Dubai Honour returns to Sydney for the first time in two years in the Tancred Stakes at Rosehill and handler Isabella Paul is adamant he arrives in the harbour city a more complete racehorse.
Where the gelding came of age during the autumn of 2023 with a brace of dominant Group 1 wins in the Ranvet and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m), this time around he is a proven and accomplished performer.
He has also become a seasoned traveller.
“Dubai Honour has been around the world and back about twenty times so he’s fairly cruisy,” Paul said.
“He seems to just take everything in his stride. He’s probably a bit less naughty than he was as a younger horse, but he still can be pretty cheeky and it’s great to see how fresh he comes off the flight now.
“When they’re a bit younger they think about it a bit more and they stress about it, where for him it is fairly routine and he came off the flight absolutely bouncing.”
Since his heroics of two years ago, Dubai Honour has notched another major in France, a Group 1 second in Germany and a Hong Kong Vase placing in December.
All of those efforts have been over 2400m, convincing trainer William Haggas to take a slightly different path this visit, bypassing the Ranvet last weekend in favour of the longer journey of Saturday’s Tancred Stakes (2400m).
While Dubai Honour is now a seven-year-old, Paul believes he is every bit as good as he has ever been.
“I think so. He’s in really, really good form,” she said.
“That run in Hong Kong was absolutely huge. He was a bit unlucky in the race and you thought he might have won and then you look at how unlucky the eventual winner actually was, Giavellotto, and you can’t be upset.
“He is still proving himself. That was only a couple of months ago, so I think he can still perform at the top level despite being a seven-year-old.”
The Tancred Stakes has attracted a star field led by impressive first-up Sky High Stakes winner Vauban, reigning Caulfield Cup victor Duke De Sessa and 2023 winner Arapaho.
