Appleby will keep a division of horses in the U.S. this year

In Kentucky, New York, and points beyond, Godolphin horses trained by Charlie Appleby will be showing up through the 2024 Breeders’ Cup.

Appleby already has run five horses at the Keeneland meet and said Tuesday, reached by telephone in England, that he plans to keep more horses in America this year, about a dozen, than during any previous season.

“We’ve got those older horses, a few 3-year-olds, that would suit the turf package. We felt we’ve got enough horses we can assemble a nice team of permanent imports,” Appleby said.

Appleby during 2023 had 26 North American starts – 22 in the United States, four in Canada – building on the 17 and 18 during 2021 and 2022, respectively. Bold Act and Silver Knott are entered in the Elkhorn Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland, and it’s all but certain Appleby will have more American runners this year than ever before. Currently based at Keeneland, the string will decamp to Saratoga in midMay and remain there until late summer or early autumn.

One horse who won’t be seeing action for a while is the best horse Godolphin has here, Master of The Seas. He followed up on his Breeders’ Cup Mile win in November with a decisive score April 12 in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile. Connections initially had slotted the gelding into the Old Forester Turf Classic on the Kentucky Derby undercard but decided to pass that nine-furlong contest and keep Master of The Seas in one-mile races.

His next start won’t likely to come until the Fourstartardave on Aug. 10 at Saratoga. Master of The Seas could return to Keeneland for the Coolmore Turf Mile in October before bidding for a BC Mile repeat.

“We’re very much working back from another shot at the Breeders’ Cup Mile. Timingwise, the Fourstardave gives him a nice break again and he runs over a trip he’s especially suited for,” Appleby said.

Racing on a yielding, laboring course in the Maker’s Mark, Master of The Seas clocked a slow 1:37.10. The raw time yielded a 107 Beyer Speed Figure, Master of The Seas’s best among four North American starts. Making precise turf speed figures for the card was tricky, at best, since the day’s other grass contests were moved to dirt. Still, Master of The Seas, once a difficult and frustrating horse, showed he’s at least as good as ever at age 6.

“I think he’s better,” Appleby said. “He won with so much ease. I’d be confident that he’s an age now where he’s the finished article.”

Appleby also sent out the Maker’s Mark runner-up, Naval Power, a 4-year-old racing for the first time in America. Naval Power, who got a 103 Beyer, probably prefers 1 1/8 miles to one mile and will go to the Turf Classic.

English Rose, a 4-year-old Frankel filly making just her fourth start, chased loose leader Beaute Cachee in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley last Saturday, falling 1 1/2 lengths short while earning a robust 97 Beyer. Like Naval Power, English Rose ultimately wants more distance than the 1 1/16 miles she got last weekend, which makes the 1 3/16-mile New York Stakes a more likely spot for her next race than the one-mile Just a Game. Both races are June 7 at Saratoga.

While Rebel’s Romance is stabled in England, he’s likely to return to America later this year, Appleby said. The winner of the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Turf, Rebel’s Romance struggled through 2023 but regained his form with a switch this winter to front-running tactics. Rebel’s

Romance tracked a loose leader and easily won the Group 1 Sheema Classic, a star-studded $6 million race March 30 at Meydan.

Rebel’s Romance, another 6-year-old gelding, is a possible runner June 2 at Sha Tin Racecourse in the $1.2 million Champions and Chater Cup, a 1 1/2-mile contest in Hong Kong. Appleby said the BC Turf at Del Mar is on Rebel’s Romance’s agenda, as is the Aug. 27 Sword Dancer at Saratoga.

Beaute Cachee gets best Beyer

The Grade 1 Just a Game over one mile at Saratoga on June 7 could be the next stop for Beaute Cachee, who ran the race of her life posting a 25-1 upset of last Saturday’s Grade 1 Jenny Wiley. Leading from just after the start under Frankie Dettori, Beaute Cachee won by 1 1/2 lengths and earned a 100 Beyer, easily a career best.

Trainer Chad Brown said no plans have been set for the mare, who came out of the race in good shape.

Brown’s other three Jenny Wiley runners ran below their best form, particularly Gina Romantica, seventh in her first start since a good fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

“She had two Grade 1s at Keeneland and we went in there really liking her chances. She just didn’t fire. She did get real upset in the paddock,” Brown said.

Brown has nothing set in stone for Gina Romantica or fourth-place Surge Capacity, whose chances were hurt by a poor start. Fluffy Socks, who was seventh, is the only one of Brown’s Jenny Wiley quartet possible for the Distaff Turf Mile next month at Churchill Downs.

Meanwhile, Brown on Saturday plans to give leading Kentucky Derby hope Sierra Leone his first timed workout since the colt won the Blue Grass Stakes on April 6. The work is “weather-dependent,” Brown said, but there’s next to no chance of rain Saturday morning at Keeneland.

Torres resumes riding

The 25-year-old jockey Jaime Torres came out of the Fair Grounds meet full of momentum.

The leading apprentice rider in New York during 2023 with 37 winners, Torres lost his fivepound apprentice allowance last October. He moved his tack to Kentucky, picked up a new agent, Liz Morris, and between September and November went 4 for 69 at Keeneland and Churchill Downs.

But at Fair Grounds, Torres and Morris hit a rhythm. Torres ended the meet with 42 winners, the fifth-highest total in the colony, and from Feb. 1 to meet’s end on March 24, Torres was third-leading rider with 23 wins. But before he could settle in again at Keeneland and Churchill, Torres had to serve a 14-day suspension.

The New York State Gaming Board on March 25 upheld a suspension handed down for one of Torres’s rides in April 2023 at Aqueduct. Disqualified from first to second for causing interference, Torres was given a penalty so steep that a large group of New York riders filed a protest on his behalf.

Torres returns to action on the Friday card at Keeneland. A Puerto Rico native whose family has no racing background, Torres never had sat on a horse’s back until he went to jockey’s school at age 22. He came to Florida in 2022 and worked as an exercise rider for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. before taking out his jockey’s license, riding briefly at Gulfstream Park, then landing in New York, where Hall of Famer Angel Cordero was his agent and mentor.