Trainer Hamad Al Jehani and jockey Faleh Bughenaim teamed up to land the Canadian International for Wathnan Racing – in the process recording a notable first for their home nation
There is a frisson of danger inherent in suggesting that something is happening for the first time, is a unique occurrence. However, safer ground, a firm foothold for the word ‘first’, was found in the outcome of this month’s Canadian International, a race that this year lived lavishly up to both parts of its name.
The victory of Silawi in the venerable Woodbine contest marked the first time ever that a Qatari owner, trainer and jockey had combined for success in a globally recognised G1 race.
True, Qatari owners have become a common sight in the winner’s circle from Royal Ascot to Flemington, from Keeneland to Longchamp, but for trainer Hamad Al Jehani and jockey Faleh Bughenaim this was a pioneering milestone.
“To help put Qatar in the international spotlight, that was the important thing about it for me,” says Al Jehani, 36, who has 25 horses at his Newmarket base in his capacity as private trainer for empire-building owner Wathnan Racing.
“It was a great moment for everyone in the team, and for me as a Qatari trainer it was personally very special.”
For Bughenaim, 35, it was just as special and certainly more of a surprise, as he had been called up at the eleventh hour when the five-year-old’s intended rider Danny Tudhope was unable to travel from Britain.
“I didn’t expect it,” he says. “I had the ride on The Strikin Viking [fourth in the G2 Nearctic earlier on the Woodbine card] and that was great, that would have been enough, but then I took over on Silawi.
“I had ridden him once before, in Doha last year, but I did not think much of him. He’s a big horse, has a big action, a big stride, I didn’t like him all that much. But now he gives me my first big Grade 1 race, he’s my favourite!”
Silawi went to the Canadian International as a 10-1 second-string behind stablemate Haunted Dream, who had provided Al Jehani with an earlier taste of international success when winning the G3 Singspiel Stakes at the Toronto track in September under Rafael Hernandez.
Those expecting Silawi to perform as a pace angle to set things up for Haunted Dream imagined their assumptions validated when the gelding broke quickly and soon took over in front. Bughenaim, in an unfamiliar hot seat, knew better.
“He is a front-runner, but not a pacemaker,” he says. “And although he is a big horse he was able to use the bends very well, to save ground, and I worked on that all the way around.
“And when I kicked with 700m to go, took a three-length advantage, I didn’t think I would get caught. He has a big heart, he keeps going, it’s not easy for another horse to catch him.”
Bughenaim’s shrewd, sparing tactics on the lead proved decisive, and although Silawi’s advantage was being inexorably eroded inside the final furlong he held on obdurately to win by a nose from Tawny Port, in track record time, with the favoured 2023 Canadian International winner Nations Pride third and Haunted Dream a one-paced fifth.
“It was a great race to watch, fighting hard to win in a photo-finish,” says Al Jehani. “A big moment to celebrate, winning one of the historic races in the international calendar.
“I knew that my horses didn’t have the same level of form as Nations Pride, but I thought that if either one had the race run to suit they could have a big chance.”
Al Jehani notes that Silawi handled the track very well at Woodbine, a factor that may lead him immediately to bigger and better things, with the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar on November 1 now a potential target for the upwardly mobile son of supersire Dubawi, although he won’t have the Lasix he raced on in Canada.
The alternative is the Bahrain International Trophy the same month, which would mean a seventh stamp in his passport for the increasingly Whicker-esque Silawi, but the lure of southern California and its unrivalled prestige may tip the scales for his owner, who is naturally keen to make an impact at the Breeders’ Cup.
Wathnan Racing is the recently-formed ownership vehicle of Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, who is maintaining his extended family’s connection to the sport and had his peacock blue and gold colours carried to victory in the Dubai World Cup this year by the longshot Hit Show.
His brother is Sheikh Joaan, the principal of Al Shaqab Racing, owner of dual Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Treve and 2,000 Guineas winner Galileo Gold, among many other luminaries.
The brothers are cousins of Sheikh Fahad of Qatar Racing, whose big-name horses include multiple G1 winner Roaring Lion and another 2,000 Guineas winner in Kameko.
None of the three have ever won a race at the Breeders’ Cup, which could prompt the way for Silawi to play another pioneering role, but simply to have a horse in contention for the ‘world championships’ is dreamland for Al Jehani, who was a show jumper with the Qatari national team in his youth before getting out of the saddle and into harness as a trainer.
“My father trained horses as a hobby, and as a child I knew I would be involved with horses in some way,” he says. “I was show jumping when I was 12, there was a big focus on the show jumping team, but I finished school and spent four years at college, and after that it was difficult to go back.
“In 2014 I began training horses in Qatar, and later, when I joined up with Wathnan, they have given me a lot of support and this great opportunity. Any trainer would be really excited to be able to have runners around the world, on the international stage.”
Al Jehani’s biggest success on home soil came when Jeff Koons, also ridden by Bughenaim, won the Qatar Derby for Wathnan Racing in December 2023. Jeff Koons, a son of Frankel, had previously been trained by John & Thady Gosden in Newmarket, and a few months later Al Jehani made that trip in reverse, setting up just down the road from Gosden HQ at a yard within the historic Kremlin House Stables.
“My job is to understand the right way to train my horses. Some things are similar, some are very different. One really important thing I have found is that in the Middle East we try to make our horses sharp at the start of their races, to get away quickly.
“In Europe, this is not the case. It’s more important to keep them calm for the first half of the race, let them find their way into the race before stretching out later on. Understanding these different factors is vital for me.”
“Newmarket is the place to be for anyone involved in horse racing and I am very excited to be here,” he says.
“It was something of a culture shock, perhaps, very different from training in Qatar, but the most important thing for me is to see a different way of training horses.
Al Jehani sent out nine winners in Britain in his first year and has already topped that in 2025 with ten, plus the victories of Silawi and Haunted Dream in Canada and The Strikin Viking in the G3 Goldene Peitsche at Baden-Baden to lend the requisite international flavour to the statistics.
By his own admission, he is unlikely to compile big numbers in Britain, but will be targeting regular success overseas in the manner to which he is becoming delightedly accustomed. And he’s firmly in the boss’s good books.
“Hamad has done a tremendous job since he came to England,” says Richard Brown, Wathnan’s racing manager. “He has had a phenomenal season and the victory of Silawi in Canada is the cherry on the cake.
“That was made even more exciting because he was ridden by Faleh, who is doing very well here, a little under the radar with the limited opportunities he’s had.”
Bughenaim was a champion jockey in Qatar and relocated to Newmarket shortly after Al Jehani’s arrival, from which point he has had five winners from just 43 rides in Britain, with his Canadian triumph and the aforementioned G3 score in Germany elevating his record considerably.
“I am very happy to be in Newmarket, to show to a wider audience what I can do,” he says. “I haven’t had many winners but there has been a Grade 1, a Group 3 and a Listed race, so it has been very exciting.
“The thing I have found is that there is a very strong jockey colony here. Everyone is a good rider even when I go to the little meetings, always a top jockey in front of me, and this makes it a tough challenge for me. But I am where I want to be.”
Al Jehani and Bughenaim will head east when winter comes, following the well-worn migratory path. Al Jehani will have a barn at Meydan and spend his time between Qatar and Dubai, Bughenaim will pick up the old thread, the tie that binds, and with it stitch together another successful campaign before they both return to Britain in the spring.
They may notice a change in perception when they arrive back in the Middle East, though, outwardly towards them and inwardly towards Qatari racing as a whole.
It’s what might be termed the ‘Silawi Effect’, the consequence of reaching across the globe to redraw – just a little – the racing map, to blaze a trail so that others might see how to follow. Those who were first may not be the last.
“Everyone in Qatar racing, jockeys, trainers, owners, when they talk to me since the race in Canada they say it feels like they won too,” says Bughenaim.
“It makes me so happy that they are so happy, it really means a lot to them. They are good at what they do, they know how to race, but something like this reflects well on all of them. We are all one team, and the whole team feels like they won.”
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