In October 2020, the yearling was put up for auction at the Tattersalls Sale and was bought for 280,000 guineas by Blandford Bloodstock on behalf of the Dubai businessman Saeed Suhail.
[7] As a descendant of the British broodmare Suntime, she was distantly related to several major winners including Quiet Fling, Byword, and Bethrah.
[9] For his first run as a three-year-old, Desert Crown was stepped up sharply in class for the Group 2 Dante Stakes (a major trial race for the Epsom Derby) over 10+1⁄2 furlongs at York Racecourse on 22 May.
After racing towards the rear of the field, he moved up to take the lead two furlongs from the finish and despite hanging to the right in the closing stages he stayed on well to win by three and a quarter lengths from Royal Patronage.
Kingscote settled the colt in sixth or seventh place as Changingoftheguard set the pace, before moving up on the outside early in the straight and taking the lead approaching the last quarter mile.
He quickly opened up a clear lead on his rivals and, despite hanging to the left and being eased down in the final strides, he won by 2+1⁄2 lengths from the 150/1 outsider Hoo Ya Mal.