It was a case of deja vu in the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac on Sunday, 1 October when a Charlie Appleby-trained daughter of Dubawi landed the race for the second successive season. Following on from Godolphin’s Wuheida in 2016, Wild Illusion produced a very gutsy display to repel all challengers to land her biggest triumph in her fledgling career.
Making only her third career start, she came into the race on the back of a debut maiden triumph at Yarmouth and a G3 third at Chantilly in the Prix d’Aumale.
A Godolphin homebred, she is a daughter of the Stakes-winning mare Rumh and a half-sister to Shamardal’s Montrose Fillies’ Stakes winner Really Special. Rumh also has a Dubawi colt foal born in April this year, and has been tested in foal to the same stallion again this season.
Dubawi has now sired seven G1 winners this year. Just yesterday Mubtaahij won the Awesome Again Stakes on dirt at Santa Anita and now heads to the Breeders’ Cup Classic. The seven concludes with three G1-winning fillies in Bateel, Sobetsu and Nezwaah, the four-year-old colt Zarak, winner of the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and the US top-flight scorer Almanaar.
