SUPER Saturday at Meydan is the second most important meeting of the UAE season, bettered only by World Cup night at the end of March. The card provided great interest and was a most rewarding evening for Godolphin, whose silks were carried to victory in half of the eight thoroughbred races on the card, all of which carried blacktype status.

That said, one of the night’s best winners was a horse bred in the purple by Godolphin, but sold last year. Since then, Imperial Emperor has thrived for his new owners. Once second favourite for the Derby at Epsom, Imperial Emperor was bred to be a champion, but his career in the Godolphin blue was ultimately disappointing, and he was sold a year ago in Dubai at a horses-in-training sale for the equivalent of about €75,000 to Deva Racing.

Prior to his sale, the now gelded son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) had been an impressive winner of his only start at two, a six-runner mile maiden at Newmarket. Given the manner of his victory, his impressive breeding, and the comments of his trainer Charlie Appleby, Imperial Emperot was touted as a classic hope. A setback at three meant that he missed his engagements in the early part of the season, reappearing in a six-runner novice over a mile, again at Newmarket, where he comfortably won at odds-on.

Imperial Emperor’s third career start again saw him face five rivals, this time stepped up to contest a listed race and again at Newmarket, but he was well beaten, finishing in front of one runner, and six days later it was announced that he had been gelded. A month after that he was well-beaten when stepped up to 10 furlongs for a Newbury handicap, and a trip to Dubai, and two more starts, didn’t convince the Appleby team and Godolphin that he was worth persevering with.

Following his sale, Imperial Emperor moved to the stables of Bhupat Seemar, and quickly won back his purchase price with two wins at the end of last year, both over a mile and both times at Meydan. In January, he was given the task of taking on the likes of Kabirkhan and Facteur Cheval in the Group 1 Al Maktoum Challenge, this time tackling 11 and a half furlongs, and he ran well to finish second to a stable companion, Walk Of Stars, netting a cool £160,000 in the process.

On Saturday, Imperial Emperor was sent off favourite for the Group 2 Al Maktoum Classic on dirt, a 10-furlong contest, and he was hugely impressive when beating 14 others by more than eight lengths, and boosting his winnings by £220,000. As a result of this, his third win in four starts on dirt, Imperial Emperor is likely to contest the Group 1 Dubai World Cup, and while this would be a mountain to climb, he cannot be ignored.

Zhukova

Winning at Group 1 level is in the DNA of Imperial Emperor. He and his stakes-placed full-brother First Ruler (Dubawi) are the best runners so far for their dam Zhukova (Fastnet Rock), the Dermot Weld-bred and trained winner of the Grade 1 Man O’War Stakes at Belmont. Here in Ireland, she won six races, two Group 3s and a trio of listed contests. Following her Grade 1 win at five, she sold as a broodmare prospect to Godolphin for 3,700,000gns.

At the time of her sale, Zhukova’s half-brother Ghaiyyath (Dubawi), a €1.1 million foal, had won two of his three juvenile starts, the second of his victories coming in the Group 3 Autumn Stakes over a mile at Newmarket. He would go on, as we know, to win seven more races, be rated the best older horse in Europe in 2020, and his haul of four Group 1 triumphs included the Coronation Cup, Eclipse Stakes and Juddmonte International. Standing at Kildangan Stud, this will be a fascinating year for his runners, and his first crop has already yielded up 15 individual winners.

Almost two decades ago, 2006 to be precise, Dermot Weld bridged a gap of 18 years from his last win in the race to saddle Nightime, owned and bred by his mother Marguerite, to win the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas by six lengths, on only the third start of her career. The filly, from the first crop of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), won a maiden at Cork six weeks prior to this classic victory, and she was partnered by Pat Smullen.

Grey Swallow

For the Weld family this was a triumph to rank alongside that of Grey Swallow in the Group 1 Irish Derby two years earlier, and afterwards the winning trainer remarked: “I thought Grey Swallow winning the Irish Derby was the most pleasurable day of my training career, but this equals it. My mother has six mares and breeds on a small scale, but she has bred two classic winners in the last three years, and that’s what this game is all about.

“I wanted to sell her as a yearling but my mother said no, that she was a special filly, and she has been proved right.” Smullen added: “It was an unbelievable display. I thought she would run a big race, but she has surpassed my expectations by winning so easily.” Nightime ran twice again, but with nothing more to prove she retired to the paddocks where she is the dam of eight winners.

Nightime was one of nine winners from nine runners for the listed winner Caumshinaun (Indian Ridge), another to carry the late Mrs Weld’s colours to success, doing so on five occasions. While the classic-winning Nightime is her outstanding offspring, three other daughters have become stakes producers. Nightime’s full-sister Phaenomena (Galileo), a 700,000gns yearling and €720,000 three-year-old after winning twice, is the dam of the Japanese dual Group 2 winner King Of Koji (Lord Kanaloa) and the Group 3 Prix Cleopatre heroine Harajuku (Deep Impact). Two other daughters of Caumshinaun have bred Australian stakes winners.

Irish National Stud

Caumshinaun herself was bred at the Irish National Stud and trained by Dermot Weld. She glories in the title of the champion older mare in Ireland in 2001, earned when she was four. She won a Sligo maiden at three, before progressing the next season to win four of her five starts, most notably the Listed Platinum Stakes at Cork.

A full-sister to a winner, Caumshinaun was the second winning offspring from Ridge Pool (Bluebird) who was trained by Michael Grassick. Ridge Pool started just four times, winning her maiden at Naas at two. Her next and final start saw her pulled up when suffering a career-ending injury in a listed race at Leopardstown. Ridge Pool only had three foals, and the other was placed.

One generation back, to Ghaiyyath’s fourth dam, and you find Casting Couch (Thatching). Bred by Vincent O’Brien at his Ballydoyle Stud, Casting Couch raced in the colours of Robert Sangster. She won on her debut at two in 1987, but she was not trained at Ballydoyle as you might automatically assume, but rather by Jim Bolger.

In addition to being the dam of Ridge Pool, she also bred Captain Le Saux (Persian Heights). He won nine times in Ireland and Italy and was placed in listed races in both countries. They were the only produce of Casting Couch.