US double completes "hard to top" day for Godolphin operation

A day which Godolphin's US president Jimmy Bell described as being as memorable as he could recall in the operation's history was completed by two further top-level homebred winners at Belmont on Saturday.

Following Adayar's Cazoo Derby triumph, a Triple Crown success was provided by the Brad Cox-trained Essential Quality, who built upon his fourth in the Kentucky Derby with a length and a quarter defeat of Hot Rod Charlie in a pulsating Belmont Stakes encounter.

A couple of hours earlier, Adayar's trainer Charlie Appleby had completed a remarkable Transatlantic double as Mike Smith and Althiqa led her stablemate Summer Romance home in the Grade 1 Just A Game Stakes.

All three individuals emerged from Sheikh Mohammed's breeding divisions. Essential Quality, already a Grade 1 scorer from the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, is a son of Gainesway's champion Tapit out of the stakes-placed Elusive Quality mare Delightful Quality.

That mare's dam, Contrive, was an unraced daughter of Storm Cat who was bought for Sheikh Mohammed for $3,000,000 in Kentucky in 2005 when she had become responsible for Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies star Folklore.

Althiqa, meanwhile, was becoming an eighth winner in the top flight for Yeomanstown Stud flagbearer Dark Angel as she added to her Group 2 victory in Dubai in late January.

The Maktoums go back several generations with the family, with her granddam Misheer, who is descended from top sprinters First Trump and Mr Brooks, winning the old Cherry Hinton Stakes for Clive Brittain and Shekh Mohammed's associate Saeed Manana.

Appleby also trained Althiqa's dam, the Shamardal-sired Mistrusting, to win a Listed race at Newmarket.

"It will be hard to top this day," Bell told BloodHorse. "This will be rated at the top for quite a while. It is a huge day, and it all goes back to Sheikh Mohammed's international sportsmanship.

"What we have done as a racing and breeding operation is a tribute to him being such a tremendous sportsman and the great enthusiasm he has for the sport."

Bell spoke about how Godolphin had expanded its US breeding programme in recent years, including using more domestic trainers rather than flying Triple Crown contenders in from elsewhere.

"That reflected Sheikh Mohammed's willingness to try something different," said Bell. "He's an innovative, forward-thinker. He's not concerned about failing.

"He wanted to spread things out and bring in people like Brendan Walsh, Brad Cox and Michael Stidham. That was all his idea.

"Like all things, it takes time to build a winning programme. We have a great team in which everyone pitches in, from the matings to the care of the horses, and we have been able to utilise that input at all levels. It's truly been a team effort and the results are beginning to speak for themselves."

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