Charlie Appleby and Godolphin dominated the big races at Newmarket's Future Champions Festival - Matt Brocklebank reflects on what it means for the team.
The much-needed rebuild didn’t take long for Charlie Appleby.
Last season was a relatively tough one for the 2021 and 2022 champion trainer, prompting several articles on this website to ask questions such as ‘how bad is the current cold spell?’ and ‘where is the quality among the Classic crop?’
The Godolphin three-year-olds clearly didn’t come up to scratch in 2023 and that, combined with the retirement of older stalwarts such as Adayar, Native Trail and Hurricane Lane who had flown the flag with distinction for the yard during those title-winning campaigns, soon made it clear there was rather a lot of pressure resting on the back-end juveniles 12 months ago.
Last September our Racing Editor David Ord wasn’t too impressed with what he’d seen from the two-year-old team and went as far as saying: “Any revival in 2024 is likely to be led by horses we’ve yet to see or who are sailing well under the radar right now."
Step forward Notable Speech, a top-class colt who was indeed sailing off-grid before his sparkling debut run on the all-weather at the end of January.
The son of Dubawi has led the way for 'the boys in blue' in this resurgent season, claiming more Classic success for Appleby in the 2000 Guineas and a first ever victory for the trainer in Goodwood’s principal mile contest – the Sussex Stakes.
He, along with top middle-distance prospects Arabian Crown and Ancient Wisdom - neither of whom will be rushed back to action for the sake of it, according to Appleby - will spearhead next year's older-horse team, which itself has seen a couple of aces come to the party this time around in Arlington Million hero Nations Pride and the six-year-old Rebel’s Romance, who has registered big wins in Qatar, Dubai, Hong Kong and Germany.
But as Sheikh Mohammed’s intensive restocking at Tattersalls Book 1 demonstrated in midweek, the carousel keeps moving at a tremendous rate and investment in the next generation, and the one to follow that, is just as important to a major operation like Godolphin. And although Amo Racing seemed to pip them to one or two choice lots in the sales ring, results on the track at Newmarket’s two-day Future Champions Festival could hardly have gone much better.
WATCH: Shadow Of Light wins Darkey Dewhurst Stakes
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Friday’s striking bet365 Fillies’ Mile scorer Desert Flower now sits among the market leaders for the 1000 Guineas and Shadow Of Light was cut to a best-priced 10/1 for the 2000 after the Middle Park winner followed up with a tenacious effort in Saturday’s Darley Dewhurst Stakes.
A Guineas campaign will surely now be considered very closely for the Lope De Vega brother to Earthlight, after a slightly hasty ‘to the Commonwealth Cup!’ rallying cry was issued just a fortnight ago. Ancient Truth certainly didn't damage his reputation either despite suffering defeat for the first time in his career with a close-up third in the Dewhurst. He evidently has the class to go a long way if developing as anticipated at three.
“We went through those few years when it was fantastic and you’re on a wave that you just don’t want it to die,” Appleby said to Rishi Persad on ITV Racing in the aftermath of the Dewhurst.
“Unfortunately, it did and we had to regroup and rebuild. To do that, it doesn’t happen overnight.”
The sentiment no doubt holds true but, after winning Newmarket’s two major Group 1 races for juveniles in a fraction more than 24 hours, there was a hint of irony to that statement and suddenly the Appleby bounce-back looks all but complete.
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