He was officially the best racehorse on the planet in 2025 and now Calandagan starts out on the defence of its World\u2019s Best Racehorse crown in the $6m Longines Dubai Sheema Classic [G1 2410m], a race which has acclaimed some of the greats of middle-distance turf racing since it was added to the programme in the third year of the Dubai World Cup story.<\/p>\n
Fantastic Light and Heart\u2019s Cry were major winners in the early years, while St Nicholas Abbey and Cirrus Des Aigles helped cement the race\u2019s reputation among the global elite events during its second decade.<\/p>\n
In recent years Mishriff, Rebel\u2019s Romance and the extraordinary Equinox have all shone under the Meydan floodlights and, on the basis of a string of four Group 1 victories between June and November last year, spanning France, Britain and, momentously, Japan, the Aga Khan Studs\u2019 homebred carved his own piece of history.<\/p>\n
In doing so Calandagan has become as popular with racing fans as he is admired by racing professionals and ratings experts.<\/p>\n
But what is it that really marks out such a champion to those who know him best? And what is the significance to the Aga Khan Studs of breeding and campaigning such an iconic runner in their famous emerald green and red silks?<\/p>\n
Trainer Francis Graffard can sometimes be caught in a kind of reverie when recalling the highlights of Calandagan\u2019s extraordinary 2025, and he also takes his time in assessing what qualities elevate the son of Gleneagles to a level very few thoroughbreds achieve.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat makes him better than the rest?\u201d wonders Graffard. \u201cHis consistency. Mentally and physically he\u2019s made for it and he\u2019s so consistent. Nothing bothers him nowadays.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graffard confirms that Calandagan was not really a problem child in his younger days, more a gawky adolescent.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe never had a bad temperament but he was more backward and immature than we thought, both mentally and physically,\u201d says Graffard.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo start the season with the best racehorse in the world, it\u2019s different. This year he will be the one to beat, everytime he runs. But he doesn\u2019t know that, only we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graffard adds: \u201cBut it\u2019s so good for the sport, he can run on and be competitive and hopefully he stays at the top. He\u2019s been so good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He was officially the best racehorse on the planet in 2025 and now Calandagan starts out on the defence of its World\u2019s Best Racehorse crown in the $6m Longines Dubai Sheema Classic [G1 2410m], a race which has acclaimed some of the greats of middle-distance turf racing since it was added to the programme in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68969,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68970,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68968\/revisions\/68970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}