James Doyle, in a little over three years after riding his first Group One winner in March 2012, rode 16 more. But as he walked into the paddock to climb aboard Barney Roy before the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot last month he had been stuck on 17 for almost two years.
“At the end of the day you have to have self-belief,” Doyle said here on Friday. “If you don’t think you can do it, then how are you meant to expect other people to think you can do it?
“I had a lean spell in terms of Group One winners but I still rode plenty of winners, and good winners as well. You don’t become a bad jockey overnight and even from my early days of battling away to then riding 17 Group 1 winners, I wasn’t doing anything any different. I was just given better ammunition. Just because I wasn’t riding any Group One winners I didn’t lose my confidence at all.”
It showed, first as Barney Roy took the feature race on the first day of the Royal meeting and then two days later when Doyle, deputising for the injured Frankie Dettori, landed the Gold Cup with a fine front-running ride on Big Orange. Despite being frozen out this year by Saeed bin Suroor, one of Godolphin’s two principal trainers in Newmarket, Doyle is back among the big winners and could land another important blow for Godolphin aboard Barney Roy in Saturday’s Eclipse Stakes here.
Aidan O’Brien’s Churchill, who edged out Barney Roy in the 2,000 Guineas in May, was among the beaten horses at Ascot and another favourite representing Godolphin’s biggest rival stands in Barney Roy’s way at Sandown. Cliffs Of Moher, the runner-up in the Derby, heads the market for the season’s first important clash of the generations, but Barney Roy has a few pounds in hand of him according to Timeform, and a clear chance to establish himself as Europe’s best three-year-old.
To do so, a horse with the speed to win a Group One at a mile will need to produce his best form over a mile and a quarter, while Cliffs Of Moher and Eminent, another leading contender, are both dropping back in trip after finishing close behind Wings Of Eagles in the Derby. Ulysses and Decorated Knight, third and second in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, lead the challenge of the older horses in an outstanding renewal of the race.
“It’s exciting and fascinating and that’s what we’re in it for,” Doyle says. “Cliffs Of Moher is pretty solid and mine is pretty solid too. It’s going to be interesting. There’s lots of arguments to be made. Will he [Barney Roy] stay or won’t he?
“He’s galloped right through the line in every one of his races, so that suggests he’ll get a bit further, and there’s [Derby winner] Galileo on his dam’s side, which would also suggest that he’ll get a bit further. To be honest, there’s nothing to suggest he might not be a better horse going further. It’s a proper race and you have to be prepared for anything, especially here at Sandown, as it’s not the easiest of tracks. You’ve got ridges early, the elbow to the turn. It can get pretty messy.”
Barney Roy’s close second behind Churchill at Newmarket was the only defeat of his career and Doyle feels that, with more luck in running, the three-year-old would still be unbeaten.
“The Guineas obviously didn’t go to plan,” he says. “He’s a horse with a long stride and, when Churchill came in on top of me from an outside draw and kept taking back, especially with his inexperience, it put us on the back foot. I thought the way the race panned out in the St James’s Palace stakes really suited his run style, and he finished off quite powerfully.”
More of the same on Saturday afternoon could well be enough to give Doyle his third Group One winner in 19 days. After the drought it may now be time to prepare for the flood.
Chris Cook’s Saturday tips
Sandown 1.20 Mazyoun 1.50 Alpha Delphini 2.25 Greenside 3.00 Queen Of Time 3.35 Decorated Knight 4.10 Montaly 4.40 Frontispiece
Leicester 1.25 Yorkshire Pudding 1.55 Christmas Night 2.30 Light Of Joy (nap) 3.05 Final Frontier 3.40 Prosecution 4.15 Accento 4.45 Flood Defence 5.15 Roger Thorpe
Beverley 1.40 Iconic Sunset 2.15 Seyaady 2.50 Rossall 3.25 Tarboosh 4.00 Talent Scout 4.35 Clear As A Bell 5.10 Jive Talking 5.45 Equiano Springs
Haydock 2.05 Dominating 2.40 Abingdon 3.15 Fabricate 3.50 Kachy 4.25 The Armed Man 5.00 Roman Holiday 5.30 Baashiq
Nottingham 5.40 Graceful Act 6.10 Mrs Gallagher 6.40 Related 7.10 Iniesta 7.40 Cape Icon 8.15 Suspect Package 8.45 Zehrah
Carlisle 6.00 Mr Orange 6.30 Panophobia 7.00 Bronze Beau (nb) 7.30 Polar Forest 8.00 Framley Garth 8.30 Alfie’s Angel 9.00 Cold Shoulder
