Feature Dubai Winner for Galileo

Australian bred mare Mahbooba (4m Galileo x Sogha, by Red Ransom) won the Listed UAE 1,000 Guineas at Meydan last year and was back in top form at the same venue overnight winning the Group II Balanchine Stakes.

A homebred for Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa prepared by Mike de Kock, Mahbooba strode clear to win the 1800 metre event from First City with another Aussie bred Galileo mare in Reem running third.

She also campaigned during Europe last year winning the Listed Aqlaam Godolphin Stakes last September and has the overall record of seven wins and six placings from 15 starts.

A Group I winner in South Africa at two when taking out the Golden Slipper at Clairwood, Mahbooba is from the last Australian bred crop of foals by champion sire Galileo and is the first foal of Australian bred Red Ransom mare Sogha, who was bought for $300,000 by Tim Stakemire acting for the Sheikh at the 2004 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

Sogha won three races at Muswellbrook and Scone and is a three-quarter sister-in-blood to a French Group Three winner in Slew the Red.

Sogha is no longer in Australia having been exported to Argentina in 2009.