DUBAWI’S success as a stallion needs no repeating, but this year Darley welcomes to Dalham Hall his most prolific Group/Grade 1 winner, Modern Games. The newcomer is also from one of the most happening female families of the present time.

An Eclipse Award winner at three, after he won at the Breeders’ Cup for the second time, Modern Games raced 16 times in three seasons, travelled many times to North America, and was a model of consistency throughout his career.

His globe-trotting certainly paid dividends, and he goes to stud having earned just short of €3.6m during his time racing, and with a classic victory among his five Group and Grade 1 successes.

Winning a maiden and nursery among your first four juvenile starts would not normally indicate that you are likely to become a champion racehorse, but it seems that the better the race that Modern Games contested, the better he performed.

After he won the Group 3 Somerville Tattersall Stakes on his fifth start, his third victory at seven furlongs, he was sent to Del Mar for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, and that was to be the first of five wins at the highest level over a mile.

Modern Games was ranked the joint best three-year-old miler in Europe after winning the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas, and running second to Baaeed in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes.

When stretched to 10 and a half furlongs for the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, he found only Vadeni and El Bodegon too good.

After an impressive five and a half length win in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile In Canada, Modern Games confirmed his status as the best turf runner in the USA when he landed the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland, with Kinross and Order Of Australia among those he beat.

Rataining his form at four, Modern Games made three starts last year, beating Chindit in the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes, finishing fourth in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes won by Triple Time, and running second in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland.

Modern Games ticks all the boxes for success as a stallion – good looks, an outstanding race record, and strength in depth on both sides of his pedigree.

Dubawi is now establishing a fine record as a sire of sires, his sons including the likes of Too Darn Hot, Night Of Thunder and New Bay, to mention just three of many.

The best winner to date for his dam Modern Ideals (New Approach), Modern Games is one of three stakes winners in recent times for that mare.

The others include another star performer in Mawj (Exceed And Excel), and she too proved herself on both sides of the Atlantic, winning the Group 1 1000 Guineas in England and the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Stakes at Keeneland.

Modern Ideals is a half-sister to the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Ultra (Manduro).