Godolphin Good As Gold Down Under

By Kelsey Riley 
As Australia’s feature juvenile contests–the G1 Blue Diamond S. Feb. 28 and the G1 Golden Slipper Mar. 21–draw ever closer, the country’s most precocious 2-year-olds are hitting the tracks to put the finishing touches on their preparations. This group includes an almost astonishing brigade from Godolphin and trainer John O’Shea, which are responsible for eight of the top 20 in the Golden Slipper order of entry; the co-favorite and three others under 20-1 for that A$3.5 million event and an overall 10 juvenile winners since the turn of the Southern Hemisphere calendar in August. Not bad, considering it is now the equivalent of mid-August Northern Hemisphere-time. 

Likely at the top of the list is  “TDN Rising Star” Ottoman (Aus) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}), the current 6-1 co-favorite for the Golden Slipper alongside the Gai Waterhouse-trained colt, and fellow Rising Star, Vancouver (Aus) (Medaglia d’Oro). Ottoman has been seen in the afternoon just once, when she broke her maiden at Rosehill Dec. 20, but she finished third in a Warwick Farm trial Feb. 9 in a performance jockey James McDonald described as “awesome.” 

“Ottoman had a barrier trial at Warwick Farm and performed well up to expectations,” confirmed Jason Walsh, Racing Manager of Godolphin in Australia and Bloodstock Manager of Darley Australia. “She is set to contest the G2 Silver Slipper S. [tomorrow] before taking the traditional path to the Golden Slipper for the elite fillies through the G2 Riesling S. Mar. 7.” 

Ottoman was expected to clash with Vancouver in the Silver Slipper, but Waterhouse revealed earlier this week her colt would instead trial and head straight to the G2 Todman S., the colt’s equivalent of the Riesling. 

Ottoman will still have to have her running shoes on, however. Among the high-class rivals she will face is her own stablemate, Holler (Aus) (Commands {Aus}). Holler will also be making his second start, having broken his maiden at Randwick Jan. 17. He and Ottoman both recently returned to O’Shea’s Crown Lodge Stables after a brief freshening at Darley’s Osborne Park training facility just outside Sydney, Walsh confirmed. 

Godolphin’s juvenile contingent only strengthened over the weekend when it provided the exacta in the Listed Lonhro Plate at Randwick with Haptic (Aus) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}) and Furnaces (Aus) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}), and that pair are now 10-1 and 12-1, respectively, for the Slipper. Walsh noted Furnaces is likely to meet Vancouver in the Todman, while Haptic will head straight to the Slipper without another start. 

Racing From the Start… 
With about 170 yearlings to enter its racing stables each year, it no doubt takes some serious organization to ensure each horse is given a chance to reach its highest potential. According to Walsh, that process begins from birth. 
“The vast majority of our foals are born and reared at Darley Woodlands in the Hunter Valley under the management of John Sunderland,” he said. “A smaller number are born and reared at Seymour in Victoria, at Darley Northwood Park under the guidance of Stud Manager David Collison.” 

He continued, “These young horses are routinely inspected and monitored for their development and progress, and as they approach January of their yearling year [15-16 months of age] they are sorted into groups based on pedigrees and physical attributes with a view to sorting them into those that are expected to be the more precocious of the crop. This is a fluid process, but is designed to ensure that those horses likely to make an early appearance on the racecourse are broken in the early part of the year.” 

The breaking and pre-training process takes place at Darley Kelvinside, just outside Scone in the Hunter Valley. Kelvinside was the first Australian property purchased by Darley, in 2003, and is the base for its stallions. Darley has seven properties in Australia: Kelvinside and Woodlands Studs in the Hunter Valley; Northwood Park in Victoria; Twin Hills in Cootamundra and three training centers: Crown Lodge at Warwick Farm in Sydney; Carbine Lodge at Flemington Racecourse, home of the Melbourne Cup, in Victoria; and Osborne Park outside Sydney. 

Walsh noted the process of breaking in an individual at Kelvinside takes about four weeks. 

“We are very mindful that the system is designed to suit each individual horse and their requirements,” Walsh explained. “Even as young foals and yearlings, the horses are subject to a good deal of handling to accustom them to life as a racehorse, and the breaking process for that reason requires little confrontation.” 

Once each individual is deemed prepared after breaking-in, it will transfer to Crown Lodge for one week with trainer John O’Shea, who will then have the opportunity to inspect each horse and introduce it to life in a city training environment. After that week each horse is sent for a spell–a break away from training–for a week at Twin Hills, about a four-hour drive inland from Sydney. 

Walsh noted that the Godolphin juveniles receive a “short, gradual introduction to exercise over a four- week period, followed by a period out of training of a similar duration to refresh both mentally and physically.” That cycle continues, and the most precocious of the crop have had up to four cycles through the racing stables by the time of their official second birthday Aug. 1. From there training intensifies, and the most precocious of the lot will be prepared for the first significant juveniles stakes in Sydney and Melbourne the first week of October. 

Walsh said those early racetrack exploits are important in determining an individuals suitability for the richer juvenile contests down the road. 

“History has shown that a race start prior to Christmas of their 2-year-old year is important for the top-rated juveniles targeting a Blue Diamond or Golden Slipper, and it is this criteria which we loosely use to determine eligibility to target those races,” he explained. “This, however, is not exclusive, and horses can and do race their way to contention in the early part of the New Year. The racecourse is obviously the testing ground for determining each individual’s level of ability, and it is not until the early part of the New Year, where the pre-Christmas form lines tend to mix as horses progress towards the juvenile features, that true eligibility for those races becomes evident.” 

A History of Success… 
Godolphin–or Darley, which the Australian horses raced under until recently–is no stranger to juvenile success Down Under. In 2011, Sheikh Mohammed campaigned the top two juveniles in the nation in Sepoy (Aus) (Elusive Quality), winner of the Blue Diamond and Golden Slipper, and Helmet (Aus) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}), victorious in the second two legs of the Sydney 2-year-old Triple Crown–the G1 Sires’ Produce S. and G1 Champagne S. Therefore, Sepoy and Helmet swept every juvenile Group 1 in Australia before both went on to win Group 1s as 3-year-olds. In 2013, the filly Guelph (Aus) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}) completed the Sires’ Produce/Champagne double before capturing two more Group 1s later in the year as a 3-year-old. Darley won the Blue Diamond again last year with the filly Earthquake (Aus) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}). Walsh noted, in its experience, Godolphin has identified a few key elements that are important for juvenile success. 

“In our experience at Godolphin the two biggest attributes that the top juveniles have had is a sound constitution and brilliant attitude towards their work, which allows them to continue to gallop whilst maintaining soundness of limb, an appetite in the feed bin and steady mental approach to their task at hand,” Walsh said. “At Godolphin we are very hopeful that any of the current crop of juveniles might reach such heights, but we are under no illusions that achieving that sort of success at the top level is [easy] and it may be some time until we see another horse even near the same class of a Sepoy or Helmet.” 

Walsh noted O’Shea, who has made a seamless transition since taking over the reins from former Darley trainer Peter Snowden just under a year ago, also uses extensive gate education and takes advantage of the facilities at Osborne Park to nurse his juveniles. 

“John as an individual trainer uses barrier education as an integral part of preparing his young horses, as in an Australian context speed out of the machines and taking a position early can be vital in attaining the best finishing position possible,” Walsh said. “Similarly, we have the luxury at Osborne Park of having our own private grass training surface, and few Metropolitan- trained juveniles have the opportunity to train on an ideal grass surface such as that. For that reason John has used the stables at Osborne Park largely as the base for his juvenile team, where he feels he has the best facilities at his disposal to prepare these horses and maintain their soundness and freshness of mind to contest the early juvenile features for Godolphin.” 

Bluebloods for the Boys In Blue… 
Walsh insists that the development of Godolphin’s juveniles is influenced by each of Darley and Godolphin’s approximately 340 members of staff in Australia, and nowhere is that more apparent than by glancing at the pedigrees of Godolphin’s racing team. All of Godolphin’s winning 2-year-olds are homebreds, and by Darley sires, a feat not matched by any of Darley’s other satellites in recent times. 

“The fact that they are by Darley sires is representative of the model that we use in Australia, and given we have had the luxury of a particularly strong stallion roster at Darley in recent times, this has been a key factor in the success we have enjoyed on the racetrack,” Walsh noted. 

The efforts of the Darley and Godolphin employees has truly come full-circle; Sepoy and Helmet are now both stallions at Kelvinside, and their first yearlings are currently entering the Godolphin training program. 

“For stallions like Sepoy and Helmet to have been born and raised on Darley properties, enter the Godolphin training system and return to Darley as stallions is not only a key objective for the operation, but it gives our staff a sense of ownership of those horses and engagement in their performance at every stage of their career,” Walsh said. “We are particularly excited at Godolphin to be taking the first intake of Sepoy and Helmet yearlings that have commenced their breaking preparation, and we are very hopeful that we can nurture some of their progeny to similar heights.” 

Largely influenced by its purchase of Woodlands Stud and its bloodstock in 2008, Darley has built up a world-class broodmare band in Australia to match its stallion roster at a remarkable rate. As such, Darley Australia has a much smaller presence at public auctions than some of its counterparts in the Northern Hemisphere, although it did purchase five yearlings–three fillies and two colts–at last year’s Inglis Easter sale. 

“The decision to buy at public auction is ultimately taken by Sheikh Mohammed and John Ferguson on an annual basis, and of recent times this has been relatively limited,” Walsh explained. “The key reason for that is that we have enjoyed the benefit of a very strong stallion roster in Australia, and a particularly valuable broodmare band of sufficient quality for the vast majority of those pedigrees to be included in the premier sales in this country. We have enjoyed wonderful success with our homebred horses, affording us the luxury of not necessarily having to make external purchases to maintain racecourse success.” 

“Having said that, we are always particularly interested in well-bred fillies, from families that we don’t currently own and whose addition to the broodmare band it is felt would add value,” Walsh added. 

With the results of his significant investment in the Australian racing and breeding industries coming full circle in such a short space of time, it would not come as a surprise to see Sheikh Mohammed add another Golden Slipper or Blue Diamond trophy to his mantle this year, and in years to come.