Andrew Caulfield, March 26, 2002 – Essence of Dubai

P EDIGREE INSIGHTS both the UAE 2000 Guineas and Derby in Dubai this winter, these wins were gained by margins of only a BY ANDREW CAULFIELD nose and half a length. UAE DERBY-G2, $2,000,000, Nad al Sheba, 3-23, Perhaps he’s a colt who does no more than NH/SH 3yo, 2000m, 2:02.90, ft. necessary, but it’s a fact that he administered pretty 1--ESSENCE OF DUBAI, 119, c, 3, by Pulpit much the same beating to Ibn Al Haitham in the UAE 1st Dam: Epitome (Ch. 2yo Filly, GISW, $631,755), by Summing Derby as he’d done when the pair finished first and second in the GII Norfolk S. last September. 2nd Dam: Honest and True, by Mr. Leader “He has got stacks of ability,” said Simon Crisford, 3rd Dam: Tell Meno Lies, by The Axe II ’s racing manager, before adding, “He won’t ($2,300,000 yrl ‘00 KEESEP). O-Godolphin; B-Jonabell race before the --he’s just had a hard Farm Inc et al (KY); T-; J-L Dettori; race. He will go there fresh and well on the day.” $1,200,000. Lifetime Record: GSW-US, 6-4-0-1, It therefore looks as though everyone but Godolphin $1,543,200. *1/2 to Faltaat (Mr. Prospector), Ch. will have to remain somewhat in the dark about him Older Horse-UAE, MSW-UAE; Danjur (Dayjur), SW. right up to the main event--a situation with which British racegoers have become all too familiar in the After ’s dominant display in the Dubai approach to the 2000 Guineas. World Cup, the Godolphin team must still be wondering What we do know about Essence of Dubai is that he how their colt would have fared against Monarchos, is guaranteed to stay, unlike some of his Derby rivals, and that he can quicken at the end of a race. We also Invisible Ink, Congaree and company at Churchill know that this very well-connected colt is a fine Downs last May had he not been injured after his advertisement for his young sire, Pulpit. narrow defeat in the UAE Derby. In fact, he has been a fine advertisement for Pulpit Fortunately for Godolphin, this year’s UAE Derby--run ever since he caught John Ferguson’s eye at the over an extra eighth of a mile--has confirmed that they Keeneland September Sale in 2000. Ferguson had to go have another live contender for Kentucky Derby honors to $2,300,000 to secure him, even though the colt was in the shape of Essence of Dubai. This high-priced son by an unproven stallion who had started his career in of Pulpit showed the requisite amount of stamina and 1998 at a fee of $35,000. Of course, Ferguson was by no means the only buyer willing to gamble that Pulpit determination in cutting back the lead established by would reach greater heights as a stallion than he had the Chilean import Total Impact. been able to as a racehorse. With other colts selling for Just how big a threat Essence of Dubai represents to such impressive prices as $1,450,000, $900,000 and the American defenders is hard to know, though. $700,000, Pulpit achieved a first-crop average of Whereas Street Cry’s juvenile form in the U.S. was $423,538 and a median of $290,000. good enough to earn him 122 pounds on the Circumstances such as these sometimes place an Experimental Free Handicap, just four pounds less than unrealistic burden of expectation on a young stallion’s Macho Uno, Essence of Dubai ranked 11 pounds below shoulders, making him susceptible to criticism if he doesn’t immediately make an impact. Fortunately, Johannesburg and eight pounds below Repent following Pulpit has done a good enough job to avoid this his disappointing effort in the Juvenile. backlash. The clear inference is that Essence of Dubai needs to His second-crop yearlings also achieved an average improve on his juvenile form to win the Kentucky and median many times his stud fee, prompting an Derby. While he can hardly be faulted after winning increase in his advertised fee to $60,000, from 2001’s $40,000. Pulpit ended 2001 with a tally of 10 winners

www.coolmore.com from 23 runners (from a crop of 49 named foals), with Nokoma, Bema, Clergy and the talented Japanese colt Grandson also among them. These figures have to be considered encouraging in view of the fact that Pulpit did not make it to the races until January of his three-year-old year. Frank Brothers then had to push the son of A.P. Indy to give him the type of Derby preparation considered essential by most Americans. The Kentucky Derby was Pulpit’s sixth race in 113 days and he arrived at Churchill as a winner of four of them, including the GII Fountain of Youth S. and the GII Blue Grass S. The way he faded in the last quarter to finish fourth, nearly seven lengths behind Silver Charm, raised suspicions that he hadn’t shown his true form in the Derby. These fears were confirmed a few days later when a displaced knee chip was discovered, and the Derby proved to be his last race, even though he was back in work by the Saratoga meeting. With pedigree and performance on his side, plus the invaluable support of his owner-breeder, Claiborne Farm, Pulpit received a strong book of mares in his first season. Arguably the best of them was Essence of Dubai’s dam Epitome, the champion juvenile filly of 1987. Although Epitome was at her best as a juvenile, when she won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, she later found only one too good for her in the GIII Falls City H. over 1 1/8 miles. Her dam, Honest and True, a half-sister to the outstanding European miler Green Forest, had been one of the leading three-year-old fillies of 1980 when she won the Fair Grounds Oaks, so Essence of Dubai has every right to be a high-class performer. He is the best of the three stakes winners out of Epitome, one of the others being Mr. Prospector’s fast son Faltaat, who notched 13 wins in the UAE. No wonder the Maktoum family was keen to acquire Epitome’s 2001 yearling colt by Swain, which went to Sheikh Hamdan for $750,000.