Pride of Dubai’s Fee a Gift Horse in the Mouth

If it is true that one should never look a gift horse in the mouth, then the release by Coolmore Australia of their 2024 stud fees should see them swamped by breeders clamouring to get to Pride of Dubai (Street Cry-Al Anood, by Danehill). Measured against what, in general, appear to be reasonable 2024 fees for the Hunter Valley outfit, the $22,000 quote for Pride of Dubai stopped us in our tracks. Maybe it’s a case of the more you think you know, the less you actually know, but here’s a 14YO stallion by a world-class sire, with a seemingly bottomless international Group 1 damline, who claimed both the Gr1 Blue Diamond Stakes and the Gr1 Sires Produce Stakes at two and who, back in 2016, stood for $55,000. At the end of last racing season, Pride of Dubai finished in sixth spot on the Australian Black Type Stallion Premiership. Fast forward 9-months, and he has gone one better and is in fifth place, not far off fourth. Take weight-for-age heroine Pride of Jenni out of the picture and you’re still left with stakes performers that include Group 1 star Bella Nipotina, Buckets Ridge, Deny Knowledge, Fancy Man, Hypothetical (Gr1 second), Maharba, My Khalifa and Wild Belle. Then throw in last season’s Group 1 performers Dubai Honour and She’s Fit, plus Group 2 winner Sirileo Miss for good measure. Pride of Dubai is also currently fourth on the Australian General Sires Table (by prizemoney). He boasts 47 stakes winners and has progeny earnings of nearly $53 million. At $22,000, Pride of Dubai seems seriously over the odds.

Superb Group 1 mare Bella Nipotina is by Pride of Dubai