No stallions Triple no stallions

I would

20years on and Godolphin have 300 horses ready to run at places like Folkestone and Bath something has gone horribly wrong.The stand off against Coolmore was a monster mistake.

I dont think many mainline trainers would replace their chosen Jockey for Frankie.
Nobody is beating  that door down anymore. Why would they? certainly his track record does not suggest he is top dog and I am not overjoyed when I see he is riding my selected as I once was.

The Godolphin operation is the jack of all trades and the master of none but I would be poorer without them.
The Sheik has the first and last word in everything but he who pays the piper calls the tune and he never seems to complain when he gets it wrong.
The money the guy pumps into racing from every angle should be applauded, so may his life be long and his obsession remains.

Millhouse.

I think the whole operation would be more successful if he had less say but its his money and its a fact that nothing moves unless he says so.
Both his trainers go out of their way to congratulate him when things go right which says so much.
Ive followed them for years now and when you get to know the scene it really does pay.

Requested at Haydock last night paid 5/2 a place it was by far and away the best bet of the day.
Its also a given that it will win several time this year.

The widely publicised rift between the Sheikh and Coolmore leading to Godolphin not buying into Coolmore stallions (believed to be over the Coolmore operation not supporting the Dubai World Cup meeting) is probably the biggest reason as to why they're playing second fiddle to Coolmore at the moment rather than their trainers or jockeys.
Magnier might not have been availing of the Arab millions but almost by default it actually served to strengthen his already formidable hand and weaken their greatest rivals.
But it should be remembered its not all one way traffic, only this year Godolphin had a one two in the Dubai World Cup with Ballydoyle hype machine So You Think well beaten in 4th, and last year Blue Bunting was a triple group one winner (1000 guineas, Irish Oaks, Yorkshire Oaks), and of course the unfortunate Rewilding beat the hype machine SYT as well.

Don't forget back in the mid eighties and for most of the nineties the Sheikh and family had Magnier and his then entourage by the proverbials.
The Coolmore boys couldn't believe that these upstarts could dare gatecrash what was their domain the global sales rings especially Keeneland which the Coolmore boys had almost a free reign on the best bloodstock.

The Arabs changed all that making Coolmore pay way over the odds for horses leading to these great judges of horse flesh O'Byrne and Magnier to buy the two biggest duds to ever come out of a sales ring in Seattle Dancer and The Green Donkey (monkey) the two most expensive sales purchases ever.
So Magnier is human afterall?.

The Sheikh might have made a mistake by refusing to buy into the Coolmore stallions but an even bigger mistake was the far from fallible Magnier deciding to get into a sustained war in the sales ring against the virtually bottomless supply of oil wealth, they tried to bully them as they had done with their previous american competitors, a fatal mistake that nearly destroyed Coolmore forever, they were virtually broke when the sales war had ended.
The formation of Classic Thoroughbreds plc was a last desperate attempt to stem the changing tide, it failed miserably with only Royal Academy a shining light in an otherwise train wreck.

Wasn't John Magnier extremely lucky that Sadlers Wells was just starting to lay down his marker at that time to eventually become the worlds greatest sire.
It should not be underestimated the influence this one horse had on pulling Magnier out of the gutter.

ima66 said;

In all honesty though with the kind of horses all of the Maktoums were having success with from the 1980s onwards with both male and female horses, they should really have had a breeding operation as good as Coolmore's now anyway and maybe even earlier than Coolmore did too.

Darley might not have had a stallion in the mold of Sadlers Wells and his offspring, these type of stallions are not exactly ten a penny, but the Darley operaton has still been a pretty successful breeding operation, they currently have Cape Cross one of the worlds better stallions, Shamardal, Halling, Exceed and Excel are no mugs etc.
Wouldn't it just be a tad ironic if Bonfire was to trump Coolmore wonder horse? Camelot in todays Derby?, Bonfire is by first season Darley sire Manduro.

lets hops silver, the only down side to bonfire winning, will be the fuss claire balding will display, but i suppose i can live with that

There is little doubt that Godolphin as presently constituted is a disaster.

They don't hold a candle to Ballydoyle/Coolmore and every aspect of their operation has run out of steam for many years. Plenty of praise here from punters who can win a few quite at Bath and Nottingham but this counts for nought against the utter failure to compete at Group 1 level.

Interesting read SIlvergreaser like the way you picked little facts from different times in history and drop them in all over the place to help twist the story, good work keeps your hatred obsession of Coolmore on track.

Anyway I think Silvergreaser sums it up best when he has to use Halling as one of Darley better sires!
His best son is Cavalryman rated 125 and only one of two of his sons rated 120+ but a Grp 1 winner over 12f when trained in France by the master Andre Fabre, he is then  transfered to Godolphin who run him from 10f to 16f all over the world and for two years he has struggled in some weak group races till he wins a listed race last week over 14f rated 113. I think this sums up the whole operation perfectly they dont have the consistant top bloodlines but when they get a good one, they take it from the people that made the horse and then try to force that horse into the mould they think will work. History shows this has lead to failure.

Losing people like Michael Osborne was also a massive hit so was losing the skills of Loder and Cecil etc.


Some of the "training methods" leave a lot to be desired aswell. Whats the old saying "you can leave it on the gallops",
Recently Lyric Of Light, Discourse but the constant flow of two year olds that dont train on for them is mind boggling

Is it one man trying to control everything is what is Godolphin and Darleys downfall?
Its a shame because racing would be pretty much wiped without them and they are a great company to work for.

Hoepfully they can get back on track soon.

Losing the skills of a trainer like Cecil was a big mistake,
but at the time Cecil's young wife was interfering which Sheik Mohammed
was not going to tolerate on any level, and increasingly finding himself under any female authority was traditionally a no-no for him,  but even so, still a
massive mistake taking his horses away.

Not just Cecil but losing other key staff he has suffered for it.

Petrobob I said racing has made Magnier a billionaire not the Coolmore breeding operation.Its from horses that he and McManus became wealty in the 70s.Off course they were going to put money into other things,the money that racing made them.As for Joe Lewis he was running nightclubs in the 70s he came on the scene much later.

Someone on here said they thought the sheikh had lost interest.
Obviously they have never been to Meydan

and galileo

well yes.

Dusty Bin Suroor clueless , this Alzarouni character seems better , Snaafi Dancer sums it all up really.

No one is going to change your opinion its to deeply grained silver and your entitled to it .

But taking 4 out of 4 english classics is one almighty feat , to campaign them through thier 2 yo season in the right races , get them through a winter and bring them to a certain fitness level on the day is not easy and fraught with the possobility of failure , ie parish hall , most improved a couple who didnt make it .

Any other trainer who has achieved what he has in the game you would be praising to the heavens silver , aiden is no different .

Lets be fair, him being such a mug is helping us punters make a living, you only have to look at the retrobates he employs,  his HR dept ain t that cute

Great horses granted , takes a great trainer to get them there and do the job

Not many of AOBs pull out due to not being ready or injury , parish hall and akeed mofeed were high class hopes who didnt make it

Petrobob I said racing has made Magnier a billionaire not the Coolmore breeding operation.Its from horses that he and McManus became wealty in the 70s.

Not really sure about Magnier, but McManus only earned a bit of seed money from early coups from racing. He became a rich man from subsequent currency and commodities trading, and a very rich man during the Celtic Tiger boom.

Don't quote me on it, but I think that Magnier lucked out a bit. Married Vincent O'Brien's daughter, and earned the trust of Robert Sangster very early in his career. He's clearly a good judge though. I doubt that they blundered into the Northern Dancer line by accident.