Krishna Stud Farm, located at Tohana in Haryana, has acquired the six year old son of Storm Cat, Fantastic Dubai to boost its breeding operations. For the stud farm which had been operating on a modest scale, this is an attempt to step up the accelerator. Fantastic Dubai was till recently in racing at Dubai and has two wins to his credit and a few noteworthy performances behind top horses. Fantastic Dubai won as a three year old at England and won once at Dubai in the hands of jockey Wayne Smith who rode for trainer Padmanabhan for two seasons with good success in Bangalore. Despite arriving late for the current breeding season, the six year old Fantastic Dubai is expected to cover about 25 mares by the time the current breeding season concludes.

The beautifully conformed son of Storm Cat should have a bearing on the prospects of the stud farm which has had fair success with Hammerstein at centres like Hyderabad. Fantastic Dubai is a durable horse, having had 14 starts, two wins, six seconds, losing by less than a length. He has finished third thrice. He has hit the board pretty consistently and performed over six to eight furlongs. Fantastic Dubai’s half-brother Zafeen is standing as a stallion in England and his crop has proved to be pretty useful. Zafeen was second in the English 2000 Guineas and he won the Group I St James Palace Stakes.

The young and enthusiastic Kunal Karan Singh, who represents the third generation of the family which started the breeding operations way back in 1977, feels that acquiring Fantastic Dubai was a step in this direction. The stud farm was founded by Brig Karan Singh who started the operations on a modest scale. His son Dr Virendar believes that the stallion has all the qualities that it takes to click in Indian environment given the fact that Indian racing basically caters to sprinter milers.

The dam of Fantastic Dubai (Kaidoun) won two races during her career and foaled good performers including Zafeen through Zafonic. The second dam Shy Danceuse (Groom Dancer) is a winner of three races at France and she is also half-sister to Diffident who was hugely successful as a stallion in India.

The handsome looking Fantastic Dubai is one of the several progeny of Storm Cat which are standing as stallions in India. Sans Craintes Stud Farm has Lucifer Sam whose progeny is due to race shortly. Emerald Cat was another son of Storm Cat who had a good stint in the stud farm in India and produced Group I winner Macchupicchu. Emerald Cat unfortunately had a short stint as the dreaded colic cut short what was a promising career in the stud farm. Fantastic Dubai stands tall at 16 ½ hands.