Dubai: It was the eighth running of the Dubai World Cup and all eyes were on a four-year-old chestnut horse trained by Saeed Bin Surour. There were a lot of reasons for such high expectations from the Godolphin horse.
A year earlier, Godolphin jockey Frankie Dettori had opted for Sakhee and finished third as Street Cry went on to win. Dettori was on board Moon Ballad this time, the horse that was heavily tipped by bookmakers to hand the Italian jockey his second win, the fourth for trainer Bin Surour and a third triumph for Godolphin.
Moon Ballad had given a glimpse of his capacity to compete against the best as he was relaxed in his win in the Shaikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Challenge Round II at the Nad Al Sheba Racecourse in February during his prep race.
On World Cup night, Moon Ballad started as the 11/4 second favourite and went on to win by five lengths from the American challenger Harlan’s Holiday with the 11/8 favourite Nayef a length away in third place.
Moon Ballad was bred by Prince Fahd Salman’s Newgate Stud Farm which operated from a base at the now closed Sandley Stud in Gillingham, Dorset in England. Out of the mare Velvet Moon, Moon Ballad’s damsire was Shaadi who in 1989 won the Group One Irish 2,000 Guineas. Moon Ballad’s sire was the very talented international winner Singspiel who won G-1 events in England, Canada and Japan. Singspiel was a famous son of In The Wings who was a multiple Group One winner in Europe as well victor in the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Turf in the USA.
Sold in October 2000 at the Tattersalls auction to Godolphin Racing, Moon Ballad was conditioned for racing by Bin Surour. Moon Ballad was originally trained in England by David Loder before being transferred to Bin Suroor in 2002. As a three-year-old Moon Ballad won the Dante Stakes and the Select Stakes as well as finishing third in the Epson Derby and second in the Champion Stakes.
After capturing his richest purse at the end of March, Moon Ballad returned to England, never again managing to reach those lofty heights that he had set for himself by winning the eighth edition of the world’s richest horse race.
At the Ascot Racecourse he ran ninth in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and was fifth in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood Racecourse. Later, racing in the early fall at Leopardstown Racecourse in Ireland, the colt ran fifth to High Chaparral in the Irish Champion Stakes.
He was then sent to the United States to compete in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at New York’s Belmont Park. Under US Racing Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey, Moon Ballad finished fifth and last to winner Mineshaft.
Retired after his loss in New York, Moon Ballad was sent to stand at stud under Darley Stud’s management at the Yoshun Company’s Stud in Hokkaido, Japan. In 2010, with career earnings of $4,377,008 (Dh16,072,400), Moon Ballad was returned to Ireland to stand at the Woodlands Stud in Galway.
