BOYS IN BLUE END DERBY DUCK
Godolphin’s wait for Epsom glory is over as Masar springs surprise
CLASSIC despondency turned to delight in 24 hours for Charlie Appleby as he trained the first Derby winner to carry the Godolphin blue colours of Sheik Mohammed with 16-1 shot Masar.
Appleby left the track on Friday night with a familiar feeling of what might have been after his Oaks favourite Wild Illusion had finished second to Aidan O’Brien’s Forever Together.
It was another chapter in the story of Appleby and his Godolphin colleagues forever seeming to be on the receiving end of knockout blows from O’ Brien and his Coolmore Stud backers, despite the billions Sheik Mohammed has poured into the sport.
But yesterday the roles were reversed. While William Buick-ridden Masar comfortably handled the Epsom gradients to win by a length and a half, O’Brien’s 4-5 favourite Saxon Warrior, a colt with a skyhigh reputation who had finished almost two lengths in front of Masar when winning the 2,000 Guineas, missed the frame with a fourth-place finish.
The Sheik has been associated with Derby winners before. His trainer Saeed Bin Suroor won the 1995 race with Lammtarra and Jim Bolger-trained 2008 winner New Approach ran in the colours of his wife Princess Haya of Jordan.
But 26 years after Godolphin was created by the Sheik as a vehicle for his equine passion and promoting Dubai, one of his dreams had been fulfilled.
To put icing on the Sheik’s cake Dee Ex Bee, the Mark Johnstontrained colt owned by the Sheik’s son Sheik Hamdan, was second with John Gosden’s Roaring Lion half a length back in third.
Appleby, a former wannabe jockey who took over as Godolphin trainer in 2013 after his boss Mahmood Al Zarooni was banned for using anabolic steroids, said: ‘I was starting to wonder what I had to do to beat Aidan. His Ballydoyle stable and Coolmore are a fantastic team.
‘It was becoming a bit of a nightmare to work out what we had to do to finish in front, but we have answered those questions today.
‘I have always said since I started this job that all I wanted was to be the first person to have a Derby winner in Godolphin blue. Every year the Derby would go round but this was a fantastic effort and William gave him a fantastic ride.’
Sheik Mohammed, who had seen his colours finish second three times, most recently with Jack Hobbs in 2015, took extra pride in the fact Masar wintered in Dubai.
The ruler of the emirate said: ‘It is amazing to win the Derby. We have tried so many times and to finally win is very special. Horses are in my blood.’
Masar had convinced Appleby he possessed sufficient stamina in a gallop a week before the race, while Buick, who had twice been a Derby runner-up, was sure his mount had the required tactical speed.
Masar is a bit of a globetrotter. As well as spending time in Dubai, he has raced in America and was an unlucky six thin last season’ s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
He is streetwise and that is a quality Saxon Warrior seemed to lack as he continued the poor record of horses drawn in stall one in the Derby. He started slowly and was
well back coming into Tattenham Corner under Ryan Moore. He was also broadsided by the veering Dee Ex Bee three furlongs out.
But when the son of Deep Impact got in the clear, the electric acceleration he showed in the Guineas was absent. Moore said: ‘He didn’t pick up. Maybe it was the track, maybe it was the ground. I am not sure, but I don’t think he fired.’
O’Brien, who had been chasing a record- equalling seventh Derby victory, added: ‘I don’t want to take anything away from the winner, but it might have been all new to him (Saxon Warrior). He was a bit in awe. He is a baby horse.
‘It is only his fifth run. He has run on easy, uncomplicated tracks and this is the first complicated one he has had to handle.’
Knight To Behold made the early running but his race was run by the time they hit the home straight.
At that point, Frankie Dettori-ridden Hazapour looked to be travelling as well as anything. But his move was over almost as soon as it had begun as his stamina ebbed away.
Young Rascal, who had beaten Dee Ex Bee in the Chester Vase, was also disappointing and never got into the race.
Roaring Lion stayed on stoutly down the outside. But by then Masar and Buick had gone for home and the race was won.