Alan Carasso
Off form for the bulk of the 2025-26 Dubai Racing Carnival, Sultan Ali’s Dark Saffron was put right into play from a wide draw in defence of his title in Saturday’s Dubai Golden Shaheen, sponsored by Nakheel, and outsprinted reigning G1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint champion Bentornato to give jockey Connor Beasley and trainer Ahmad Bin Harmash a rolling Group 1 double. The pair earlier teamed to win the Al Quoz Sprint with Native Approach.
Defeated by a combined 50 lengths after taking his seasonal debut in November, Dark Saffron perked back up with a runner-up effort to El Nasseeb in the G3 Mahab Al Shimaal on Super Saturday and was back to his very best just after sunset on Saturday.
First to break the line from barrier 11, Dark Saffron argued the pace outside of 2024 winner Tuz and inside of Khanjar as Bentornato was forced to take his medicine just in behind Tuz. In front passing the 500-metre marker, Dark Saffron found more for pressure and was always holding the American raider in the run to the line. Cats By Five ran on for third, while Tuz dropped away to finish fourth.
Dark Saffron joins the likes of Caller One and Mind Your Biscuits as back-to-back winners of the Dubai Golden Shaheen, which serves as a ‘Win and You’re In’ qualifier for this year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland.
“Obviously he won this race last year and he come back and run really well, it was a bit of a workout first time he ran this season,” Beasley said. “Then he had a bit of an incident in the stalls and banged his head and sort of lost his way. I think he lost a bit of confidence for his next three or four runs, but his last run we felt he was coming back to himself.”
“I think the post position cost us the race,” said Bentornato’s trainer Jose D’Angelo. “It’s the first time that we’ve seen him running in behind the speed. We have plenty of races and of course, the ultimate goal is the Breeders’ Cup again. We’ll give him time as always and be ready for that.”
Result
1st – #7 DARK SAFFRON (USA)
Jockey: Connor Beasley
Trainer: Ahmad bin Harmash
2nd – #1 Bentornato (USA) – 1.77L
3rd – #12 Cats By Five (USA) – 4.52L
4th – #2 Tuz (USA) – 5.86L
5th – #8 Nakatomi (USA) – 9.30L
6th – #10 Mufasa (CHI) – 9.78L
7th – #11 Colour Up (IRE) – 10.16L
8th – #5 Lovesick Blues (USA) – 12.53L
9th – #4 Khanjar (IRE) – 13.44L
10th – #10 El Nasseeb (GB) – 14.52L
11th – #6 Midland Money (USA) – 15.11L
12th – #9 American Stage (USA) – 16.72L
Non-Runner – #3 Drew’s Gold (USA)
