Godolphin

Last term's G1 Dubai World Cup hero Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper--Music Note, by A.P. Indy) has been retired to Jonabell Farm, where he will stand the 2023 breeding season, Godolphin announced Thursday. A fee will be announced at a later date. "The decision has been made to retire Mystic Guide due to a soft tissue injury," Dan Pride, COO of Godolphin in America, said. "The timing unfortunately rules out his major summer and fall targets and as a result he will take up stud duties at Jonabell Farm. He proved himself...

Charlie Appleby will have to be sharp-eyed on Saturday after the draw for Newmarket's G1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas saw his high-class pair Native Trail (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) and Coroebus (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) on opposite sides of the track. William Buick's mount, the G1 Vincent O'Brien National S. and G1 Dewhurst S.-winning unbeaten champion juvenile Native Trail, was handed 15 of 15 while his G3 Autumn S.-winning stablemate is in one. Their handler was unconcerned about the draw on Thursday. "With the stalls in the centre of the track, being drawn 15...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Wednesday's Observations features a 700,000gns Tattersalls October purchase, Eternal Pearl (GB).  15.00 Ascot, Cond, £20,000, 3yo, f, 7f 213yT Godolphin's 700,000gns Tattersalls October Book 1 acquisition ETERNAL PEARL (GB) (Frankel {GB}), representing the in-form Charlie Appleby and set to sport a first-time hood in this unveiling, is out of...

Dual Derby-winning trainer Charlie Appleby came close to winning last year's QIPCO 2000 Guineas when Master Of The Seas (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) was narrowly beaten by Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}), and his Godolphin stable appears to hold two aces for the opening Classic of the British season. G3 Craven S. winner Native Trail (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) and Coroebus (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) are currently first and second favourites for the 2000 Guineas ahead of the Aidan O'Brien-trained Luxembourg (Ire) (Camelot {GB}). "William [Buick] sat on Native Trail on...

Godolphin's Nahanni (GB) (Frankel {GB}), who bettered a Jan. 8 first-up second over 12 furlongs at Kempton with a breakthrough tally over that same course and distance the following month, prevailed by nine lengths going 12 furlongs in an Apr. 1 Leicester novices' heat on turf debut last time and continued his march forward with a battling victory in Tuesday's Listed Cazoo Blue Riband Trial at Epsom. Sent to the front after extended early skirmishes and nudged along on the lead with three furlongs remaining, he came under a drive...

The betting for the QIPCO 2,000 Guineas suggests that Godolphin has a very strong hand for Europe's early Classics, with Native Trail (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) a solid favourite and Coroebus (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) a clear second pick. However, such strength in depth brings its own complications. The European calendar boasts three principal Guineas races (chronologically, in Great Britain, France and Ireland) and the obvious aspiration when one has the two most likely candidates is to win all three.  It is a tough, albeit not impossible, assignment for one horse alone,...

As statements of intent go, the results for Charlie Appleby's stable over recent weeks speak loudly as to his determination to retain the trainers' championship in 2022. Twenty-three runners have emerged from Moulton Paddocks in the last fortnight, and 13 of them have returned home as winners, most importantly Native Trail (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), the champion 2-year-old in Europe last year whose triumph return in the G3 Craven S. got the season off on a proper footing. Of that baker's dozen, four were by the trainer's reliable old friend...

Godolphin's incredible start to the season continued apace on Saturday as Wild Beauty (GB) (Frankel {GB}) took a competitive renewal of the G3 Dubai Duty Free S., or Fred Darling.  Reportedly due to be aimed at the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, last year's GI Natalma S. winner who was fifth behind Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in Newmarket's G1 Fillies' Mile was at the fore of the group racing towards the stands early. Taking time to get on top overall, the 3-1 second favourite outstayed the 11-4 market-leader Jumbly (GB)...

David Probert, Michael Appleby, George Rooke and Godolphin all won divisional titles on All-Weather Championships Day at Newcastle. Probert won his first All-Weather Champion Jockey title with 82 victories. Probert said, "It was always a goal for me to have a championship since winning back in 2008 when I was champion apprentice. It's a massive achievement and I have plenty of people to thank for that, and hopefully it rolls into a good grass season." Appleby, who collected his fifth consecutive trainers' title and sixth overall with 52 winners, said...

Not quite nailing the GI Kentucky Derby with Essential Quality (Tapit) felt like one of very few omissions from a spectacular 2021 for Godolphin on both sides of the Atlantic. And while it seems that Sheikh Mohammed must wait at least another year to satisfy that particular craving, his team certainly won't have felt too marginalized during the coast-to-coast sequence of rehearsals that gripped our attention last Saturday. Because they now know for a fact that they have one of the outstanding talents of the previous crop in Speaker's Corner...

The G3 Autumn S. winner Coroebus (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) made all three of his juvenile starts in Newmarket and he returned to the Rowley Mile on Wednesday morning for a racecourse gallop ahead of his intended start in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas. Ridden by William Buick and accompanied in his seven-furlong piece of work by stable-mates King Of Time (Ire) (Kingman {GB}) and Falling Shadow (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), Coroebus pulled easily clear of that duo as he quickened out of the dip. "That was just what we needed really,"...

NEWMARKET, UK—We know that these breeze-up consignors have nerves of steel: otherwise they simply couldn't do the job. As such, the bloodstock industry could not have appointed a better echelon to test the stormy waters of the last couple of years, when they were first to be broadsided by the pandemic and then tried to put things back on an even keel last year. The opening session of the opening sale of the European circuit, then, gave them a chance to put their world back on its axis—even as they...