Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
APPLE OF HIS EYE
Trainer confident his dazzling duo Adayar and Hurricane Lane can stop a French revolution
CHARLIE WHO? So whispered the racing parish when Sheikh Mohammed announced the successor to disgraced trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni in July 2013.
“Lots of people had their opinions about who should be in the position,” recalls Charlie Appleby, promoted from within.
He beat established names to the helm of Godolphin’s Moulton Paddocks stable in Newmarket, a post left vacant after Al Zarooni was warned off for eight years for administering anabolic steroids to thoroughbreds in his care.
Appleby (below) said: “When you are taking on John Gosden, Aidan O’Brien and Andre Fabre around the world, they are always going to have more respect than I have, and I understand you have to earn your stripes.”
But the task of rebuilding a once proud and formidable empire shaken to its foundations was placed in safe hands. Eight years on, two Derbys later, Appleby saddles Adayar and Hurricane Lane at Longchamp today in the 100th running of Europe’s most prestigious race, the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
“You’ve got two different profiles but two outstanding three-year-old colts at a mile and a half,” said the trainer, 46.
Adayar, who in June added to Masar’s 2018 Epsom triumph, has been jostling with Irishtrained Tarnawa for Arc favouritism all week.
Now, with soft ground assured in Paris, Hurricane Lane – whose sole defeat came with a third in the Derby – is bearing down on the pair as he bids to make history as the first St Leger winner to double up at Longchamp three weekends later.
Stable jockey William Buick has chosen to ride Adayar, who went on from Epsom to Ascot to repeat a feat last achieved by Galileo in 2001 – a Derby hero beating his elders in the King
George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes in July.
“We’re very pleased with the way Adayar has come out of his gallops,” says Appleby, reporting the Derby victor “bang on” after a leg infection.
“William was very happy with him and feels he’s on the right horse.
“But we’ve seen what Hurricane Lane can do over a mile and a half,” adds Appleby.
James Doyle’s mount followed his Epsom defeat with success in the Irish version at the Curragh and Longchamp’s
Grand Prix de Paris.