He has won Group 1s in five jurisdictions, and raced in many in many more countries... and the Godolphin fan favourite might have more stops on the agenda.
He may have claimed more Group 1 prizes, but Calandagan has competition as a gelded globetrotting giant owned by a major breeding operation.
Godolphin’s Rebel’s Romance first ran in 2020, more than half a decade back, and earned success in both starts that year.
Irish-bred and foaled over eight years ago in March 2018, he’s the result of a date with Dubawi for Street Cry’s Minidress. A winner herself, progeny after ‘Rebel’s’ includes the multiple Group and Graded hero Measured Time.
With little time off after two two-year-old triumphs, Rebel’s Romance – already gelded – had his debut out east in the first month of his three-year-old year. He claimed a trial for the UAE 2,000 Guineas by a head over Mouheeb.
An attempt at the Saudi Derby only yielded fourth, but he landed a wide-margin romp in the UAE 2,000 Guineas on his return to Dubai, where it seemed likely Godolphin might have something special on its hands.
The operation would, though, have to wait until January the following year to be sure.
The 2021 Belmont was targeted, but Rebel’s Romance never made the starting gate, having developed a hind leg infection after a few workouts Stateside.
Two starts at Meydan in early 2022 lacked flair. Faith might’ve been tested.
Any doubts, however, were surely soon to be demolished as, having returned to Europe, the now four-year-old claimed every challenge put before him that summer.
First came Newmarket’s Listed Fred Archer, where he saw off three rivals by three and three-quarter lengths.
Then came the Glorious Stakes, which he won by a length, before it was on to Germany and his breakthrough Group 1, the first of two triumphs in the Grosser Preis von Baden (the other, secured last year, provided Billy Loughnane with his first top-level victory).
The 2022 Grosser Preis von Berlin was to be backed up by more Group 1 glory that season in Cologne’s Preis von Europa, before a more fruitful trip to America was made, bringing with it a two-length demolition of a dozen Breeders’ Cup Turf rivals, secured via a strong stands-side swoop under then Godolphin de facto number two jockey James Doyle.
Foreleg inflammation put pay to a run in Super Saturday’s Dubai City of Gold, and it was in the Sheema Classic on World Cup night that the Charlie Appleby charge was to make his rescheduled first appearance at five.
It was not a winning one, though his seventh place is surely understandable given the winner, Equinox, was to be crowned the year’s Longines World’s Best Racehorse and others in front of him included Westover and Mostahdaf.
Another unsuccessful trip to America – this time Saratoga – would come almost 130 days later, where he clipped heels in the Bowling Green, emerging unscathed but sending Richard Mullen tumbling to the ground and into medical supervision in Albany.
He raced again in America that autumn, running fourth in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, before finally getting one in the 2023 scoreboard when sent over the all-weather at Kempton in the Listed Wild Flower on 13th December.
The following year (by now he was six) was to be his most cosmopolitan of all, and he raced in a different country each start.
First came the HH The Amir Trophy in Qatar (which he’d win again the following year), and he chased that down by this time getting in front to claim the Sheema Classic in Dubai.
There followed a two-length success in May’s Hong Kong Champions & Chater Cup at Sha Tin, before a third-placed finish in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes back home in England, his second Preis von Europa in Germany and another Breeders’ Cup Turf, this time at Del Mar.
A third Turf wasn’t to be when the Breeders’ Cup rolled back into Del Mar last year, our hero denied by the unexpected turn of foot unleashed by Ethical Diamond, but that had been preceded by Stateside success in September’s Joe Hirsch under Frankie Dettori.
The seven-year-old season had started with his second Amir Trophy triumph, before fourth in the Sheema Classic and head-long heroics in Britain’s Yorkshire Cup.
He gained Royal Ascot glory last year too, snatching the Hardwicke over Al Riffa, before settling for third to Calandagan back at Ascot the following month, when again attempting the King George & Queen Elizabeth.
But such blemishes can serve to bolster the standing of battle-hardened old boys.
“The day he runs out of the first three will be the day we’ll sit down and have a conversation about whether he’s up to this standard,” Appleby told Kenny Rice on NBC last November.
Given he won last month’s Dubai City of Gold, the conversation presumably hasn’t happened yet.
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