Godolphin

Star Safari (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) gave trainer Charlie Appleby his third and final win on the card in the G3 Dubai Millennium S. after the earlier success of Bright Melody (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the second race and Naval Crown (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the Listed Meydan Classic. Removed from the early cavalry charge, Star Safari raced last bar two as Halimi (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) motored along at the head of affairs. He began to slowly take closer order 500 metres from home and launched a four-wide bid...

Godolphin's royal blue silks were seemingly everywhere at Meydan on Thursday, as the operation swept four of the five Thoroughbred races on the card and both group stakes with Volcanic Sky (GB) (Street Cry {Ire}) in the G3 Nad Al Sheba Trophy and Star Safari (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in the G3 Dubai Millennium S. The former was coming in off a win in a Feb. 11 2410-metre handicap score locally and gave his trainer Saeed bin Suroor and jockey Frankie Dettori a win on the card. The bay...

Before the gates flew, all of the attention was focused on Godolphin's Master Of The Seas, a winner of the G2 Superlative S. and fourth in the G1 National S. at two, however, his stablemate Naval Crown had other ideas and fended off that rival's late charge to win the Listed Meydan Classic over 1600 metres on Thursday. Breaking better than his fellow Charlie Appleby yardmate, Naval Crown was content to make the running through the early going and opened up on the field before the far turn. Master Of...

Turf races rule the day in Thursday's Dubai World Cup Carnival card at Meydan. Each of the quintet of races for Thoroughbreds take place on the grass, with the $195,000 G3 Nad Al Sheba Trophy Sponsored by Gulf News the crown jewel. Held over 2810 metres, the contest drew 2019 race winner and G3 Deutsches St Leger hero Ispolini (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) who anchors the Godolphin brigade. Charlie Appleby's bay has been seen on the racecourse only sparingly, and he was in action only twice last year with a staying...

Rebecca 'Beck' Edmunds of Bryan Smart Racing was named the 2021 Employee of the Year at the virtual Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards on Monday evening. The free-to-air broadcast was hosted by ITV Racing's Ed Chamberlin on Racing TV, while the GSSS Awards were organised by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) in conjunction with the Racing Post and Racing TV. Edmunds, Head Girl of Bryan Smart Racing and married to Smart's assistant trainer Kevin Edmunds, has worked at the yard for 17 years. She will receive £10,000 for herself...

There was little in Gifts Of Gold (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire})'s recent form to suggest that a win against top marathoners was on the cards, but a surface switch and the addition of cheekpieces as well as a few furlongs proved just the tonic for the Saeed bin Suroor-trained 6-year-old gelding to score an upset victory in the $2.5-million 3000 metre Red Sea Turf H. in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. Settling about two lengths off the moderate early tempo set by the defending champ and Group 1-winning stayer Call The...

The favourite and headline act Channel Maker (English Channel) may have been upset in the card-opening Neom Turf Cup, but that was not the case 35 minutes later, with last year's G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest victor Space Blues (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) obliging at short odds for Godolphin and trainer Charlie Appleby. Stalking the pace just off the fence, Space Blues and William Buick sat on the heels of last year's winner Dark Power (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) down the backstretch. Space Blues had about three lengths to make up...

Balanchine (Storm Bird-Morning Devotion, by Affirmed), who became the first Classic winner for Godolphin and Frankie Dettori when winning the 1994 G1 Epsom Oaks, has died aged 30. The chestnut mare had been pensioned from breeding duties for the past seven years and lived out her days at Sheikh Mohammed's Gainsborough Farm in Versailles, Kentucky. Bred by Robert Sangster's Swettenham Stud, Balanchine was campaigned by Sangster during a 2-year-old campaign in which she won her two starts by a combined 10 lengths. Purchased thereafter by Sheikh Mohammed's elder brother Sheikh...

Summer Romance (Ire) (Kingman {GB}) was named a 'TDN Rising Star' on debut when winning a Yarmouth maiden by two lengths in June of 2019, and she followed that effort up immediately two weeks later with a six-length win at listed level in Newmarket's Empress Fillies' S. Put away for the winter after finishing third in the G3 Dick Poole S., Summer Romance found last year's Covid-delayed G1 1000 Guineas to be a bridge too far at first asking, finishing eighth of 15 behind Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), but she...

Maxfield (Street Sense) may as well be known as the comeback kid at this point in his career, which has been plagued by injury and misfortune, but he always comes back swinging. Saturday's GIII Mineshaft S. at the Fair Grounds was no exception as the Godolphin homebred scored another good-looking win, taking his perfect record to five-for-five with his second straight win since undergoing surgery for a condylar fracture this summer. Hammered down to 3-5 favoritism against an overmatched field, Maxfield was antsy in the gate and hopped at the...

Godolphin's sophomore homebred and 'TDN Rising Star' Prevalence (Medaglia d'Oro), a jaw-dropping debut winner on the GI Pegasus World Cup undercard Jan. 23, breezed Friday morning in anticipation of a possible start in the GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S. at Gulfstream Park Feb. 27. There is also an optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds going 1 1/8 miles in the condition book for Thursday, Feb. 25. Prevalence went five furlongs in 1:01 (4/6) at Palm Meadows, his second work following his 8 1/2-length maiden special weight triumph. "He worked good...

Derby dreams at this time of year can prove as ephemeral as the vapours rising into the glacial air of Hot Springs. But the owner of the champion juvenile knows perfectly well that plans, with Thoroughbreds, can only ever be provisional--and that the postponement of Monday's Oaklawn card is a relatively trivial inconvenience to Essential Quality (Tapit). To recall the graver vexations that can unravel a Derby colt, Sheikh Mohammed needs only rewind to the last cycle, and the last colt that offered to requite perhaps the greatest single ambition...