Godolphin - An Epic Year

GOD LPHIN AN EPIC YEAR

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2018

What a wonderful year!

Through teamwork and a total commitment to the sport, the royal stables laid claim to some of the most prestigious prizes in horse racing on the planet in 2018

By Leslie Wilson Jr Racing & Special Features Writer istory is not made overnight. It takes time and dedication.

Godolphin, the racing stable created

by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in 1992, marked 2018 as a historic year when it won an unprecedented 30 Group 1 races on five continents, the 13th British Owners Championship and two of the biggest jewels in world racing – the Epsom Derby and the Melbourne Cup. These are accomplishments that illustrate what can be achieved by a dedicated team whose goals reflect those of its patron and driving force, Shaikh Mohammad.

Godolphin, which was born out of a concept, was founded by Shaikh Mohammad as an expression of his lifelong passion for horses, and the sport of horse racing. In the early 90s, Shaikh Mohammad was inspired by migrating birds seeking the warmer climes of Dubai during the winter, and decided to experiment with the thoroughbred horse, when he brought a string from England to Dubai.

When people discuss the ‘Dubai effect’ on Godolphin-trained horses the name Lammtarra

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His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum with Masar after winning the Epsom Derby in June

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GODOLPHIN: AN EPIC YEAR

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2018

“Winning the Epsom Derby meant a lot to Shaikh Mohammad” In an exclusive interview, Hugh Anderson, Godolphin’s Managing Director in the UK and Dubai, talks about the magic its horses wove in 2018 through a series of spectacular wins on tracks across the globe

By Leslie Wilson Jr Racing & Special Features Writer erhaps there is no better person to reflect back on what has been a seminal year for Dubai’s Godolphin racing stable than, Hugh Anderson himself.

As the Managing Director in the UK and Dubai for Godolphin, of the world’s biggest and most ambitious thoroughbred racing entities, Anderson offered Gulf News an insight into how 2018 became a defining year for the stable, which was created by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance. Anderson has been a key figure in Godolphin’s upper management for ten years, having witnessed its growth into an enterprise that now spans the world, with stables in Dubai, the UK and Australia.

Excerpts from an interview.

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●● Thank you for your time Mr Anderson. How would you describe what has been an out-

that really stand out to me are essentially our in-house trainers that have been delivering these results, Saeed (Bin Surour) who has had 9 Group 1 victories including Thunder Snow in the Dubai World Cup, Charlie (Appleby) with 12, including the Derby and Melbourne Cup and James Cummings in Australia with seven. So our in-house trainers have been performing extremely well.

standing year for Godolphin.

It’s generally acknowledged that this has been by far Godolphin’s best year in its history with 30 Group 1 winners around the world — in the Middle East, Australia, America, Europe and Japan. This couldn’t have been a better year from a racing point of view. ●● No question about it, and the icing on the cake has been winning two jewels of the flat, the Epsom Derby and Melbourne Cup. Yes. Everyone credits His Highness Shaikh Mohammad and his team led by Appleby and the Moulton Paddocks crew.

They have picked up two brilliant victories in the most impressive way you can imagine and it couldn’t have been better. ●● What has contributed to this phenomenal success, were there any particular factors that have made this year so very special?

It’s a really good question and the way I answer that is by looking at the type of victories that these Group1 races add up to.

When you look at it the things

It was the culmination of lots of factors that delivered these results and I really expect 2019 is a year we can go into with a great deal of confidence.

Hugh Anderson, Godolphin’s Managing Director in the UK and Dubai

●● What stands out in this regard?

Of the 30 Group 1 victories the vast majority have been delivered by home-breds and I think that’s important as we seem to have got to a point where our mares are absolutely top quality and our stallions, of course led by the brilliant Dubawi are among the best in the world. I think that those are the two main factors you end up noticing. ●● Obviously the bar is going to be raised heading into 2019… how much of a challenge will it be now that the expectations are high, That’s the big challenge. We’re obviously thinking about this.

However, I look at 2019 with a great deal of optimism. In all sports you reset to zero when the year starts again and racing is no exception. But I think that if we are not confident about 2019 it means we are looking at 2018 and thinking it was a fluke. And it wasn’t. It was the culmination of lots of factors that delivered these results and I really expect 2019 is a year we can go into with a great deal of confidence. ●● What kind of ammunition does the stable have to deliver

the kind of results that, I’m sure will be, an asking.

We have some great twoyear-olds, especially in Europe, where I am really interested, Saeed and Charlie have both delivered two Group 1 winners in Royal Meeting (Criterium International, Chantilly, France) and Line of Duty (Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Churchill Downs, USA) and that’s a fantastic starting point. But then we can fall back on some excellent older horses, I expect the Dubai World Cup Carnival to be a successful one for us

GODOLPHIN: AN EPIC YEAR

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2018

●● It is clear that Shaikh Mohammad’s support has been unwavering, it must be a privilege to work for someone like him.

We are here to deliver for His Highness at the highest level. He shows us such loyalty and such patience. I think every single person that wears the Godolphin blue is just so proud that after 25 years we are at a point that we are coming close to delivering what His Highness deserves. ●● Was there any special moment that touched you about the Derby and Melbourne Cup victories?

The Epsom derby was the most significant win of the year and His Highness and Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Crown Prince of Dubai) and all his close family were there to watch this momentous victory, I think for all of us that is the moment that will stick in our minds from 2018 when we saw a real joy and realization of years and years of hard work and devotion.

Line of Duty gallops down the home stretch to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile under jockey William Buick in November Pictures: Getty/Gulf News Archives

and I would expect that we can continue to operate successfully around the world.

We are an international stable. His Highness set up Godolphin up to challenge for these prizes all around the world and we try to follow his leadership and do that. I don’t think is any reason not to be optimistic about 2019 ●● What are the next frontiers for Godolphin? How much of hunger is there to win races like the Kentucky Derby or

the Japan Cup? There is clearly a hunger. We obviously need particular horses, and especially for the Kentucky Derby we need the right horse and I think that there’s every chance that we will be looking at them with great optimism.

I think there are a couple of two-year-olds in America that are looking very promising and believe me, if any of our trainers think that they have a good chance to win, we will do it with His Highness’ blessing.

●● Tell us how special was it for a home-bred to win the Derby.

The thing about Masar is that he is a horse whose history and bloodlines really go right back into the starting point of Darley and Godolphin. So generations of breeding, generations of breeding fantastic race horses resulted in this wonderful victory. His sire, New Approach, was owned by Her Royal highness Princess Haya and I don’t think that day could ever be beaten. ●● You were there at Epsom, what were the emotions running through your mind?

You only have the see the photographs of His Highness receiving the Derby trophy to understand what it felt like. The sheer pleasure on his face and his family to know how much it meant to him.

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What a wonderful year it has been will most certainly be a case in point.

At the end of each European season Shaikh Mohammad’s Godolphin Team ship a select number of horses from Newmarket to their Dubai bases, where they spend the winter months staying healthy and fit, before returning to the UK to challenge for some of the biggest prizes around the world.

It is a practice that has resulted in some of Godolphin’s most famous victories, but perhaps none more noteworthy than the hat trick of wins Lammtarra scored in a single calendar year, having almost never made it to the racetrack again due to a life-threatening respiratory illness.

As he wintered in Dubai at the state-of-the-art Al Quoz Stables, behind the former Metropolitan Hotel on Shaikh Zayed Road, Lammtarra was put through a scientific and well-crafted programme where he received the right amount of nutrition, exercise and rest, which allowed him, day by day, to recoup and regain his powers.

Shipped back to the UK in April he would produce Saeed Bin Surour a seminal effort under a Trainer, Godolphin young Walter Swinburn that was the stuff of legend and almost surreal. In two minutes and 32.21 seconds, he trumpeted the benefits of wintering in Dubai when running an absolute blinder to break the Derby record and win what was one of the most exhilarating renewals of the great race. He would go on to win the King George and Arc de Triomphe and claim his place among the greats in racing such as Mill Reef, Nijinsky, Dancing Brave and Shergar.

I was too young to have witnessed some of these legends in action, but Lammtarra’s Derby performance has left an indelible mark on my consciousness. What I will always remember him for is the Dubai miracle.

Just like Lammtarra, today many of Godolphin’s horses winter in Dubai where they compete in the Dubai World Cup Carnival and then head back to Europe to contest major races around the world.

In this landmark year for Godolphin, Masar, who gave the stable its first-ever Epsom Derby in the famous Royal Blue silks, followed in the famous footsteps of Lammtarra, by wintering in Dubai and then returning to the UK to snatch one of the

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Jockey Kerrin McEvoy rides Cross Counter to victory in the Melbourne Cup in November sport’s most prized trophies, at Epsom in June.

Then, in November, Cross Counter would gift Godolphin a much sought after first Melbourne Cup, one of the most challenging races in the world.

In between Godolphin, who began the year by winning an 8th $12million Dubai World Cup with Thunder Snow, would capture some of the most prestigious prizes on the planet.

Numerically, Godolphin enjoyed a record-breaking year, surpassing the previous best of 651 wins in a year, by winning 666 races from 934 individual runners. As many as 3,651 horses raced under the Godolphin banner in the year to claim a record 129 Stakes victories. To date, Godolphin has won 5,242 races worldwide including 4,712 individual runners.

They have landed 1,323 Stakes race victories and a total of 288 Group 1 wins. No less than 26,471 horses have represented the Dubai-owned stable since the year 1992. Among Godolphin’s stars of 2018 were Hartnell, Thunder Snow, Jungle Cat, Wild Illusion, Best Solution and Cross Counter.

Masar, was the headline act. After wintering in Dubai, he returned to Britain to annihilate his rivals in the Group 3 Craven Stakes by nine lengths at Newmarket, before finishing third in the Group 1 2,000 Guineas, run over the same Rowley Mile course. Trained by Charlie Appleby, who would enjoy a seminal year himself, with the Godolphin homebred son of New Approach winning the Derby at Epsom in the hands of William Buick.

Shaikh Mohammad, Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Crown Prince of Dubai, members of the Al Maktoum family, friends and associates were present to share their joy in this historic victory.

The stories of Godolphin’s triumphs in 2018 illuminate and reflect a sustained commitment for the sport of flat racing and tracked the team’s progress into the future.

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The rise and rise of Appleby Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby carved a niche for himself among the sport’s greats in 2018, helping Godolphin win the Epsom Derby and the Melbourne Cup in the same year

By Leslie Wilson Jr Racing & Special Features Writer ive years ago not many people in the racing business had even heard of him. He was invisible to most, a behind-thescenes player, a travelling head lad and assistant trainer. Then came the big break in July 2013, when Charlie Appleby was drafted into Godolphin’s training ranks alongside multiple awardwinner Saeed Bin Surour.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Appleby never looked back and leapfrogged from one success to another.

Appleby, who operates from bases at Moulton Paddocks in Newmarket, England, and Marmoom Stables in Dubai, carved a niche for himself among the sport’s greats by winning the Epsom Derby and Melbourne Cup in the same year. It’s something not many trainers in the world have achieved even after years and years of dedication and painstaking planning.

What the Englishman accomplished this year is so very special in terms of quality, passion and permanence.

Godolphin, the stable created

by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, invests in the best horses, best jockeys and best trainers in a wholehearted effort to give back their best. Sometimes things don’t go in their favour, but that’s

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Charlie Appleby, Godolphin’s Melbourne and Epsom Derby-winning trainer seen at a press conference at Emirates Towers in Dubai the way the dice rolls. However, when they are winning, their joie de vivre is infectious. Rather than watching them celebrate alone, anyone within sight joins in the revelry. Stirring stuff.

These scenes were enacted at Epsom in June and Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse this November. As a travelling writer, I have been privileged to experience these emotions up front on several occasions and I tell you, it can simply take your breath away.

While Saeed Bin Surour has enjoyed success at every level, this was unquestionably Charlie Appleby’s year, a year that was capped with the International Trainer of the Year title, a third in succession.

Appleby saddled 12 of Godolphin’s 30 international Group 1 winners in 2018, including historic wins at the Epsom Derby with Masar and Melbourne Cup with Cross Counter, as well as Line Of Duty’s in the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs.

Masar became the first horse to win the English Classic in the stable’s trademark Royal Blue silks, while Cross Counter ended the Dubai-owned stable’s 30-year wait for a Melbourne Cup victory.

Appleby, who also became the first British trainer to win the Melbourne Cup, acknowledged that 2018 has been an “unbelievable year” and paid tribute to Shaikh Mohammad.

“I have one person to thank for that, His Highness Shaikh Mohammad, whose ambition and passion for our sport is an inspiration to every one of us at Godolphin. “I am forever grateful to His Highness for having given me the opportunity to train for him,” he said on the stable’s website.

“I am also fortunate in having an excellent team at Moulton Paddocks, headed by my assistants Marie Murphy and Alex Merriam.

Their skill and dedication, plus the hard work of the entire team, have been major factors in the Godolphin success story this year.”

“It was Shaikh Mohammad’s idea to get this team of horses together and put us out there to go and take on the world,” Appleby said. “To get the results that we’re getting at the moment has just been phenomenal.”