Jack Milner: When Barahin was a two-year-old, pundits heaped on him the same sort of praise they gave to stable companions Hawwaam and Soqrat.
Hawwaam is now in the UK and Soqrat has gone off to stud, so that leaves Barahin the last of the trio to carry on the legacy of a golden era for owner Sheikh Hamdan bin Khalifa al Maktoum and trainer Mike de Kock.
Unfortunately, he been quite disappointing of late and in January last year, the decision was taken to geld him.
The son of Gimmethegreenlight has only raced three times since then. He came back in the Grade 2 Hawaii Stakes over 1400m last March where he finished a 5.50-length sixth behind Cirillo. Then Covid-19, followed by the lockdown, set everything back and the next time we saw the five-year-old gelding was in the Grade 3 London News Stakes over 1800m in January in which he was beaten 13 lengths by Running Brave.
De Kock then tried him over 2400m where he did not find a finish and was beaten into fourth place behind Chitengo but ended up just 3.20 lengths behind the winner.
There is an axiom in racing that while a horse may lose his form, he doesn’t lose his ability and hopefully that will be the case at Turffontein on Saturday when the five-year-old takes his place in Race 6, a Pinnacle Stakes over 1800m.
Despite not being able to win a race since romping home in the 2019 Grade 2 Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile, the only bad race Barahin has ever had was that London News failure in January. Other than that, his biggest defeat in distance was a 5.75-length second behind Hawwaam in the Grade 1 SA Classic.
Saturday’s run will be his third after a layoff, and he should be in tip-top form. He could have found 2400m a touch too far last time but back to 1800m in a race in which he is (marginally) the best weighted runner, could make this the ideal event for Barahin to get his mojo back.
Callan Murray takes the ride and the pair are nicely drawn at No 3.
The obvious danger is Divine Odyssey who has finished in front of Barahin in both the London News Stakes and the last run over 2400m. Johan Janse van Vuuren’s charge is even 2kg better off on that last effort.
However, a Barahin close to his best should be able to turn that form around.
Christopher Robin is another who loves this track and owner/trainer/breeder St John Gray believes this son of Damage Done is quite capable of picking up a feature.
He has engaged man-of-the-moment Luke Ferraris to ride his four-year-old colt so he must be included in Trifectas and Quartets.
An interesting runner is Sean Tarry-trained Flying Carpet, a three-year-old son of Judpot. Now he has been tried over further this colt has started to show his true mettle.
With Joshwin Solomons claiming his 2.5kg, Flying Carpet will have just 47.5kg on his back.