Sheikh Mohammed Obaid’s Sheikha Reika is out of Screen Star who made one of the most electric debuts of recent years when she won a 7f maiden as a 2yo.

Unfortunately it was to be her only racecourse start, and the amount of ability shown by her two most prominent offspring does make you wonder how good the mare herself could’ve been. Sheikha Reika is a full sister to the high-class juvenile and G1 Cheveley Park Stakes winner Lumiere, the pair both being by the top-notch stallion Shamardal.

Sheikha Reika wouldn’t make anywhere near the same impression as her exalted sister as a two-year-old, being beaten three times over a mile in the autumn months, but she undoubtedly showed promise in finishing runner up to a couple of Godolphin-owned subsequent stakes winners. On her first start as a 3yo she won a 7f fillies maiden on the Rowley Mile,- in doing so became Roger’s 4^th winner of a race that he likes to target with a forward filly early in the season. Another 2^nd in a Leicester conditions race and a slightly below-par 4^th at Ascot in an 8f handicap saw her stepped up in trip for the Listed John Musker Stakes over 10f at Yarmouth, and she took her form to previously unscaled heights with a comprehensive 4.5l demolition of eight rivals. 

Clearly the step up in trip had unlocked plenty of latent ability and barely two months after that Ascot handicap fourth Sheikha Reika would line up in the G1 E.P.Taylor Stakes at Woodbine as just a 6/1 shot. On what would be her final racecourse appearance the filly was ridden with confidence by Andrea Atzeni, coming under pressure 2f out and hitting the front with less than 100 yards to go, running out a ready winner despite the official margin of less than a length.

Sheikha Reika joined her owner’s broodmare band upon retirement.