Charlie Appleby

Darley nominations manager Eamon Moloney has shared the high opinion that Charlie Appleby has held Opera Ballo (Ire) (Ghaiyyath {Ire}) in all winter and revealed that the colt's impressive victory at Kempton on Wednesday has resulted in a slew of calls from breeders either side of the Irish Sea booking in mares to his sire.  Opera Ballo, who fetched €600,000 at the Arqana August Yearling Sale, won the same Kempton maiden that Appleby landed with subsequent 2,000 Guineas hero Notable Speech (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) last year.  The wide-margin win, which...

The Godolphin/Charlie Appleby axis has dominated recent renewals of Kempton's Unibet Supports Safer Gambling Maiden Stakes, winning last year's edition with subsequent G1 2000 Guineas and G1 Sussex Stakes hero Notable Speech (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}). The operation struck gold once again as Opera Ballo (Ire) (Ghaiyyath {Ire}--Dubai Opera {GB}, by Invincible Spirit {Ire}) emulated that stablemate in division one of Wednesday's one-mile contest and collected a 'TDN Rising Star' of his own with an impressive wide-margin success. He joins Chantilly maiden scorer Mandanaba (Fr) on Ghaiyyath's list of Rising Stars....

Tragedy struck Charlie Appleby and the Godolphin team in Dubai last week when their Measured Time (GB) (Frankel {GB}) lost his life in his quest for a second consecutive triumph in the G1 Jebel Hatta. A seven-time winner all told, with his other wins including last year's GI Manhattan Stakes at Saratoga, he was a terrific servant to connections and another star name for whom it all began on the all-weather. In fact, it will be exactly two years ago on Saturday that he ran out an emphatic debut winner...

The English polymath John Ruskin, who was always hard at work scribbling a well-timed observation for some future generation to co-opt, said when it came to the weather, "Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." Well, bully for you Mr. Ruskin! Send him a going stick and put him to work on the nearest turf course. Some might care to offer quite a different observation after recent events. What...

Godolphin's Ruling Court (Justify), third in the G3 Acomb Stakes to The Lion In Winter (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), will point to the Jumeirah 2000 Guineas on Super Saturday in March, according to trainer Charlie Appleby. A five-length maiden winner at first asking at Sandown in July, the bay colt was a €2.3-million Arqana May Breeze-Up graduate. Ruling Court has been training toward his 3-year-old bow in Dubai. "He's done very well," said Appleby of his high-profile charge. "He was a breeze-up horse so we gave him a bit...

Dual Group 1 winner and leading 2,000 Guineas hope Shadow Of Light (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) has been crowned the European Champion Two-Year-Old of 2024 with a rating of 120.  The Middle Park and Dewhurst Stakes winner joins fellow Charlie Appleby-trained colts Pinatubo (Ire) and Native Trail (GB) on the Champion Two-Year-Old roll of honour.  "I would imagine he'll go straight into a Guineas," Appleby said at the European Two-Year-Old Classification Press Conference on Tuesday. "I don't really want to test him over the mile beforehand. Firstly, timing-wise and...

Morning line 5-2 favorite Locked (Gun Runner) drew post 11 for Saturday's GI Pegasus World Cup during Sunday's draw at Gulfstream Park. Trained by Todd Pletcher on behalf of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Walmac Farm, the winner of last month's GI Cigar Mile has a single horse to his outside, that being the sole filly in the field, GI Alabama heroine Power Squeeze (Union Rags), who was given a 30-1 chance on the morning line. "He's a horse that we always felt would be better going longer, so we're looking...

Already a Grade I winner of the Manhattan Stakes in the U.S. and the G1 Jebel Hatta over this course earlier this year, Godolphin homebred Measured Time (GB) (Frankel {GB}) set a new course record when defending his title in the G2 Al Rashidiya at Meydan on Friday. Making his first start since a runner-up effort in the GI Sword Dancer Stakes at Saratoga in August, the Charlie Appleby trainee zipped straight to the head of affairs under William Buick. Always going easily, the colt's speed was deceptive, and he...

The Charlie Appleby-trained Measured Time (GB) faces eight rivals on the Festive Friday card at Meydan when he attempts to repeat his 2023 success in the AED850,000 G2 Al Rashidiya Sponsored by Emaar. No horse has ever won back-to-back renewals of the Al Rashidiya, but Measured Time is likely to be a warm order as the sole previous Group 1 winner in the line-up. He followed last year's victory in this race with a first Group 1 triumph in the Jebel Hatta and a fourth-place finish in the G1 Dubai...

Sunday's G1 Grosser Allianz Preis von Bayern, the final Group 1 event of the season in Europe, has attracted a field of 11. The 12-furlong heat marks the return of Charlie Appleby trainee Ancient Wisdom (Fr) (Dubawi {Ire}), who comes back off a win in July's G3 Bahrain Trophy at Newmarket. Last term's G1 Futurity Trophy hero finished a well-beaten eighth in Epsom's G1 Derby in his penultimate start. "We had this race pencilled in for Ancient Wisdom for some time, hoping that the ground would be on the soft...

DEL MAR, USA -- From the 2,000 Guineas to the Breeders' Cup Classic, he is the horse who has kept us captivated, wondering and engaged, through to season's end. And that, really, is why we are all fans of horse racing. That longing to know what can't be known for sure until those gates spring open, the skirmishes are had, and the winning post looms.  In the end, for City Of Troy (Justify), unbeaten and burgeoning with promise at two, redeemed in the Derby and then some at Sandown and...

From Qatar to Dubai to Hong Kong, back to Britain and then across to Germany. By any metric, it had already been a massive season for Godolphin's hearty globetrotter Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), and it got that little bit better Saturday afternoon, as his best battling qualities were on full display in just staving off a gallant effort from Rousham Park (Jpn) (Harbinger {GB})--the lesser-preferred of the two Sunday Racing-owned horses--to win the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Turf for the second time in three seasons. Shahryar (Jpn) (Deep Impact...