Blue Chip Year For Darley, Godolphin

Darley and Godolphin had an excellent year in 2018 both with Group 1 winners on the track in their blue silks and for their sires. In Part 2 of this Q&A series, the TDN's Alayna Cullen catches up with members of the European nominations team to talk about the highlights (click here for Part 1).

TDN: 2018 certainly has been an exciting year for the Darley stallions and for Godolphin. Can you sum it up?

David Walsh: It's been an incredible year for Godolphin. To have 30 individual Group 1 winners for Sheikh Mohammed across the world has just been incredible. For us it's definitely the hard work that everybody's doing in every sector of the company. From the guys on the stud, the guys in pre-training, the guys working in the yards and us in the office. It just shows that the hard work has paid off. Sheikh Mohammed deserves to have that success across the world and it's given everybody the drive and we're all proud of it.

Dawn Laidlaw: Everyone knows it's been an amazing year for Godolphin. I've been here for a long time and we've had good years and not-so-good years, and this year just stands out as being an absolutely phenomenal year right from the beginning of the season through to the Derby, Royal Ascot and with the Melbourne Cup winner. I think for everybody who works here, it doesn't matter what they do, they're all part of that team and it's just fantastic. There's definitely a renewed energy and enthusiasm around the offices and on the studs.

TDN: It's a huge team effort that spans globally but what was interesting for me was that a lot of the Group 1 winners were born or raised in Ireland. There must be some extra pride in that for the Irish team members?

DW: I give tours at Dalham sometimes and I tell the attendees that the foals, when they're weaned, go to Ireland. I'll always say the ground and the climate is better to produce horses in Ireland. We've got great land. Ireland has been producing top- class horses for generations and will for generations to come, which is something I'm really proud of.

Anthony O'Donnell: We have fantastic farms in Ireland and a fantastic team who have been with us a long time. And there's a number of different farms. Three of the Group 1-winning 2-year-old colts this year for Godolphin were foaled at Kildangan, those being Quorto (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), Royal Marine (Ire) (Raven's Pass) and Royal Meeting (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). They have all been foaled in Kildangan and raised on some of the other farms in Ireland, and the majority brought back to Kildangan to be started.

We all play a huge part in Team Godolphin and it felt like, particularly for the Irish team, we started off the process with those colts and a number of the other Group 1 winners. To feel them go on and do well for other members of the team in different countries, it's very, very satisfying.

TDN: Sheikh Mohammed visited Ireland for the first time in a long time, I believe, this year. That must have been hugely exciting?

Sam Bullard: Oh, wasn't it fantastic? Just wonderful that he had time to go there. And so many of the horses that we've bred and raced have grazed at Kildangan, just as Anthony and David have said. So for the team there to see him, to meet him, to see his great enthusiasm for what he's doing over there was wonderful.

AD: It was fantastic. I think it was his first time to visit Kildangan in 15 years and he also went to Goffs which was great for the breeders as well. It was great to see him and it was exciting for everyone around because they're putting in a lot of hard work all those weeks and months for the last number of years. It was exciting for everyone to finally see him making an appearance at the farm and he looked at a number of stock as well. He was very pleased with what he saw.

TDN: Dubawi (Ire) has long been a stalwart for Darley Stallions, but he really stepped to the fore this year. What has he achieved this year?

DL: Dubawi is just a superstar. Everything about Dubawi is just brilliant. He's become the first stallion standing in Britain to have over 100 group winners with another six individual Group 1 winners this year and he's the sire of the two top-rated 2-year-olds this year too.

SB: Dubawi has now really reached the stage that we believed that he should get to. He's now achieved what he promised to achieve. He is internationally renowned as probably the best stallion in the world. People were knocking the fact that he didn't have many 2-year-old colts in the past. Well, the two best 2-year-old colts are now by Dubawi, so that's put that one to bed.

TDN: What was your personal highlight of 2018?

DW: My personal highlight for 2018 was Cross Counter (GB) (Teofilo {Ire})'s win in the Melbourne Cup. There was a group of us who got up at four in the morning to watch it and we opened a bottle of champagne at four minutes past four once the horse crossed the line. That was definitely the highlight for this year.

AD: I think probably the three Group 1-winning colts with the highlight of those being Quorto, who won the National S. at The Curragh in the royal blue silks of Godolphin. It's very exciting for the Irish staff to see a homebred Group 1 winner, particularly by Dubawi as well, on home turf. He's three-from-three and he looks a very exciting prospect for next year, which we can all follow as well.

DL: I think it would have to be Masar (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) winning The Derby. That is what we have all been trying to do for the last few years and for Sheikh Mohammed to be there and with a homebred that goes back generations. For me that was fantastic and then the Melbourne Cup at the end of the season just was the cherry on the icing of the cake.

SB: That day in June. There were many, but that one stands aside for me. It was a day that we'd been dreaming of for many, many years. As I said earlier on, for everything that we do from the stallion operation to the breeding operation to the breaking and the training, the whole thing came together on that afternoon in June when Masar won the Epsom Derby.