Bow Echo’s jockey and trainer stole most of the headlines after his 2000 Guineas victory, but the colt’s late owner-breeder – and his broodmare Zomaradah – played no small part too.
Even though Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum sadly didn’t live long enough to see the colt that he bred as well as owned win the 2000 Guineas, he was a large influence in everything that led to a top-class performance from Bow Echo at Newmarket last Saturday (replay below).
Speaking after a hugely popular success for the youthful trainer-jockey combination of George Boughey and Billy Loughnane, Boughey related how he had deferred to the Sheikh’s experience and wisdom in the training of Bow Echo towards his classic engagement.
'I wanted to run him in a Dewhurst or a Breeders' Cup, but Sheikh Mohammed Obaid was watching today, and he’ll be telling me ‘I was right!’ and he was.'
'He's matured, he’s strengthened and I sent him a video last year of how I wanted to run him in the Dewhurst and he told me, ‘He’s not running because he’s a child’ and everyone saw that here. He’s matured – he was a child against men last year and now he’s top of the pile.’
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Boughey was wise to respect the late Sheikh’s wishes because, as some of his former trainers found to their cost, he wasn’t averse to sending his horses elsewhere if their plans didn’t align with his. ‘When I tell a trainer to do something, he has to listen to me, not do his own thing’, he said after seeing another of the best horses to carry his colours, Postponed, win the Juddmonte International in 2016.
Sheikh Mohammed Obaid died last December, but as Bow Echo’s breeder, his influence in Bow Echo’s success goes back a lot further than running plans of recent months.
Bow Echo was the second English classic winner in the yellow colours with the three black spots, 28 years after High-Rise won the Derby for one of the Sheikh’s former trainers Luca Cumani. Like Bow Echo, High-Rise was still unbeaten when he won his classic and it was on this very weekend in 1998 that he completed his preparation for Epsom by winning the Derby Trial at Lingfield.
High-Rise won only once after Epsom, a listed race in Dubai as a five-year-old, though he had put up a top-class effort in defeat when losing his unbeaten record at three in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes. He finished a length second to Godolphin’s top-class horse Swain, and High-Rise himself joined the Godolphin outfit at the end of his three-year-old season.
Although Sheikh Mohammed Obaid’s string at the end of the twentieth century was considerably smaller than it was by the time of his death, he had another good three-year-old in 1998. Another classic winner, in fact, as the filly Zomaradah, also trained by Cumani, won the Oaks d’Italia that season when it still had Group 1 status.
Zomaradah was a smart filly and won the Grade 2 E. P. Taylor Stakes in Canada later at three and was kept in training at four to win another a couple of Group 2 contests, the Royal Whip Stakes at the Curragh and the Premio Lydia Tesio at Rome. She made what should have been her final start in the first running of the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, finishing a close third at Gulfstream Park. But having reportedly been covered the following year by Sadler’s Wells, she lost the foal and made one more appearance at five, finishing fourth in a listed race at Goodwood in the autumn.
Timeform described Zomaradah as ‘a strong, deep-girthed mare, with a powerful, round action.’ She was related to High-Rise as she was out of his modest maiden half-sister Jawaher and, like the future Derby winner, also unraced at the time, Zomaradah had been entered as a two-year-old in the Tattersalls Autumn Horses In Training Sales. Neither ended up going through the ring, which was just as well, as their breeder would have been letting go not just a future Derby winner but also a hugely influential broodmare.
That brings us to Bow Echo in whose pedigree Zomaradah appears not once but twice in the third generation. Zomaradah produced seven winners at stud. She was not only among the select group of mares among the first book to visit Sheikh Mohammed’s outstanding performer Dubai Millennium, she also foaled his star performer from what sadly turned out to be his only crop of foals numbering 54 individuals.
Dubawi did all his racing in the Godolphin blue rather than his breeder’s colours and was all the rage for a 2000 Guineas himself, sent off the 11/8 favourite in 2005. Like Bow Echo, Dubawi had won all three of his starts at two, while an impressive private trial in Dubai beforehand had also increased the hype surrounding his Guineas bid.
In the event, Dubawi finished only fifth behind Footstepsinthesand at Newmarket, but subsequent wins in the Irish 2000 Guineas and Prix Jacques le Marois – either side of finishing third in the Derby despite not staying the trip – showed him to be a high-class miler.
At stud, Dubawi became a champion sire, as did his son Night of Thunder last year, one of Dubawi’s four 2000 Guineas winners and the sire of Bow Echo. Incidentally, unless you’re a meteorologist and have made the connection already, you can see here why Bow Echo is well named.
Apart from being the dam of Bow Echo’s grandsire, Zomaradah also appears on the bottom line of his pedigree as his own great grandam. Zomaradah’s daughters did much to provide Sheikh Mohammed Obaid with numerous good winners.
Those daughters included Dubai Queen, runner-up in the Sandringham Handicap at Royal Ascot. As well as producing Bow Echo’s dam Aristocratic Lady (useful like her dam, but a sprinter), Dubai Queen is also the dam of smart six-year-old Royal Rhyme, former winner of the Brigadier Gerard Stakes, and last season’s Height of Fashion Stakes winner at Goodwood, Victoria Harbour.
The best of Zomaradah’s daughters was Emirates Queen who was the outsider of the entire field when winning the Lancashire Oaks as a four-year-old. She’s now the dam of very smart gelding Royal Champion who, despite approaching the veteran stage, has enjoyed a tremendous last year or so, winning the Winter Derby, York Stakes and very valuable events in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. His half-brother Outbox also aged well, winning the Jockey Club Stakes two years ago at the age of nine.
Zomaradah has also had one of her descendants go close in the 1000 Guineas. Great granddaughter Cloak of Spirits (by Invincible Spirit, the sire of Bow Echo’s dam) was runner-up to Love at Newmarket in 2020.
The family has produced another good winner just in the last week, with Bow Echo's stablemate McMurray going into notebooks as one for the Britannia at Royal Ascot following his win at Chester; McMurray is a grandson of Zomaradah.
As a classic winner from the immediate family of Dubawi, Bow Echo will be a much sought-after stallion prospect when the time comes, though if his 2000 Guineas victory is anything to go by, he’ll have further opportunities on the track before then to do his late owner-breeder proud.
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