Ebor the latest target on successful tour of big summer festivals

For Charlie Appleby, it has been doubles and more all round at the big racing festivals. Two winners apiece at the Guineas meeting, Royal Ascot and Goodwood were topped by a hat-trick at Newmarket’s July festival. It’s a record Appleby is keen to maintain as he zones in on York’s Ebor meeting, which opens on Wednesday.

It also demonstrates how far Appleby has come in the four years since he took over at Godolphin’s Moulton Paddocks in less than harmonious circumstances. The turmoil generated by Mahmood Al Zarooni’s doping programme has given way to an orderly quiet in which headlines are being made for the right reasons.

Indeed, Appleby’s operation represents a temple of tranquillity during another trying chapter for Godolphin. In June his Newmarket counterpart, Saeed Bin Suroor, unleashed a litany of complaints that left Godolphin’s chief executive, John Ferguson, with little option but to clear his desk.