Coroebus puts Doyle in limelight
JAMES DOYLE stepped off the subs’ bench to celebrate an emotional first Classic success when partnering Coroebus to victory in the Qipco 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket.
Fortune favoured Doyle as he only secured the ride when William Buick, the principal rider for winning owner Sheikh Mohammed, elected to partner stablemate Native Trail, the runner-up.
Doyle, choking back the tears, said: “William came up to me afterwards and said, ‘You deserve that one’.
“We’re the best of friends and he could see I was a little bit emotional.
“This race has been something that has always annoyed me, looking at replays over and over again of Kingman’s Guineas (second in 2014) and Barney Roy’s Guineas (second in 2017), and then it goes as simple as it did today.”
Though delighted to land a first Classic Doyle did
By Chris Goulding
admit to the frustration of playing the understudy.
“When you don’t ride these big winners, it does get frustrating,” he added. “William can see and sense I get frustrated but it’s great to be part of the team.”
And the script could not have played out any better for the 34-year-old as his mother had flown over from the USA to witness it.
Like Doyle, it was also a memorable first victory in the Classic for Appleby, the principal trainer for the Godolphin operation.
“It was always going to be a hard call for William to get off Native Trail and get on Coroebus but it’s great for James,” said Appleby.
“For him to have his first English Classic winner is fantastic and for us to be able to provide it for him is even more special.
“On what we’ve seen today, they are the two best threeyear-old colts around to
date.”