Ray Dawson was travelling as well as just about anyone with half a mile to run in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot. His mount Rahiebb was fourth, positioned to launch a challenge into the home straight, but the two and a half miles of the old race takes some getting at Group 1 level, and by the time they reached the two-furlong pole, his colt was running on empty.
“I don’t think he stayed, that’s the feel, the very obvious feel he gave me as we entered that two mile-two furlong zone,” Dawson told Idol Horse between races at Catterick this week where he notched his 31st win of the year on the odds-on shot Sound Gloria for his boss Roger Varian.
Rahiebb went into the Gold Cup with strong credentials: a narrow second in last year’s final British class, the G1 St Leger, and a fine win first-up in the G2 Yorkshire Cup, both at a mile and three-quarters. He looked like a four-year-old with star stayer potential. Dawson believes he still does.
The Varian-trained Rahiebb will attempt to show that the shorter distance of two miles is within his scope in the G1 Goodwood Cup at the ‘Glorious’ Goodwood festival, and perhaps give Dawson his biggest career win, a first in the highest grade.
“He’s a type of horse, when you ride him at home, you’d see him and you would think he’d stay any sort of trip, he’s that kind of a way inclined,” Dawson continued, “but it was quite obvious that he didn’t quite get home that day at Ascot against some very good hardened stayers, so two miles should be no problem for him really at Goodwood. He went through the line very strongly in the Yorkshire Cup, so I think two miles would be fine.”
Goodwood’s famous climbing, turning, dipping, rising downland track certainly has its idiosyncrasies, but Dawson envisages no problems on that front for Rahiebb when he will likely have to take on the likes of his St Leger and Gold Cup conqueror Scandinavia and Godolphin’s tremendous servant Trawlerman.
“They all have to go around it,” Dawson says. “I suppose in a way a lot of the two miles round Goodwood is downhill, so even though there are hills and it’s a stiff enough run to the finish, it’s probably an easy two miles in some ways because there’s a couple of stretches for three or four furlongs where it’s running downhill.”
He says Rahiebb is “in good nick” and the same can be said of the rider, now 32, judging by his numbers this year. Those 31 wins put him on track to be pushing past his best ever year’s tally of 64 wins back in 2022, and his prize money tally is already past £1 million and close to his highest return of £1,091,588, again in 2022.
Dawson had well-documented problems with substance and alcohol addiction prior to that peak year and again since, which have stalled his career progression at times: in August 2023 he failed a race day test after consuming alcohol and cocaine the night before racing at Bath and served a six-month ban from late 2023 into 2024. Varian is among those who have stood by him.
“I started with Roger during COVID, so this is my sixth season with him here, so we know each other well,” Dawson says.
“I understand the way he likes horses to be ridden and at the same time he can leave it to me if we have to go to plan B or C. And you know, things are going really well, we’ve had a good relationship for a few years and it’s nice that we’re able to enjoy a season together like this with some up-and-coming horses keeping the dream alive.
“He’s a very easy boss to work for, he’s a gentleman. And it’s a lovely yard, beautiful yard. Plenty of good horses have gone through those stable doors, and I very much enjoy working for him and riding out in the mornings and stuff, it’s very relaxed.”
Dawson has proved he’s a talented jockey, he’s shown it in Britain and during winters stints based in Dubai, and he’s on the cusp of the top echelon, but a Group 1 win is what really lifts a jockey and he hopes it’s not far away.
“Hopefully we can get that Group 1, that’s always gonna be a goal, especially in the position I’m in now,” he says.
“I mean, the first target each year is the amount of winners you want, and obviously you always want to be better than last year. So, I’m on 31 winners for the season since I came back from Dubai and I’d like to try and double that. But I suppose with the nice horses that I’ve ridden, I probably didn’t expect to ride so many big winners at this stage.
“Rahiebb with the Yorkshire Cup early on was a great start, so if you don’t quite better the last season’s tally, but you get a Group 1 in there or a couple of nice Group races then you’ve had a good season.”
Rahiebb’s Yorkshire Cup isn’t Dawson’s only big York winner with a Goodwood assignment. He partnered the Varian stable’s rising handicapper Raammee to win the lucrative John Smith’s Cup Handicap at the track earlier this month, also in the colours of Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum. The four-year-old could take his place in the Chesterfield Cup Handicap.
“He’s a very exciting horse,” Dawson says. “He won the race at York quite comfortably considering he’s still inexperienced, he’s green and he ran around the place and he needed a bit of company inside the last hundred yards.”
The ambition, of course, is to progress into winning Group races, but as Dawson points out, the gelding has had only five races, three this year.
“It’ll be very much baby steps because he’s still learning and maturing as a horse,” he says.
Similar could be said of Rahiebb, who Dawson describes as “a character alright”.
“He’s the boss and he’s kind of half very relaxed and very chilled and the other half could be the complete opposite where he could be a bit of a playboy and a bit of a monkey, I suppose,” he says. “I mean, he’s always got a bit of an attitude, but as far as racing goes, his head at the races has been perfect, he’s been impeccably behaved. He seems to really have matured.”
The Goodwood Cup could be the colt’s coming-of-age if he can turn the tables on Scandinavia and secure a famous victory. It could also be a rite of passage for Dawson, a man who is working to keep his troubles in the past and prove that he too can not only stay the distance but also thrive among the best as a Group 1 jockey. ∎
