Dubai: Emaraaty, a horse who is held in high regard by his connections, will bid to follow in the footsteps of two former champion, Mujahid and Alhaarth and gift his owner a third Dubai Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket this weekend.

Trained by the John Gosden, who has his Newmarket-based string in red-hot form, the two-year-old son of top sire Dubawi, must take a big step up in class if he hopes to live up to his reputation.

Emaraaty is owned by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, who owned both Mujahid and Alhaarth.

The latter was European Champion Two-Year-Old at the 1995 Cartier Racing Awards having won all five of his races that season, while Mujahid won three of his four starts and was rated the best of his generation in 1998.

While the expectation for Emaraaty are at the highest going into Saturday £500,000 showpiece Angus Gold, racing manager to Shaikh Hamdan is confident that the colt has the potential to succeed at the highest level. Group 1 race potential.

“I watched Emaraaty work on the Limekilns on Saturday morning and he is in fine physical shape,” said Gold of the pounds 2.6 million colt. “Jim Crowley rode him and was very pleased with him.

“It is a big step up from a maiden to a Group One and I would be stupid to assure you that he was going to beat horses like Expert Eye on Saturday.

‘But he’s a very quick colt with great potential and we are very hopeful that he will be a Group One horse at some point in his career.”

Among Emaraaty’s rivals are Sir Michael Stoute’s unbeaten colt, Expert Eye, a horse that his handler describes as being ‘naturally precocious’ and looked every inch that boast when cantering in the Group 2 Vintage Stakes at Goodwood last month,

“We’ve had precocious two-year-olds, but we don’t seem to get them nowadays,” Said Stoute.

“This fellow just came along and was naturally precocious.”

The main supporting race on the card is the £250,000 Cesarewitch, a gruelling 3,621-metre contest, which has drawn 53 acceptors.

Friday’s card features four Group races headed by the Challenge Stakes which has attracted a high-quality field including Shaikh Hamdan’s Hungerford Stakes hero Massaat and Godolphin’s Supreme Stakes scorer Dutch Connection.

Future Champions Day Weekend

At A Glance

On Friday

Cornwallis Stakes (G3) 5f

Oh So Sharp Stakes (G3) 7f

Challenge Stakes (G2) 7f

Fillies’ Mile (G1) 1m

On Saturday

Autumn Stakes (G3) 1m

Dewhurst Stakes (G1) 7f

Cesarewitch Handicap 2m2f