Nayef (horse)

Nayef
Racing colours of Hamdan Al Maktoum
Sire	Gulch
Grandsire	Mr. Prospector
Dam	Height of Fashion
Damsire	Bustino
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	1 May 1998
Country	United States
Colour	Bay
Breeder	Shadwell Stud
Owner	Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.
Trainer	Marcus Tregoning
Record	19: 9-2-4
Earnings	£2,350,401
Major wins
Rose of Lancaster Stakes (2001) Select Stakes (2001) Cumberland Lodge Stakes (2001) Champion Stakes (2001) Dubai Sheema Classic (2002) International Stakes (2002) Prince of Wales's Stakes (2003)
Last updated on May 11, 2007

Nayef (foaled 1 May 1998) is a retired Thoroughbred racehorse an active sire, bred in the United States and trained in the United Kingdom during his racing career which ran from 2000 to 2003. He is best known for winning a series of important races including four Group One races: the Champion Stakes, the Dubai Sheema Classic, the International Stakes, and the Prince of Wales's Stakes.

Nayef is a large, powerfully built bay horse bred in Kentucky by his owner, Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum. He was sired by Gulch and was the last foal of the notable broodmare Height of Fashion, making him a half-brother to Derby winner Nashwan and multiple Group race winner Unfuwain.

He was trained throughout his career by Marcus Tregoning at Kingwood Stables in Lambourn and ridden in seventeen of his nineteen races by Richard Hills.

Unlike most racehorses, Nayef bypassed maiden races, making his debut instead against more experienced colts in the Listed Haynes, Hanson and Clark Conditions Stakes at Newbury. He was nevertheless made 7-4 favourite on the basis of his reputation and won by a neck from Tamburlaine. The form of the race looked particularly strong when the runner-up went on to finish second in the Group One Racing Post Trophy later in the season. Nayef followed up in the Autumn Stakes at Ascot, taking the lead a furlong from the finish and pulling away to win by an "impressive" six lengths. Once again, the form of the race was boosted by later events, when the third-placed Count Dubois won the Group One Gran Criterium in Milan two weeks later.