Nayef

Nayef (Arabic: نايف‎) is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include:

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See also

Nayef (horse)

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.

Background

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.

Racing career

2000: two-year-old season

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.