Racing: Golden boy Nayef comes of age in time for Champion

York Ebor meeting: St Leger hope Bandari gives trainer Mark Johnston his 100th winner of the Flat season in Great Voltigeur Stakes

At the weekend it was the turn of Khalid Abdullah with three Group One victories inside 24 hours across the globe, and yesterday, on the Knavesmire, the fruits went to another desert kingdom. Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum reaped the Group harvest on this occasion, collecting the International Stakes, sponsored coincidentally by Abdullah's Juddmonte farms, with Nayef, and following up with Bandari in the St Leger trial of the Great Voltigeur.

Nayef's was a particularly golden moment for the owner. The handsome son of Gulch is the last in a distinguished line produced by the great broodmare Height Of Fashion and success yesterday confirmed he will ultimately be a sought-after successor at stud to his recently deceased half-brothers Nashwan and Unfuwain.

There is still other athletic work to be achieved however and the range of baubles open to the four-year-old is considerable. Nayef has not yet been ruled out of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Irish Champion Stakes or Breeders' Cup Classic, but it is Newmarket's Champion Stakes which currently stands as the favourite. He will cause fear wherever he goes. It has always seemed easy to view Nayef as a let-down after the cloud-piercing peaks predicted for him at the end of his two-year-old career. He has always possessed the looks and the pedigree of a great horse and now finally he has matured enough to complete a holy trinity with performance.

Yesterday, as ever, he looked glorious, a noble animal carried around the paddock on model legs. He looked quite a bully compared with the diminutive Noverre and behaved like one in the International itself.

The 6-4 favourite was reshod at the start, but that proved no inconvenience. He was soon scudding along quite comfortably in behind the modest pace set by Starbourne, his head craned towards the inside.

Into the straight, and Nayef was tracked by his King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes conqueror Golan. Third in line, in the same Knavesmire corridor, was Noverre. First Golan was pushed along by Kieren Fallon and then Frankie Dettori became agitated aboard Noverre. From Nayef and Richard Hills, there was no semblance of distress. Fallon adopted the same drive that had propelled Golan to victory at Ascot, but this time there was no weakening from his old rival, no compelling thought that Golan would get there. Hills just kept flicking at Nayef. Nayef just kept galloping away. The winning distance was half a length, yet the margin of true superiority was greater than that.

"The pace was a bit disappointing and I think if there had been more pace he might have won easier," Marcus Tregoning, the winning trainer, said. "It's funny. You just know when they are absolutely spot on. After Ascot I felt he was at peace with himself. He just looked perfect and then he came out of the race extremely well. He's done nothing but thrive since.

"He'd been working so well that I was really quite confident. Mubtaker [Nayef's galloping partner] winning on Saturday [in the Geoffrey Freer Stakes at Newbury] just did it for me. He's shown great courage and tenacity and you couldn't fault a performance like that. He's a joy to train and, my God, we're lucky to have him."

Nayef has been no occasional leading man and this was his fifth race of a season which started back in March with victory in the Dubai Sheema Classic.

Tregoning would like to go back to the Emirates next spring for the Dubai World Cup, but any reproduction for Nayef seems certain to be confined to the breeding shed.

It was a notable effort too by Hills, whose confidence was such that he surfed cleverly off the front of the field in the following Great Voltigeur to further stamp Bandari's credentials for the St Leger, further south in the county next month. Mark Johnston's horse looked deceptively wet when he emerged into the ring, but this was not sweat, rather the residue of the hosing down he got at home before the box ride from Middleham.

He led virtually all the way and even when it appeared he might get swamped by the cavalry there was no panic in the movements of his jockey. Still, it was a considerable workout.

"He's immature so I didn't want to see him get into so much of a fight," Johnston said. "But that will have done him good. It's the first time he's been in that sort of finish and that should stand him in good stead for the future."

That includes the oldest Classic and though the ante-post picture remains murky as we await bulletins from the Ballydoyle sanatorium Johnston might be tempted to have a punt himself.

Bandari was his 100th winner of the season and represented the ninth consecutive time he has reached the landmark, a feat that only Henry Cecil among the remainder of training fraternity can crow about. Johnston seemed rather amused that Bandari had been knocked out to 5-1 for the Leger in some quarters. "That's good isn't it?" he said. "I might have one of my few bets."

St Leger betting (Doncaster, 14 September): Coral: 9-4 Kazzia, 5-1 Bandari, 8-1 Balakheri, Bollin Eric, Highest, 12-1 Ballingarry, Sholokhov. Tote: 7-2 Bandari, Kazzia, 6-1 Blakheri, Highest, 8-1 Bollin Eric. William Hill: 5-2 Kazzia, 5-1 Bandari, 7-1 Balakheri, Sholokhov, 8-1 Ballingarry, Bollin Eric, Highest.