This has been a trying season for Godolphin worldwide but, on the eve of Future Champions Day at Newmarket Racecourse, the operation has revealed significant changes to its structure as it looks to again rule the racing firmament.
The international stable has conceded that it has drifted from being the “yang” to Coolmore and Ballydoyle’s “yin” at the global apex of the sport.
Since African Story won the Dubai World Cup at Meydan Racecourse for Saeed bin Suroor in March, Godolphin has not registered a triumph at the top level.
There have been Group 2 successes in England, courtesy of Bin Suroor’s ageing warrior Cavalryman, and in France and Australia, through trainers Andre Fabre and John O’Shea, respectively.
For an operation led by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, this is not good enough.
At Moulton Paddocks stables in Newmarket, Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby agreed that improvement was expected.
“The public have probably been looking at us for the last few years saying, ‘You haven’t been competitive’,” he said.
At that moment, Charming Thought, who is engaged in Friday’s Group 1 Middle Park Stakes, strode past.
“I don’t sit here in Moulton Paddocks in a bubble, blind,” Appleby said. “I know what people are saying outside, and we know what we have to achieve here.
“The public know the facilities we have got, and that we have 180 horses, and if we can’t get it right, who can?
“Give us another year or two to get back to being top dogs. It is what we are all striving to do and where His Highness would like us to be. We want to be taking on Coolmore and Aidan O’Brien in Classic races.”
Talk is cheap, but when it is backed up by the sort of investment made by Sheikh Mohammed at the Tattersalls sales last week, it is clear actions speak louder than words.
The Dubai ruler parted with £17.5 million (Dh102m) for a return of 38 well-bred yearlings.
Often it is John Ferguson, his bloodstock adviser, who does the bidding, but Sheikh Mohammed was there in person, as was his son, Sheikh Hamdan, who created fireworks when going head-to-head in the sales ring with Sheikh Joaan from Qatar.
“His Highness and John Ferguson were busy at the sales, which is great for the game, and great for Godolphin,” Appleby said. “I think it was visible that his hunger and enthusiasm for the game is second to none.”
Appleby expects to receive a share of those 38 horses in good time and speculation is widespread as to how Godolphin decide which trainer receives which horse.
“I take a plan of where these horses could go to Sheikh Mohammed and he decides whether it is a good plan, or whether certain horses should go to certain trainers,” Ferguson said. “Saeed, for instance, has done very well with horses by Hard Spun, so we will give him more of those.”
Bin Suroor has been instrumental in guiding Godolphin through the trough of the past 18 months, following the banishment of the former Godolphin trainer Mahmoud Al Zarooni.
When Moulton Paddocks was closed down in April by Sheikh Mohammed following the steroids revelations, it was the practices employed by Bin Suroor that were used as the template.
Since then, both stables have changed dramatically. Racing manager Simon Crisford has gone and the role of the stable jockey is a thing of the past.
Silvestre De Sousa, who rides primarily for Bin Suroor, was placed on the forfeit list by the Emirates Racing Authority on October 7 in respect of a Dh119,820 debt owed to the regulatory body for their costs to his appeal of a two-day ban.
If he does not pay, it places his position within the organisation in Dubai during the winter in jeopardy. De Sousa’s contract with Godolphin is up for renewal at the end of the year.
Harry Bentley, whose contract with Qatar Racing also concludes at the end of the European season, will ride in Dubai for Bin Suroor, although it is unclear in what capacity.
Appleby also has pursued a strategy of using the best rider available and will continue with this during the Dubai World Cup Carnival.
“William Buick, Adam Kirby and Martin Lane are at Moulton Paddocks on a regular basis, and the information from them has helped me immensely this year,” Appleby said.
“William has ridden so many good horses for John Gosden, so when he sits on a horse and tells you how good it is you respect that opinion.
“William will come out to Dubai and ride during the winter and, if needed, Adam will also.
“If we have more than two or three runners in a race it is not unusual for jockeys to fly out from England on the Wednesday night for Meydan on Thursday.
“Thankfully, during the carnival we have an array of top-class international jockeys around, too.”
The feedback provided by Appleby’s main trio of jockeys, and that of Kieren Fallon for Bin Suroor, has been a major factor in contributing to the operation’s new way of utilising jockeys and work riders.
Godolphin was one of several stables in Britain that relied heavily on work riders from India and Pakistan recently, but has cut back on this practice after the Home Office ruled, effective from July last year, that racing secretaries, gallops men and security staff could not be non-European Economic Area migrants.
It has resulted in a recruitment drive across the organisation and has brought some of the best work riders in the business to Moulton Paddocks.
Willie Ryan won the English Derby in 1997 and is working for Appleby, as is Shane Featherstonhaugh, who has risen to prominence in this sleepy town as the work rider of Frankel and, before that, of Motivator, another Derby winner.
“We have some old wise heads that have joined the team,” Appleby said. “Every big yard has their core of work riders that bring something to the table.
“When you have somebody who has come in from abroad how can they tell you if it is a group horse they are riding? You have had to have sat on a group horse to know one.
“When Shane tells me that he’s on a horse that is as good as Frankel, I can start to get really excited.”
Appleby has been a breath of fresh air in what was a corner of Newmarket that had become stale, and then went toxic.
With the considerable help of Bin Suroor, he has been rebuilding Moulton Paddocks.
The main yard houses about 100 horses and is split into two sections on either side of the main office block, on which pictures of Al Zarooni’s most notable triumphs still hang: images of heroes such as Opinion Poll and the late Encke.
There is a second yard called Well Bottom, which houses about 90 horses.
Appleby’s equine cohorts are trained on a multitude of gallops ranging from an uphill, 1,200-metre polytrack, to one over a mile.
There is a mile grass gallop, a peat-moss gallop through an avenue of mature oak trees and a woodchip gallop in the pipeline.
Horses can be trained on a treadmill, in a 100-metre equine swimming pool and an equine water walker.
The facilities are in place. Sheikh Mohammed’s investment means that the production line of thoroughbreds will continue to fill the stables.
The emergence at Darley of Dubawi, New Approach, Shamardal and Teofilo as front-line stallions capable of siring Classic winners has resulted in a regular flow of top-class prospects.
Appleby has a stable that is dominated by about 130 juveniles ready to emerge next spring.
Godolphin has Charming Thought engaged in the Middle Park Stakes, as well as Lucida, Winters’ Moon and Good Place declared in Friday’s Fillies’ Mile. Maftool runs in the Dewhurst Stakes, the centrepiece of the Dubai-sponsored card.
If any of that quartet can secure a Group 1 win, Godolphin will return to the UAE this winter on the front foot.
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