Whilst foaling season is currently in full swing, the breeding sheds in the Southern Hemisphere will open tomorrow on the first day of Spring, and will see the KZN Midlands roads filled with horseboxes transporting mares to and fro for covering.
KZN have two new stallions for the upcoming season; the first is Mustajeeb at Bush Hill Stud, and the second is a well bred son of Jet Master at Roy Moodley’s stud farm, named Jayyed.
Unfortunately due to export protocols, the very exciting son of multiple British Gr1 winner Nayef – Mustajeeb – will have to miss the first month of the season through quarantine complications, however he is set to take up duties at Warwick and Karin Render’s Bush Hill Stud from the beginning of October.
The chestnut Ascot record-setting stallion has had his first foals arrive in the UK, and after news broke that Shadwell-owned Mustajeeb was to be exported to South Africa, a leading Cape nursery immediately made bookings to send mares up to KZN.
Mustajeeb is the fastest horse to come out of the world champion family of Allegretta, the sire-producing outstanding family of Galileo and Sea The Stars.
His sire Nayef is a half-brother to greats Nashwan and Unfuwain, and carries a lifetime career winners/runners strike rate of 61%. A racehorse of the highest calibre, Nayef won five Gr1’s including the Dubai Champion Stakes, Juddmonte International Stakes at York, Prince Of Wales Stakes at Ascot and the Sheema Classic in Dubai, accumulating stakes of £2,359,840.
Mustajeeb showed exceptional speed during a consistent racing career which saw him win from age two to four, including breaking a track record in the fastest ever time in the Gr3 Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot – Bill Oppenheim of TDN is quoted as saying when Mustajeeb retired to stud, “Sometimes it must be the toughest Gr3 [Jersey Stakes] in the world – which he duly won as 9-2 favourite. They have a genuine ‘sleeper’ in Mustajeeb!”
He ran the race faster than his own great-grandfather Indian Ridge, as well as the likes of Diktat and Gr1 Nunthorpe winner, Mozart.
Trained by Dermot Weld, who described the chestnut colt as: “Very powerful, very good looking and correct, a joy to train. A tough, geniune racehorse of the highest class,” Mustajeeb won his maiden by two and half a lengths under jockey Pat Smullen, who rode Mustajeeb in all of his efforts. His next start saw him entered for the “stallion making” Gr2 Futurity, racing green to finish second behind War Command in good going at the Curragh over 1400m.
The run brought him on and the colt found his feet; his next race in the Gr3 Amethyst Stakes in Leopardstown saw him win by two and half lengths clear, leading clear from the 150m mark and staying on strongly over the 1600m.
Mustajeeb had shown plenty of talent and his next outing was in the Gr1 Irish 2000 Guineas, where he tracked the leaders Kingman and Shifting Power to challenge and finish third in the high quality race over 1600m. He was far from disgraced with the likes of Great White Eagle, Johann Strauss and Fountain Of Youth in his wake.
Just under a month later, Dermot sent him to run in the Gr3 Jersey Stakes which would be an unforgettable experience. In good going on the turf at Ascot, he tracked the leaders and took to the front from the final furlong, sprinting the fastest time ever to be run in the quality Gr3 in breeze-splitting time of 1m 24.54s.
The runner-up Muwaary was fourth on his last start in the Poule d’Essai Des Poulains (French 2000 Guineas), whilst the third horse Giovanni Boldini had been a consistent performer and finished fourth in the Gr2 UAE Derby at Meydan.
Dermot commented after spectacular performance in June that Mustajeeb “is a very genuine colt, tough and honest, and a very progressive horse. He won his Group race against older horses at Leopardstown over a mile and he came home very well – he was the only three-year-old in the field.
This colt has a future. He is very adaptable and will go on any ground but he appreciates fast ground. We thought that he would win today and he did it well.”
September saw the grandson of Elusive Quality step onto the track in the Gr1 Boomerang Mile, in good to firm going. Mustajeeb finished second just a mere half a length off the winner Bow Creek after being held up at the start.
Mustajeeb defeated the multiple Gr1 winning Lord Gordon Byron again in the Gr2 Greenlands Stakes in good to yielding going, travelling up to mid division and onto fifth place two furlongs out, catching up to second with a furlong to go and powering to on to win.
One of the horses he trounced on that particular day included the mighty Sole Power – another triple Gr1 winner of the Nunthorpe Stakes, the Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan and the King’s Stands Stakes.
Mustajeeb‘s extraordinary dam line has seen every colt produced under the first four dams go on to become a Gr1 producing stallion – amongst them his close relation and dual-Gr1 winning chestnut, Tamayuz, at Derrinstown Stud (by Nayef under theMustajeeb‘s third dam), who has gone on to produce 23 Stakes performers from his first four crops and a sire of sires.
Other stallions to feature in the pedigree include Anabaa Blue and King’s Best, as well as Black Sam Bellamy – the half-brother to Sea The Stars and Galileo. This is simply a pedigree one cannot just buy into.
Mustajeeb‘s broodmare sire is Elusive Quality, a 16.2 hand son of the great Gone West that lies 10th on the broodmare sire list of leading Northern Hemisphere stallions. Elusive Quality produces 61% winners to runners and standing at Darley.
Elusive Quality has a reputation for producing fast horses including the likes of Raven’s Pass, Smarty Jones and Sepoy – with fifty Group winners and 125 Black Type winners and counting. Elusive Quality won two Gr3’s, including the Poker Handicap in a world record time of 1:31.63.
Mustajeeb will stand for a fee of R20 000 this season, contact Warwick Render for information on 082 872 7799.
A son of Jet Master out of Mr Prospector mare Atyab, has joined Al Miqdaam at Roy Moodley’s stud farm in Mooi River.
Jayyed, owned in racing by Al Adiyaat South Africa (Pty) Ltd and trained by Mike De Kock, won twice and placed four times – including second on debut to the talented ML Jet, as well as second on two occasions to the brilliant Harry’s Son in the Gr1 Premier’s Champion Stakes (1600m) and Gr3 Graham Beck (1400m).
Jayyed’s last run saw him place behind the speedy Ice Machine in the Marula Sprint only a neck off in third.
Jayyed is a half-brother to Australian born Atyeb (Rock Of Gibraltar), who won the Gr3 Caradoc Gold Cup and Aquanaut Listed. The dam also paid a visit to Western Winter, which produced 5-time winner Tayba, who also placed in the Gr2 Camelia Stakes.
Jayyed’s dam Atyab is in turn out of a Blushing Groom mare, and sees plenty of stallion power produced under her third dam which includes French-bred Japanese based Twig, 12-time winner (and 48 places including many Gr1’s!) French sire Tip Moss, and of course Gr1 placed French-bred sire in Australia, Twig Moss.
Lenny Taylor at Roy Moodley’s Stud Farm can be contacted on 084 433 2216 for further information.
The first foals from Bush Hill Stud’s well related son of Galileo, Flying The Flag, are currently arriving along with Summerhill Gr1 winning sires Willow Magic (Dubawi) and Act Of War (Dynasty).
Keep an eye on the website for more to come from those young sires.