he says. “And Mishriff is from a great sire line as well. It’s a shame Dubai Millennium died so young. I think there could have been ten Dubawis by now if he had stayed alive.”
Mishriff will be in an excellent position to extend that legacy when he goes to stud; well bred, sound and talented, he deserves to attract the attention of the world’s leading breeders. Until then, he is there to be enjoyed as one of the most versatile and consistent top-level performers to have graced the sport in recent years.