Blue Renaissance

Even by the standards of a global racing and breeding giant, Godolphin have enjoyed a particularly productive 2022. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s outfit has been operating at close to full tilt throughout the last 12 months and has chalked up well over 550 worldwide wins, including a fairly astonishing 28 successes at the very highest level.

In Europe there were English, French and Irish 2000 Guineas triumphs for Coroebus, Modern Games and Native Trail, Naval Crown annexed the Platinum Jubilee Stakes, and Rebel's Romance claimed the Grosser Preis von Berlin and Preis von Europa.

On the international stage Daumier was victorious in the Blue Diamond Stakes, while Anamoe took his top-level tally to seven, his Cox Plate victory not only his fifth Group 1 success this year but a result that makes him Godolphin’s most prolific performer at the highest level.

In the US there were also significant results for the likes of Mysterious Night, Nations Pride, Santin and Speaker's Corner. And for the second consecutive year the Breeders’ Cup brought with it a flurry of winners as Mischief Magic claimed the Juvenile Turf Sprint, Cody's Wish penned a fairytale in the Dirt Mile, Modern Games struck in the Mile and Rebel's Romance romped away with the Turf.

Crucially for an operation that requires continued success to keep its global stallion rosters well stocked, those 28 Group/Grade 1 victories came from 17 different runners, 13 of which are colts and 15 of which are homebreds. However, things have not always seemed quite so straightforward.

The seeds for an empire were sown in 1977 when Hatta became the first horse to carry Sheikh Mohammed’s colours to victory with a routine success at Brighton. The ruler of Dubai’s thoroughbred interests grew exponentially and in 1981 he purchased Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket, followed five years later by the acquisition of Kildangan Stud in County Kildare.

Plenty of racecourse success came courtesy of the likes of Balanchine, Daylami, Fantastic Light, Street Cry and Sulamani and in 2000 the auspiciously named and outstandingly talented Dubai Millennium fulfilled his destiny by winning the Dubai World Cup. Shortly after the turn of the century, the operation expanded into America with the purchase of Jonabell Farm in Kentucky, followed soon after by the addition of studs in Japan and New South Wales, Australia.

Operating in all corners of the globe, Godolphin had vast numbers of horses on their books as well as virtually unparalleled finances and access to unrivalled resources but from the mid-2000s they suffered from a confounding shortage of homebred talent.

There is no denying they were dealt a cruel blow when Dubai Millennium was struck down by grass sickness in April 2001, just two months into his first season on stallion duty. He left just 56 foals the following year. But other obstacles proved more of their own making, not least the self-imposed embargo on the support of stallions owned by their Irish rivals Coolmore, both at the sales and at source. The boycott began in 2005 and lasted 12 years, during which time Coolmore’s breed-shaping Galileo was the dominant force among the stallion ranks, winning eight of his twelve champion sire titles.

Although Darley’s global stallion roster did not have anything comparable to Galileo, they did stand some important sires nonetheless, including Street Cry and his relative Shamardal. But while Coolmore ensured the best Galileo had to offer was under their ownership and the care of their trainer Aidan O’Brien, the progeny of Darley’s best routinely ended up in others’ hands.

That is not to say the organisation didn’t have its share of racing successes along the way, enjoying 139 Group/Grade 1 victories between 2011 and 2020 when the likes of Barney Roy, Charming Thought, Colour Vision, Dawn Approach, Rewilding and Ribchester were in their pomp, but plenty of those top-level winners were bought rather than bred. However, by midway through the 2010s the Godolphin torch was being carried by two emerging forces, and in time they would have a profound impact on the operation’s fortunes.

In the summer of 2013 Charlie Appleby was installed as Godolphin’s in-house trainer at Moulton Paddocks, taking over from the disgraced Mahmood Al Zarooni. At the same time Dubawi, one of Dubai Millennium’s 56 foals, was revealing himself to be a stallion of significant consequence at Dalham Hall Stud. Despite some initial market indifference, the three-time Group 1 victor’s 26 winners was a higher tally than any other first-season sire that term.

It is clear that midway through the 2010s Godolphin regrouped and refocused and took the decision to start ploughing more of their own mares into the books of their own stallions, most notably Dubawi, and to fill the Appleby stable with the resulting progeny. This shift has seen Appleby and Dubawi ascend similarly steep trajectories, and the pair will end 2022 as champion trainer of Britain and champion sire of Britain and Ireland. Their symbiotic relationship has been pivotal to Godolphin’s recent renaissance.

Godolphin’s 17 Group/Grade 1 winners in 2022 provide a snapshot of the operation’s redrawn dynamic, as eight of those top-flight scorers were sent out by Appleby and all bar two are homebreds. Four - Coroebus, Modern Games, Naval Crown and Rebel’s Romance - are by Dubawi. Of course, 17 horses is an insufficient sample size from which to draw firm conclusions but detailed analysis of the last five years of British and Irish results reveals that an increasing percentage of homebred winners has been the bedrock of the outfit’s success.

During the 2018 season Godolphin’s royal blue silks were carried to victory on 191 occasions by 131 different horses, the highest rated of which was Harry Angel, who achieved a Racing Post Rating (RPR) of 127 for his success in the Group 2 Duke Of York Stakes. In many ways Harry Angel typified Godolphin’s past approach, as the son of Dark Angel was bred by Paul McCartan under the CBS Bloodstock banner and cost trainer Clive Cox just £44,000 at the 2015 DBS Premier Yearling Sale. He joined the Godolphin fold in a private deal that can only have been worth many multiples of his public auction price as it was struck after he had won the Mill Reef and Sandy Lane Stakes for previous owner Peter Ridgers.