Godolphin paints Classics royal blue

Godolphin has enjoyed well over 5,000 winners in 14 countries since it was founded in 1992, but never has the ownership syndicate had a better weekend at the races than the one just past.

Actually, no-one can remember any racehorse owner having such glory in the space of a few hours.

The famous royal blue silks of Dubai’s ruling family were triumphant in four Group 1 Classic races in world racing’s strongholds of the UK and the US.

Horses called Good Cheer, Sovereignty, Ruling Court and Desert Flower “completed an unprecedented clean sweep of the Classics at Newmarket and Churchill Downs”, reported Godolphin’s website.

The momentous few days on both sides of the Atlantic started with the Brad Cox-trained Good Cheer scoring under Luis Saez in Friday’s Kentucky Oaks, handing Godolphin a second win in the race.

Kentucky Derby

Sovereignty, ridden by Junior Alvarado, delivered a first Kentucky Derby success 24 hours later – realising a long-held ambition of Godolphin boss Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.

Sovereignty is trained by Bill Mott, who saddled Cigar to win the inaugural Dubai World Cup back in 1996, an occasion that realised another dream of the controversial sheikh – to successfully stage a super-glamorous international horse race in his hometown.

Godolphin became the first owner since Calumet Farms in 1952 to win both the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks in the same year, with both winners bred by Godolphin in Kentucky.

At Newmarket, in the English countryside of Suffolk, Ruling Court provided a sixth Godolphin victory in the venerable 2000 Guineas on Saturday.

Finally, Desert Flower made all the running in Sunday’s 1000 Guineas to give the owners a fifth win in the fillies’ Classic.

The latter two are trained by Charlie Appleby and were ridden by stable jockey William Buick, and the duo become the first jockey/trainer combination for 20 years to win both Guineas on the same weekend.

Looking ahead

The chance to create more history beckons for Godolphin’s Classic crop over the coming weeks and months, starting with potential Triple Crown bids in both the US and the UK.

Godolphin is a giant on the world racing and breeding stage – and a keen combatant in a ferocious rivalry with Ireland’s Coolmore operation.

In the early 21st century, Godolphin looked like winning the clash of the titans; but a plateau in fortunes coincided with a series of public scandals.

The bad publicity included a string of horses testing positive for drugs in the UK in 2013 and sensational Al Maktoum family ructions, with court cases airing accusations of physical and mental abuse and even kidnapping of children.

For a while in recent years, Coolmore and trainer Aiden O’Brien have been grabbing most of the biggest headlines.

But the Godolphin machine, spanning stables and stud farms on five continents, with its vast financial resources and a racing-mad supremo, couldn’t be kept quiet for long.