The sea air at Yarmouth clearly suited Aakef, whose victory in the opening maiden brought up the fifteenth northern hemisphere winner for his sire Exceed And Excel. He was chased home by his paternal half-brother, Godolphin's Hajoum, who was bred by Darley and was half a length away in second.
Aakef was a 200,000gns ($472,000) yearling purchase and is out of the young Zamindar mare Bush Baby. He had impressed on his debut when runner-up at Newmarket in May and looks another lovely prospect for his owner Sheikh Hamdan al Maktoum.
He holds all manner of exciting entries over the next few months, including the G2 Gimcrack Stakes at York, the G1 Shadwell Middle Park Stakes and the G1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes.
Exceed And Excel, who is already Champion first-season sire in Australia, is gradually closing the lead of his Darley counterpart Kheleyf, who is not only leading freshman sire but also leading sire of two-year-olds in Europe with 20 individual winners.
