Every Group One winner holds a special place in the Varian Stable history book, but the story of ELMALKA's 1000 Guineas win traces back much further than the 5th May 2024. In October 2011, Elmalka's dam NAHRAIN (Selkirk) provided a maiden Group One success for trainer Roger Varian, landing the G1 Prix de l’Opera on Arc weekend. 13 years later, and it was her daugher's turn in the spotlight, notching a 24th Group One success for Varian Stable, and a first success in Newmarket’s 1m fillies Classic contest, the 1000 Guineas.

Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum’s blue-blooded filly didn’t make her racecourse debut until November of her juvenile year. But she made the perfect start to her career, punching her way through from the rear of the field to win going away. She made a pleasing reappearance in the G3 Fred Darling Stakes at Newbury, just getting going in the closing stages to finish a staying-on third, embellishing her CV with Black Type on just her second start.

Just two weeks later, ELMALKA would engage herself in another exhilarating finish, but this time emerge a Classic Champion. Breaking from stall 16, she sat off the pace at the rear of the field for the opening stages. The field entered the dip led by French raider Ramatuelle, but ELMALKA had begun to gather momentum down the wing under a superb ride from Silvestre De Sousa. The pair swooped down to clinch the lead in the final strides in a heart-racing finale, prevailing by a neck from last year's G1 Cheveley Park Stakes heroine Porta Fortuna, with Ramatuelle back in third.

Roger said “It's very special to train the winner for His Highness Sheik Ahmed Al Maktoum, who's supported me all of my career and supported Michael Jarvis before me. She's a homebred filly and out of Nahrain who was my first group one winner the first year I trained, winning the Prix de l'Opera. You can't get more special than that. But it's a team effort and these things don't happen by accident. It's a huge thrill and it hasn't quite sunk in.”