Buick, Doyle join Godolphin
SUCCESS: DOYLE HAS TEAMED UP WITH KINGMAN AND NOBLE MISSION.
London
T Buick will retain links with Gosden.
he British Flat season usually fizzles away like a damp firework, but as the suits went into the dry cleaners following a drenching on the final day at Doncaster, the racing world was rocked by two of the UK’s top jockeys playing ‘Musical Chairs’ in the weighing-room.
Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation have dangled a lucrative carrot and persuaded William Buick and James Doyle to leave what are considered two of the best jobs in Europe to share the cream of the rides worldwide for the boys in blue next year.
Doyle, who will captain the international team in the two-day Jockeys Challenge in South Africa this weekend, enjoyed a brilliant summer as No 1 rider to Saudi Arabian owner-breeder Khalid Abdullah, winningmopping up seven Group 1 victories on Kingman, Horse Of The Year in Europe this season, and Frankel’s brother, Noble Mission, while Buick is ending a successful five-year stint as No 1 to former champion trainer John Gosden.
Buick and Doyle are both 26 and the best of mates, but while their decision to join Godolphin, who managed just the one Group 1 winner in Europe this season, left many professionals gobsmacked, the pair have been encouraged by the fact that Sheikh Mohammed, unhappy at having been pushed into the shadows by the Qataris, particularly Sheikh Joaan Al Thani, owner of dual Arc winner Treve, has vowed to fight back and spent more than £20m (R358 million) at last month’s Tattersalls Book One Sale in Newmarket.
It is true Godolphin have been bit-players these last few years and they were conspicuous by their absence at the Breeders Cup earlier this month, but, though Middle Park Stakes winner Charming Thought was their only celebration at the top table in Europe in 2014, they subsequently bought the majority share in Dewhurst winner Belardo and have also purchased Richard Pankhurst, who looked so promising when sluicing home in the Chesham at Royal Ascot, so maybe it is premature to write them off as “yesterday’s men”.
And, with both Kingman and Noble Mission retired – Oaks and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes heroine Taghrooda will be Kingman’s first visitor at the breeding shed – Doyle has no real potential Juddmonte stars to look forward to for 2015, though it won’t be long before Frankel’s first produce are on the racecourse and who knows what explosive stars he might come up with.
However, while it was tougher for Norwegian-born Buick to leave Gosden, who has nurtured him to the top of his profession, one can understand his decision, too. Buick admits he will definitely miss Eagle Top, a Royal Ascot winner last season and arguably one of the most exciting four-year-old prospects for the 2015 campaign, but when he joined Gosden at the start of 2010 he rode virtually everything in the stable, whereas the goalposts were gradually moved over the five-year period, with both Abdullah and Sheikh Hamdan Al-Maktoum insisting their retained riders take mounts on any horses they had in training.
Having made a fairy-tale start for Gosden, winning the Sheema Classic in Dubai on Dar Re Mi, Buick also captured a King George for the stable with Nathaniel, but if the Newmarket trainer is going to win a classic next season it will probably be with 2000 Guineas favourite Faydhan, who is owned by Sheikh Hamdan so will be ridden by his retained rider, Paul Hanagan, and Gosden was also realistic enough to admit that, while he is one of the biggest trainers in Britain, retainer-wise he cannot compete with outfits like Godolphin.
Buick will, however, retain many of his links with Gosden as the horses in the stable owned by Princess Haya of Jordan, wife of Sheikh Mohammed, will come under the Godolphin banner, so the likes of Richard Pankhurst will still be Buick’s ride.
Gosden does not intend to replace Buick and will choose the best available next season, while Juddmonte are still considering whether to have a retained jockey for 2015.
Dual Derby winner Australia is another about to take up stallion duties at Coolmore Stud in Ireland, so, while Treve, Kingston Hill and The Grey Gatsby will still be around, Eagle Top is my idea of next year’s middle-distance champion, and, far more important, Gosden’s, too!
The King George came too soon in Eagle Top’s career, yet he still finished only four lengths off Taghrooda, and Gosden, who, without disrespecting the world’s oldest classic, the Doncaster St Leger, always felt Eagle Top was too good a horse to go down that route, and, taking the view it was a year too soon for the Arc, he gave his Pivotal colt an “early bath”, though he confided to me last summer “the sky could be the limit for him as a four-year-old”.
Richard Hughes was crowned champion jockey for a fourth consecutive year, emulating Sir Gordon Richards, Lester Piggott and Pat Eddery, and, considering he was stretchered off the track in Meydan last March with a fractured vertebra after a fall from Mars on World Cup night and gave Ryan Moore and company a month’s start, it was a tremendous feat to retain his title.
However, there can be no better jockey on the globe than Moore, who these past 12 months has ridden 19 Group 1 winners in eight different countries.
Every racetrack is different, yet Moore has conquered the international stage with some incredible performances this year, his two Australian victories on Adelaide (Cox Plate) and Protectionist (Melbourne Cup) being right out of the top drawer.
The Aussies love to berate a Pom, and race-fans Down Under also won’t accept a jockey racing three or four horses wide in a race, so the knives were out and they were ready to have Moore on toast for breakfast when he refused to drop in Adelaide and Protectionist from their coffin-box draw.
However, Moore had the last laugh, though, not surprisingly, there are still plenty of Aussies not convinced by Ryan, with one fellow hack pulling me aside at Flemington and whispering “Great ride ? – he just got lucky, mate. Both horses got him out of jail.” No pleasing some folk!
Sadly, jump racing has never rocked the boat for most of my friends in South Africa – if you do fancy a bet at the winter game this week-end have an interest on VANTEUX in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham on Sunday – but, hopefully, you took my advice and backed Open Eagle, our November Handicap winner from last week, so there is still plenty left in the betting kitty for the allweather campaign.
I put up HARBOUR PATROL at Doncaster, too, but he was pulled out when the monsoons arrived, so we can reinvest when he runs in the first division of the 1200m maiden at Kempton today.
I can also highly recommend John Gosden’s MAVERICK WAVE for the 1600m handicap at Lingfield on Saturday.
He was a beaten favourite on his debut on the tapeta at Wolverhampton last time, but I will never forget how easily he won his maiden on his one previous visit to Lingfield’s Polytrack, and he showed when second in a big handicap at Ascot last month that he was bang in form.
Should Gosden prefer to run Maverick Wave instead in the Listed Churchill Stakes over the 2000m on the same programme, I would back REBELLIOUS GUEST for the 1600m race. He likes this track and is a solid performer.
However, things might be tougher for Maverick Wave in the longer race as William Haggas’s GRAPHIC, though more of a Kempton specialist, has some classy form on the Polytrack surface. He ran well in a Group 3 in France last time, so fingers crossed they go their separate ways.