Just days removed from scoring a landmark win for Godolphin in the G1 Melbourne Cup with Cross Counter (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), trainer Charlie Appleby was looking ahead and, unsurprisingly, still aiming high.
“My ambitions are to carry on and to try to be successful and do the best we can for Godolphin and his Highness Sheikh Mohammed and having international winners,” said Appleby, who also gave the Ruler of Dubai his first Epsom Derby winner in his Godolphin silks this year with Masar (GB) (New Approach {Ire}). Both Masar and Cross Counter are homebreds.
“Every time we do that I feel that's a sense of achievement.”
“To do that you have to have the momentum going,” he said. “On Jan. 1 we start at zero again. We've got to build away. We've given ourselves a bit of a path to maintain, let alone go above.”
Appleby said the races high on his wish list include the GI Kentucky Derby and G1 Dubai World Cup.
“The Kentucky Derby is of course on everybody's lips. It's not been done [by Godolphin] and to win a Dubai World Cup for myself would be great,” he said. “Saeed [bin Suroor] has won plenty [eight] and I would like to get involved if I can.”
“The Dubai World Cup and a Kentucky Derby would be high on the agenda and I imagine for His Highness Sheikh Mohamed's point of view he'd like to win the Kentucky Derby as well.”
“As an Englishman our pinnacle is the Derby. It had never been won in Godolphin blue colours. That is always going to go down as the most memorable day of my career, but to come here [Australia] and do what we've done and see what it means to everybody and to Sheikh Mohammed is great. We've tried for over 20 years to win in this race and to do it is a huge sense of achievement, but most importantly it shows the passion and the drive His Highness and Godolphin have.”
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