Revived Godolphin smiling again

SHEIK MOHAMMED’S sinewy frame has been given a more strenuous workout this Royal Ascot than anyone sane would have laid a spare fiver on. The Emir of Dubai, head of the Godolphin racing empire, has been up and down the steps to the winners’ enclosure — accompanied by his mostly grey-suited retinue, including sharp-eyed minders with wires in their ears — to celebrate four triumphs in three days. He says very little. He smiles only occasionally. He never waves his hands. One might not be able to detect it from the boss’s body language, but the tally so far amounts to more winners than Godolphin have managed here in the last two years. Which was nought. Their last victory came in 2014. But yesterday under grey-tinged skies, which happily reduced the temperature from the boil-in-the-bag hot of the previous two days, came the 9-2 chance Benbatl landing the Hampton Court Stakes. He fended off Order of the garter, trained by no less a pain in the back pocket than Aidan O’Brien, trainer to the Coolmore Stud that has put Godolphin in the shade. The Godolphin revival has come amid chaos, supposedly. Only a fortnight ago they lost John Ferguson, briefly of the Scots Guards but for 30 years the Sheik’s long-time bloodstock adviser and lately chief executive. He would sign seven-figure purchases. But then he was gone. Internecine politics were blamed. His resignation was seemingly linked to four-time champion trainer Saeed bin Suroor revealing that he cut Ferguson out and answered directly to the Sheik. Further, Bin Suroor complained that he was losing out on the best horses to Godolpin’s other handler Charlie Appleby, where Ferguson’s son James was the assistant. Well, a little local difficulty aside, Benbatl’s win was Bin Suroor’s 36th at Royal Ascot. ‘John is our friend and we wish him the best,’ said the triumphant trainer, wanting bygones to be bygones. ‘Things are better and I am very positive for the future. The team is happy. It’s so far, so good. ‘Benbatl finished fifth in the Derby. But he came from too far back and finished strong, so we thought a mile and a quarter would be better.’ It was Irish jockey Oisin Murphy’s first success at Royal Ascot. ‘It’s a massive monkey off my back,’ said the 21-year-old, who marked his landmark occasion animatedly. ‘I’ll watch the replay but I’ll stop the film straight after the line. I won’t be watching the celebrations.’ O’Brien is far from finished this week. But so far he has two winners, the second yesterday courtesy of Ryan Moore on Sioux Nation in the Norfolk Stakes, to Godolophin’s four. That statistic is one the Sheik could almost smile about.