Godolphin are on the way back. And yes, we have heard that one before. Several times, in fact, over the course of a dozen seasons, since Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle operation usurped Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin as the leading power in European Flat racing. The statement of intent has arrived in the run-up to the Dubai World Cup and has often been followed by success for the royal blue colours on the richest card of the year. Away from home turf, however, the momentum has soon ebbed away.
This year, perhaps, it will finally be different. The arrival of John Ferguson, Sheikh Mohammed’s longstanding bloodstock advisor, as Godolphin’s new chief executive seems to have given the organisation a fresh sense of purpose, nearly a quarter of a century after it sent out its first runner in 1992. This is also the season when the blue-blooded yearlings bought in a £17m spending spree at Tattersalls in October 2014 will be part of the Classic generation. If the money was well spent, the moment to live up to their pedigrees has arrived.
Then again, a glance at the betting for the 2016 Classics suggests that Godolphin still have a long way to travel. O’Brien’s team of three-year-olds includes Air Force Blue, the even-money favourite for the 2,000 Guineas, and Minding, who heads the market for the 1,000 Guineas. The marketing department at Coolmore Stud, which supplies Ballydoyle with its racing stock, could have written the betting for the Oaks. Minding is favourite, followed by horses named Ballydoyle and Coolmore.
Godolphin is not even the top dog in Newmarket any more. John Gosden, last season’s champion trainer, has Godolphin-owned horses in his yard, including Jack Hobbs, last year’s Irish Derby winner, but trains for several other major owners besides. In 2015, Gosden’s stable won more prize money than Godolphin’s two full-time trainers, Charlie Appleby and the former champion Saeed bin Suroor, put together.
The intention, though, is that Godolphin will be a serious competitor for all this year and the first horse to attempt to put the plan into practice will be Emotionless, a deeply impressive winner of last season’s Champagne Stakes at Doncaster, in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket on 30 April.
Emotionless started second-favourite behind Air Force Blue for last year’s Dewhurst Stakes but finished last of seven and was subsequently found to have chipped a bone in his knee.
“There was a lot of publicity about him going into the Dewhurst and it was good publicity,” Appleby, his trainer, said here on Thursday. “We want to get back to competing at the highest level against Ballydoyle, that’s what everyone likes to see, the two biggest stables in Europe taking each other on.
“It was a disappointment on the day and all of a sudden he’s gone very cold [in the Classic market], but he had a valid excuse for that run. If you’re asking if he’s overpriced [at 14-1], then yes. I have a lot of confidence in the horse and he’s shown every sign that he’s as good now that he’s strengthened up.
“He’s in full work. We spoke about a trial and decided that we would go straight to the Guineas.”
Appleby’s big hope on Saturday night is Tryster, the winner of last year’s Easter Classic on Good Friday, in the Dubai Turf, one of the season’s most valuable events on grass.
Tryster completed the last two furlongs at Lingfield in 20.97s, one of the fastest final-quarter sectionals ever recorded by a middle-distance performer in Britain. He then returned to turf in the Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown and finished last of five. As a result, many punters still think of him as a failure on grass, despite two impressive victories on the surface at Meydan already this year, earned with his trademark turn of foot.
“He improved with every run last winter and his run style was the exciting part about it,” Appleby said. “Then we decided to go to Sandown and it just didn’t materialise on the day.
“Needless to say, a lot of people jumped on the bandwagon and said: ‘He’s not a turf horse,’ but his run style is a hold-up horse and that’s not a typical Sandown style of race. A small field was probably a contributing factor as well and, perhaps more importantly, he’d been on the go all winter. He needed a break.
“I don’t think we could have a better platform to go into the race than his two starts out here. There’s probably a very different pace angle to what we’ve encountered with Tryster before, when they’ve always gone steady and it’s suited us because we’ve got such an exceptional turn of foot, but they won’t be going steady on Saturday, that’s for sure.
“He’s my best chance of having a winner on World Cup night, there’s no negatives about him whatsoever. The horse is in great form and the jockey is in great form.”
That jockey is William Buick, who took last year’s World Cup on Prince Bishop and has a clear chance to win the feature race again on Frosted, the second-favourite behind the 2014 Kentucky Derby winner, California Chrome.
This year’s World Cup is the second to be staged at Meydan on a dirt surface and Frosted, who runs for Godolphin’s main US trainer, Kiaran McLaughlin, is part of a strong challenge from the States. As a three-year-old last season, he finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby behind American Pharoah and then second in the Belmont Stakes as the same horse completed the Triple Crown a few weeks later.
“He has great form in the States and he ran against American Pharoah on nearly every run, which is a hard task,” Buick said here. “He’s come out here and thrived. Kiaran was very happy with him before he ran [at Meydan in early February].
“That race went very smoothly, it was a very luxurious trip but I don’t think we’ll get that same luxury on Saturday. But he broke the track record and came out of the race very well and he’s had a nice break since. I haven’t ridden that many top American dirt horses but the way he performed that night impressed me.”
Frosted is a 5-2 chance for the World Cup, behind California Chrome, the 7-4 favourite, while fellow American challengers Mshawish, Hoppertunity and Keen Ice, the only horse to beat American Pharoah last season, are 14-1, 16-1 and 20-1 respectively.
