By Tom Frary
5th-GOO, £30,000, Mdn, 8-5, 2yo, c/g, 7fT, 1:28.62, sf.
DEE EX BEE (GB) (c, 2, Farhh {GB}–Dubai Sunrise, by Seeking the Gold), sent off the 5-2 joint-favourite, was pushed along to gain the early lead. Stretching every rival bar the other market principal Bathsheba Bay (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}) with a quarter mile to race, the homebred soon had that opponent beaten off and stayed on strongly to secure a 2 1/4-length success, with a 4 1/2-length gap to the third. Trainer Mark Johnston, who also captured the fillies' maiden on Wednesday with another newcomer in the same colours in Threading (Ire) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}), took this race in 2008 with the subsequent group 1-winning sire Jukebox Jury (Ire) and in 2012 with the G2 Royal Lodge S. scorer and G1 Racing Post Trophy third Steeler (Ire) (Raven's Pass) and said, “He's a very good-looking horse who was working very well at home–we don't tend to bring them here unless they do. “He was green, as you'd expect but won well.” The last three winners of this maiden, Dutch Connection (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}), Folkswood (GB) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}) and Lockheed (GB) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}) all went on to also place at the highest level. The dam, whose 3-year-old filly Chupalla (GB) (Helmet {Aus}) was also a first-time-out winner for these connections during an abundant spring for the Johnston yard in 2016, also has a colt foal by Casamento (Ire). Like the dam of the aforementioned Threading, Dubai Sunrise is an unraced full-sister to Dubai Millennium (GB) whose trajectory to rarely-scaled heights began at his venue with his first black-type success in the Listed Predominate S. in 1999. While the family features some sprinters such as the G2 Diadem S.-winning Bianconi, the G1 July Cup heroes Elnadim and Hamas (Ire), and, closer up, the less-distinguished Ragsah (Ire) (Shamardal) who was second in the G3 Firth of Clyde S., the overwhelming influence is for middle-distance stamina. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $25,305. Video, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
O-Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum; B-Godolphin (GB); T-Mark Johnston.
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