Godolphin add new trainer

crazyhorse said:
but cezanne surely ran in maroon ? (if my memory is correct?!)
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Nope. In the early days Godolphin used a number of trainers. H Ibrahim, the original Godolphin trainer, then a few others such as Sir Michael Stoute, John Gosden, Jack Berry, Clive Brittain, Sir Mark Prescott, Richard Hannon and even Mrs Ramsden. In the following years they also used a number of others, such as Luca Cumani, James Eustace, Barry Hills and David Loder before settling on Saeed Bin Suroor in 1996. They had a spell in the early 2000s, I think, where David Loder trained their 2yos in France and this method was again used last year when Andre Fabre trained a few in France (such as Cavalryman, admittedly a 3yo) but these all ran under the Godolphin SNC banner which is the beige colours. Things are a little different in America, however, under the Godolphin LLC banner, where Bin Suroor "trains" the majority with a few others training for them, too, such as Eoin Harty, similar to the model used in Britain in the early 90s. The colours these horses run under are all blue with white chevrons on the sleeves. So, the model they're going to be using from now on, with Mahmood Al Zarooni, has not been used in Britain since 1996 when Barry Hills trained Moonax for them.
 
Good stuff Simon - the Godolphin 3yos with Fabre originally start out in the Sheikh Mohammed "Go Faster" Maroon colours - when they appear to be semi-decent they are transfered to the Godolphin SNC banner with the peachy colours that they used on their 2yos when Loder had them in France(remember City On A Hill winning the July Stakes in them).

The US outfit is well set-up - with a stable for the top horses and also one for what are effectively high-level claimers.
 
Bar the Bull said:
So what's the deal with this Al Zarooni character?

Is he likely to set the world alight?
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He's been assistant to Bin Suroor for a couple of years so probably not - if he does it's probably due to him working with the great Mubarak Bin Shafya the great super-improver of average horses.
 
Irish Stamp said:
Good stuff Simon - the Godolphin 3yos with Fabre originally start out in the Sheikh Mohammed "Go Faster" Maroon colours - when they appear to be semi-decent they are transfered to the Godolphin SNC banner with the peachy colours that they used on their 2yos when Loder had them in France(remember City On A Hill winning the July Stakes in them).

The US outfit is well set-up - with a stable for the top horses and also one for what are effectively high-level claimers.
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Indeed they do. I find it interesting, and a bit of a shame, that the Sheikh Mohammed colours are not seen in the UK anymore, all the horses that are not with Godolphin are spread between Princess Haya, his son who has all those horses with Mark Johnstone and various other family members and friend that are part of Rabbah Bloodstock (formerly Gainsborough Stud).

Any idea what other trainers they use in the US, Martin, other than Eoin Harty and Saeed?
 
Gareth Flynn said:
So Simon - any idea who their first Group race winner in the Royal Blue colours was?
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Well, they had a number of Group winners in the UK in 1994 (first year they came over here). Zieten won a Group 2 at Newmarket in October 94 for John Gosden, Lovely Millie won a Group 3 at Sandown in August 94 for Hilal Ibrahim, and Balanchine won the Oaks in June 94, also for Hilal Ibrahim. So, therefore, it would seem Balanchine's Oaks win was Godolphin's first taste of Group success in the UK. However, on a worldwide basis, they had runners as early as 1992 in the UAE, and John Balliol won the Abu Dhabi Championship at Abu Dhabi (surprisingly), in April '94, and it sounds like a Group race but there are no records of it on the RP, so that could perhaps be there first Group win on a worldwide basis, in the famous blue silks.
 
They weren't using the Royal Blue silks in '94, though. Balanchine won in the blue with white chevron (Sheikh Maktoum's personal colours?).
 
Simon said:
Indeed they do. I find it interesting, and a bit of a shame, that the Sheikh Mohammed colours are not seen in the UK anymore, all the horses that are not with Godolphin are spread between Princess Haya, his son who has all those horses with Mark Johnstone and various other family members and friend that are part of Rabbah Bloodstock (formerly Gainsborough Stud).

Any idea what other trainers they use in the US, Martin, other than Eoin Harty and Saeed?
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Tom Albertrani has trained a few for them, think it's Rick Mette who does most of the training of the US-based horses despite Bin Suroor being the official trainer.

Not sure on the claiming barn but they had a run in last year when Fateh Field was placed on the vets list at one track and ran at another a few days later.
 
Gareth Flynn said:
They weren't using the Royal Blue silks in '94, though. Balanchine won in the blue with white chevron (Sheikh Maktoum's personal colours?).
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Ah, I didn't realise that. They're not Sheikh Mohammed's personal colours (those are the famous maroon and white ones) but those are the Sheikh Maktoum al Maktoum colours which were used for his Gainsborough Stud horses after he died. I'm not sure exactly when they started using the Royal Blues then.
 
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So, if they came in in 1996, it would appear that Godolphin's first success in the Royal Blue silks was the 1996 2000 Guineas, with Mark Of Esteem.
 
They may have come in in 1995. Found this from May '95:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/moonax-underlines-godolphins-staying-power-1620227.html

Balanchine, last year's Oaks and Irish Derby winner, is due to return to competition at Royal Ascot, by which time both Epsom Classics might conceivably have fallen to the royal blue silks (Moonshell is 5-2 second- favourite for the Oaks, while Vettori now seems certain to go to post for the Derby and will do so with a significant chance).
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Anyone remember Moonshell's colours that day?

The article also explains why Moonax went back to Hills:

"That was always the plan," Simon Crisford, Godolphin's racing manager, said. "He won two Classics for Barry, which is different to being a maiden winner."
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Isn't Cezanne wearing them here ('94):

cezanne_(gb).jpg
 
I agree with you that Moonshell appears to be wearing the Hamdan colours and that Halling and Cezanne are in the all blue.
 
They're not Sheikh Hamdan's, they're Sheikh Maktoum's/Gainsborough Stud's.

It's really weird, because Lammtarra won the '95 Derby in the Green colours of Saeed Maktoum Al Maktoum, but he was running for Godolphin. So it's so hard to work out when the Royal Blues were actually brought in and which horse won the first Group race in them.
 
The irony is that Godolphin were able to register all blue silks in various racing jurisdictions before they could do so in the UK, because Alan Bailey was running desperately bad horses like Braes O'Shieldhill and Mad Mytton in those silks. I believe Sheikh Mo eventually made Mr Bailey an offer he couldn't refuse.
 
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