Godolphin rewrite records, a broodmare sire on a high and a man with a serious eye for talent

An unprecedented approach

Over the course of 48 hours, Godolphin practically redefined what is deemed achievable by the major thoroughbred organisations. To win any Classic is a big deal, and to win two on the same weekend would arguably rate a year-defining achievement. But to register a clean sweep of the Kentucky Oaks and Derby, the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas is entirely unprecedented. 

While Coolmore have completed the Guineas double three times in recent years – namely 2015, 2017 and 2019 – you need to go all the way back to 1952 to find the last instance of the same owner completing the Kentucky Derby and Oaks double. That distinction belonged to Calumet Farm, represented by Hill Gail and Real Delight respectively. 

Godolphin’s success highlights just how many smart moves the operation is making, including knowing when to rely on its home stallions – and when to look elsewhere.  

The pedigree behind Kentucky Oaks heroine Good Cheer combines two real stalwarts of Darley’s US stallion roster. She is by Medaglia D'Oro, who was 22 when Good Cheer was conceived, and out of Wedding Toast, a daughter of Street Sense who won two Grade 1s on dirt. 

Medaglia D’Oro and Street Sense have spent a combined 38 seasons under the Darley banner, and are still on active duty this year. 

Desert Flower’s pedigree is also Godolphin through and through, being by Night Of Thunder and out of Promising Run, a homebred Hard Spun mare who won four Group 2s. Desert Flower was bred in the year that Night Of Thunder’s fee rose from €25,000 to €75,000. She had already done her bit to boost her sire to a career-high pitch of €150,000 this year having claimed last season’s Fillies’ Mile. 

Sovereignty is out of another daughter of a Jonabell Farm resident in Bernardini, albeit the dam was added to the Godolphin fold as a $1,200,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase through John Ferguson in 2014. 

She did not make the track but visited Spendthrift Farm in 2021 for the mating that produced Sovereignty. That tryst was with Into Mischief, who has progressed from a $7,500 option in his third and fourth seasons to become a six-time US champion sire. Into Mischief has now sired 24 top-flight winners and is standing his fourth consecutive year at a career-high fee of $250,000.  

Desert Flower: 1,000 Guineas heroine's pedigree is Godolphin through and throughCredit: Grossick Racing (racingpost.com/photos)

Ruling Court is, of course, by Coolmore America’s sire sensation Justify, and Godolphin had to outbid Coolmore at €2,300,000 to secure the 2,000 Guineas winner at last year’s Arqana Breeze-Up Sale. 

You do not have to look too far into the past when a self-imposed embargo would have precluded Godolphin from purchasing the stock of Coolmore sires. But with those days a thing of the past, with the boycott lifted in 2017, Sheikh Mohammed’s operation is reaping the rewards of a more even-handed approach. 

Ruling Court was not Godolphin’s only exciting weekend winner by a Coolmore sire. The €600,000 Goffs Orby buy Rising Power, a son of Wootton Bassett, looked a colt with a bright future as he made a winning debut on the 1,000 Guineas undercard. 

There is no silver bullet for securing success on the track, and heavy investment alone cannot guarantee results. But, as Godolphin have shown, getting the balance right between breeding and buying, harnessing your own bloodlines and leaning into those in the hands of others, sure goes a long way. 

On a High

Wherever you looked over the weekend, High Chaparral was front and centre. This was the case on both sides of the world and both sides of pedigrees. 

The biggest result to bear the son of Sadler’s Wells’ name was, of course, Ruling Court’s 2,000 Guineas triumph. The Classic winner may be a son of Justify, but he is out of Inchargeofme, a British-bred daughter of High Chaparral who passed through Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale in 2014. 

She went unsold at 52,000gns before changing hands at Keeneland the following January where the Mayer family of Nursery Place signed the $80,000 ticket. The sister to Racing Post Trophy runner-up Johann Strauss retired with three wins and a Grade 3 placing to her name.

Ruling Court was High Chaparral’s 16th Group/Grade 1 winner as broodmare sire and his second European Classic scorer in as many seasons, following on from Look De Vega’s Prix du Jockey Club strike. 

High Chaparral: Ruling Court was his 16th top-level winner as a broodmare sireCredit: Edward Whitaker

While the 2,000 Guineas was High Chaparral’s biggest result as a broodmare sire over the weekend, Ruling Court was not his only notable winner in this department. Spicy Marg marked herself down as a name to note with a commanding two-and-three-quarter-length debut success in a valuable fillies’ novice event at Newmarket on Sunday. 

The Michael Bell-trained two-year-old is the fourth foal out of Main Desire, who Spicy Marg will bid to emulate if she lines up in the Listed Marygate Stakes on her next outing. The filly looks well bought by the trainer’s son Nick Bell at 50,000gns. 

Being by Starspangledbanner means Spicy Marg is bred on the same cross as two of High Chaparral’s 16 Group/Grade 1 winners as damsire, namely Hong Kong hero California Spangle and top two-year-old The Wow Signal. 

And it was not just in the female side of pedigrees that High Chaparral had plenty to shout about this weekend. While his sire sons are in fairly short supply in the northern hemisphere, that is not the case in Australia. 

Three sons, namely Toronado, So You Think and Dundee, are all inside the top 13 on the general sires list, and the latter supplied his ninth Group 1 winner when Femminile beat the boys to land the South Australian Derby at Morphettville on Saturday. 

Dundeel will stand the upcoming breeding season at Arrowfield for an unaltered fee of A$88,000, and is already represented by two multiple Group 1-winning sires sons of his own in Castelvecchio (sire of Aeliana and El Castello) and Super Seth (Feroce, La Dorada and Linebacker). 

Williamson a master of his craft 

Ruling Court’s 2,000 Guineas triumph cemented Norman Williamson’s status as the pre-eminent breeze-up consignor of his generation. 

Unearthing a Group 1 winner from the thousands of yearlings on offer each year is a feat of rare merit, whether you’re an agent, an owner, a trainer or a pinhooker. However, in recent years Williamson has achieved this accomplishment with uncommon regularity. 

Norman Williamson: pre-eminent breeze-up consignor of his generationCredit: Sarah Farnsworth

His Classic run of form commenced in 2018 when Williamson’s Oak Tree Farm sold War Of Will to Justin Casse for €250,000. The son of War Front went on to land the following year’s Preakness Stakes. 

Next up was Eldar Eldarov, who he sold to Oliver St Lawrence on behalf of KHK Racing for £480,000 in the Covid-impacted year that Arqana held its breeze-up event in Doncaster. The son of Dubawi won the 2022 St Leger and the Irish equivalent the following year. 

Native Trail was crowned champion juvenile in 2021 after wins in the National and Dewhurst Stakes. Godolphin’s 210,000gns Craven Sale pick-up added a third Group 1 prize in the Irish 2,000 Guineas. 

Then came Ruling Court, who rewarded Godolphin’s Arqana investment of €2.3 million, a record price for a European breeze-up graduate. 

A point that has flown slightly under the radar is that Williamson has not only produced these four Classic winners, he has bought this quartet for well under what the market ended up valuing them at. 

While fluctuations in exchange rates make nailing down a precise sum something of a challenge, it appears Williamson, who works the yearling sales with another renowned judge in Mags O’Toole, invested under £300,000 to secure Eldar Eldarov, Native Trail and Ruling Court. 

That looks like money ridiculously well spent, even before you consider this trio were traded for somewhere in the region of £2.65m. War Of Will has no publicly listed yearling price, but given he went unsold at $175,000, it is safe to assume his talent far exceeded his initial valuation too. 

Plainly, pinhooking breeze-up horses is working out just fine. But with this sort of track record, if Williamson ever felt like setting up as a bloodstock agent, his eye for future talent would surely be in extremely high demand. 

Dubawi dominates again

While Godolphin enjoyed success with the progeny of a Coolmore stallion, the roles were reversed when Officer, a son of Dubawi, trounced the opposition in the Listed Tetrarch Stakes at the Curragh. 

The Coolmore homebred, who is out of Galileo’s dual Group 1 winner Hydrangea, now has the Irish 2,000 Guineas on his agenda. 

Dubawi: Darley's supreme sire has been in a rich vein of formCredit: Edward Whitaker

And that result was just the tip of the iceberg in recent days as Dubawi’s influence was felt far and wide. 

At Newmarket he came up with another potential Classic contender in Alpine Trail, a wide-margin winner of the Listed Newmarket Stakes. Nebras, a Dubawi half-brother to Nashwa, ran a respectable second in the same contest. 

And on Sunday the son of Dubai Millennium featured as the damsire of Godolphin’s runaway Dahlia Stakes scorer Cinderella's Dream. 

But it was his sire sons who really starred during a big weekend for the Dalham Hall Stud kingpin. 

Night Of Thunder deserves the greatest credit for supplying his first European Classic winner with Desert Flower. His progressive son More Thunder also won the heritage handicap on Saturday, running to a Racing Post Rating of 102 in the process. 

Another of Dubawi’s sons, Too Darn Hot, supplied the 1,000 Guineas third in Simmering, while Dubawi’s daughter Elwateen was fourth. 

Elwateen is a Shadwell homebred, as is Falakeyah, who looked a filly with Group 1 potential when blowing her six rivals away in the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes. The Owen Burrows-trained three-year-old is by another of Dubawi’s sons in New Bay. 

Ghaiyyath notched his latest winner when Zgharta continued the good run of form of owner Imad Al Sagar by landing the fillies’ maiden that opened Newmarket’s Friday card. 

Even Postponed, who would not be anything like as in vogue as New Bay, Night Of Thunder or Too Darn Hot, got in on the act by supplying Listed Nottinghamshire Oaks winner Ambiente Amigo earlier in the week. The 14-year-old stands as a jumps sire at Yorton Farm Stud. 

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