Godolphin swept the opening weekend’s 2-year-old stakes at Keeneland, then swept opening day’s 2-year-old stakes at Churchill Downs. Could it sweep a pair of 2-year-old stakes on opening day of the Breeders’ Cup – and then some?
Godolphin’s colors will be carried by homebred juveniles Immersive, winner of the Grade 1 Alcibiades Stakes, and East Avenue, winner of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity, in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and Juvenile, respectively.
“We have a great bunch of 2-year-olds this year, and these two have risen to the top, and we thought they were the tops from maybe early in the summertime,” said Michael Banahan, Godolphin’s director of bloodstock. “They broke their maidens impressively and have gone on and done what they’ve done. We have a lot to look forward to. . . . We’ll be going in there full of confidence with both of them.”
On Saturday at Del Mar, the United States-based arm of the international Godolphin outfit will be represented by homebred Highland Falls in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Meanwhile, the European-based raiding party of trainer Charlie Appleby will be represented by Godolphin colorbearers Al Qudra (Juvenile Turf) and Aomori City (Juvenile Turf) on Friday; and homebreds Star of Mystery (Turf Sprint), Rebel’s Romance (Turf), Beautiful Love (Filly and Mare Turf), Cinderella’s Dream (Filly and Mare Turf), and Notable Speech (Mile) on Saturday.
Many of those have had successful runs in the United States already – and, in fact, Rebel’s Romance won the 2022 BC Turf at Keeneland. The globe-trotting gelding, who also is a Group 1 winner in Dubai, Germany, and Hong Kong, is approaching $10 million in earnings.
“He is becoming a proper Godolphin flagbearer, like a Daylami [winner of the 1999 Turf] – that level of horse,” Appleby told Breeders’ Cup publicity. “He’s deservedly built an international reputation and goes into this race with nothing to lose.”
Godolphin has built quite the reputation at the Breeders’ Cup, with both its North American and overseas runners. The Godolphin moniker has bred the winners of 10 Breeders’ Cup races – including two-time Dirt Mile winner and 2023 Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish – for earnings of $12,640,000, ranking second to Juddmonte, with $13,423,820 and six wins. However, those figures are somewhat misleading as Godolphin’s founder Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum bred two winners in his own name, and three winners have been bred in the name of the Darley banner Godolphin stands its stallions under, with those and others adding to the earnings total.
As an owner alone, the Godolphin name has 18 wins for earnings of $29,441,735, leading Juddmonte with 10 wins and $20,325,820. Again, other wins have come in the name of Darley and Sheikh Mohammed, who also has campaigned winners such as the brilliant Arazi in partnership.
Looking at some of the other Breeders’ Cup all-time leaderboards, Darley stallion Dubawi, who stands at the operation’s Dalham Hall Stud in England, has leapt up the charts to rank as the fifth-leading sire by earnings in the event’s history. He is tied for the second-most winners with seven. Dubawi will be represented by Rebel’s Romance and Notable Speech this Saturday.
Juvenile standouts Immersive, trained by Brad Cox, and East Avenue, trained by Brendan Walsh, are both by Darley Kentucky stallions. Immersive is by the rising talent Nyquist, while East Avenue – from the female family of Cody’s Wish – is by Medaglia d’Oro, a stalwart on the roster at age 25.
“Being by Medaglia d’Oro is so special,” Banahan said. “He’s now in the twilight of his career, and to have a horse coming along this well for him is super exciting.”
Medaglia d’Oro is the sire of nine stakes winners this year – including another Godolphin homebred in Good Cheer, who won the Rags to Riches Stakes on Oct. 27 at Churchill Downs, shortly before the operation’s Sovereignty completed a sweep of the co-features by taking the Grade 3 Street Sense. The stallion has two other Breeders’ Cup entrants in Nitrogen (Juvenile Fillies Turf) and Grand Sonata (Turf). The sire of four Breeders’ Cup winners to date, he sits 11th on the Breeders’ Cup sires earnings leaderboard, with a spot in the top 10 within his grasp; the deceased Sadler’s Wells is less than $16,000 ahead of him.
While Medaglia d’Oro – who covered 88 mares this year, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred – is in the twilight of his career, stablemate Nyquist is very much on the rise. He kicked off his career as the leading freshman sire of 2020 and garnered a solid book of mares the following spring as a result. Those foals, conceived in 2021, are now 2, and this crop includes multiple stakes performers, including Immersive, placing him eighth on the North American juvenile sires list.
Nyquist and Medaglia d’Oro both rank among North America’s top 25 general sires, along with Darley stablemates Hard Spun and Street Sense.