Hawkbill keeps Godolphin fortunes on rise
Four winners at Royal Ascot suggested the green shoots of a Godolphin recovery but Hawkbill, the only one of that quartet trained in-house by Charlie Appleby, confirmed it when the colt won one of racing’s summer highlights, the Coral-Eclipse, here yesterday.
In an echo of some of the great thoroughbred battles of the Nineties and early noughties, when Godolphin was in its pomp, the chestnut colt, who was 6-1, finally began to get on top of Coolmore’s 4-6 favourite, The Gurkha, in the last 100 yards, after a terrific duel up Sandown’s hill.
Time Test, who was not far off being pulled out because of the rain that turned the ground soft before racing, ran above his trainer’s expectation in the conditions, a further length and three-quarters away in third, with his pacemaker, Countermeasure, in fourth. But My Dream Boat, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes winner, was unable to replicate that form after being chopped for room off the last bend and could only finish fifth.
Given that the only two three-yearolds to have won the Eclipse in the last decade have been the two best Derby winners in that period, Sea The Stars and Golden Horn, it puts Hawkbill in serious company and the race, fought out by two three-year-olds, set down a marker for this year’s Classic generation.
What is more, the way he found extra when William Buick switched his whip back into his left-hand inside the last furlong suggests Hawkbill may not just leave his mark on mile-and-a-quarter races at the highest level.
Having saddled the biggest winner of his career, Appleby, who took over his wing of the Godolphin operation in 2013, explained that one of the keys to Hawkbill’s swift progression through the ranks has been an improvement in his mental maturity.
“He was awash with sweat before Ascot, that’s always been him and I’ve always said his biggest challenge has been himself,” he said. “But he didn’t turn a hair today and I was hoping it was him growing up mentally. It looks like he’s turned from a boy into a man. He travelled supremely well and was playing a bit in the last furlong.” Buick, who starts a 30-day suspension today, reckoned it was the most timely winner of his career and, while one or two other jockeys found trouble, it all went swimmingly well for him.
“It was straightforward,” he said. “I didn’t think either pacemaker would go like, hell because the horses they were in for were a bit ground dependent. He stays well and likes the ground so I dropped in handy and, when The Gurkha joined me and got level, I needed something to take me on.”
He then joked that he would suggest to the trainer that the horse needed a summer break, at least for the rest of July. “It’s a big team and I won’t be looking at it from a selfish point of view,” he said. “It’s a young team, it was a brave call to supplement and Charlie also won the Lancashire Oaks today, so it’s a huge day for him.”
“There will be no quick decision about where he goes next,” said John Ferguson, Godolphin’s chief executive, who in the spring had given himself two years to get the operation’s show back on the road. “His Highness [Sheikh Mohammed] will be over for the July meeting next week, and we’ll have an enjoyable time thinking about where to go with him next.”
Aidan O’Brien, narrowly denied his sixth winner in the race, was pleased with The Gurkha, but wondered if he truly got a mile and a quarter.
“He ran well but came alive a bit early, and we’ve always had him down as a very fast Galileo. The original plan was the Sussex Stakes. We’ll see how he is, but that could still be the plan.”
Roger Charlton will now head to York with Time Test and pray for better ground. Lord Grimthorpe, York chairman as well as Khaled Abdullah’s racing manager, joked that the covers were already on.
“Pat Smullen got off and said how much he had improved and how hard he tried,” Charlton said. “He was very positive and asked to ride him next time.”
‘He didn’t turn a hair and I was hoping it was him growing up mentally. He’s turned from a boy into a man’