Outstanding multiple G1 and Classic winner Mawj retired from racing

Mawj, the brilliant winner of last year’s 1,000 Guineas who provided trainer Saeed bin Suroor with his 500th Group win, has been retired and will now join Godolphin’s broodmare band.

The homebred filly got off the mark at the first time of asking, easily winning on Newmarket’s Rowley Mile in the May of her juvenile year.

Second in the Albany next time out, she recorded her first Group win in the G2 Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes in July before concluding her two-year-old campaign with a creditable third in the G1 Cheveley Park Stakes.

Mawj returned last January with victory at Meydan, following up with an incredible eight-and-a-half-length win at the same course when stepping up to a mile for the first time.

This earned her a tilt at the opening fillies’ Classic of the season, the G1 1,000 Guineas, where she prevailed in a thrilling finish over Tahiyra, becoming Godolphin’s highest rated filly in Europe in the process.

After a setback prevented her from returning to the racecourse last summer, Mawj was back to her brilliant best at Keeneland in October, taking the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Stakes to notch up a 500th Group win for Saeed bin Suroor. She then found only Master Of The Seas too good in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, beaten by just a nose.

Her trainer Saeed bin Suroor said, "Mawj is a very special filly, who showed her brilliance throughout her racing career. It was a fantastic day when she won the 1,000 Guineas and I was especially pleased that it was her who provided me with my 500th Group race victory out in Keeneland.

“She proved herself against the best horses across the world, winning in Dubai, the UK and the United States as well as finishing second in a Breeders’ Cup Mile. Everyone at Al Quoz and Godolphin Stables is going to miss her but we look forward to the next stage of her life as a broodmare.”