After Charlie Appleby last week registered his 1,000th winner in Britain, Timeform profile his highest-rated horses based on peak end-of-season rating.
Pinatubo (Timeform rating 134)
Pinatubo was at his best as a two-year-old in 2019, earning a higher rating than any two-year-old since Celtic Swing in 1994, and being named Timeform Horse of The Year after going unbeaten in six races during an outstanding juvenile campaign.
Not that Pinatubo was earmarked as a star at the outset of his career. Instead of Newmarket, where most of the best Godolphin youngsters make their debuts, Pinatubo was started off at Wolverhampton in the first six-furlong race of the season for two-year-olds. From there he made rapid progress to win the Woodcote Stakes at Epsom, the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Vintage Stakes at Goodwood which he won impressively by five lengths.
That form worked out well and Pinatubo was even more impressive when putting up an outstanding performance in the National Stakes at the Curragh, storming clear for a nine-length victory over the Aidan O’Brien pair Armory and Arizona, winners of the Futurity Stakes and Coventry Stakes respectively.
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Pinatubo was less impressive when beating Arizona again in the Dewhurst Stakes but still put up a high-class effort at Newmarket to keep his unbeaten record.
Pinatubo’s three-year-old campaign was an anti-climax after such a spectacular start to his career, though he still managed another Group 1 success in the Prix Jean Prat at Deauville.
However, he’d suffered his first two defeats by then, beaten at odds on into third behind Kameko in the 2000 Guineas and then coming up against high-class miler Palace Pier in the St James’s Palace Stakes, while on his final start Pinatubo was left with a lot to do when finishing strongly for second behind Persian King in the Prix du Moulin.
Ghaiyyath (133)
Ghaiyyath was a winner in all four seasons that he raced but it wasn’t until his five-year-old campaign that this strong, lengthy horse really reached the height of his powers. He was bred in the purple, by Dubawi out of the Irish 1000 Guineas winner Nightime, and had cost €1.1m as a foal but was very lightly raced early in his career, winning his last couple of starts at two, including the Autumn Stakes at Newmarket, but then making it to the track only once at three when successful in the Prix du Prince d’Orange at Longchamp.
It was only really at four that Ghaiyyath’s career began to take off, making an impressive return back at Longchamp in the Prix d’Harcourt and even more striking when landing his first Group 1 later in the season in the Grosser Preis von Baden, routing some smart performers by upwards of 14 lengths.
Ghaiyyath wasn’t in the same form in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on his final four-year-old start but returned better than ever at five when proving difficult to peg back from the front. He began the year with another wide-margin success, in the Dubai Millennium Stakes at Meydan, but the highlight of his final season was a hat-trick in three of the top middle-distance races of the summer in Britain, the Coronation Cup, Eclipse and Juddmonte International.
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Discover Sporting Life Plus BenefitsAfter proving too good for the previous season’s Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck and Stradivarius at Epsom, Ghaiyyath took another big scalp back down in trip at Sandown, that of Enable. His York victory, by three lengths from Magical, was as good as anything he’d achieved previously, but the runner-up turned the tables on him on his final start in the Irish Champion Stakes.
Adayar (131)
Charlie Appleby won his first Derby with Masar (rated 125) in 2018 but three years later won it again with a still better colt in Adayar. Like Masar, Adayar was a 16/1 chance at Epsom where he showed considerable improvement on his earlier form.
Off the mark at two at the second attempt in a couple of back-end maidens at Nottingham, Adayar found one too good in both his starts before the Derby, the Classic Trial at Sandown and the Derby Trial at Lingfield, but was impressive at Epsom where he started as Godolphin’s apparent third string. Adam Kirby gave him a fine ride hugging the inside rail throughout, Adayar staying on strongly to beat outsider Mojo Star by four and a half lengths with stablemate Hurricane Lane back in third.
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Discover Sporting Life Plus BenefitsThe same combination of speed, stamina and a really willing attitude enabled Adayar to become the first Derby winner since his grandsire Galileo 20 years earlier to follow up in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes against high-class older rival Mishriff.
An infection in a hind leg caused Adayar to miss his intended prep run for the Arc in the Prix Niel, and in the Arc itself he was unsuited by the lack of a good gallop, proving a bit too keen and not quite seeing things out in the testing conditions in fourth behind outsider Torquator Tasso, while the Champion Stakes, in which he finished only fifth, came too soon after that run.
Adayar’s prospects at four looked bright but it was the St Leger meeting before he returned to action, making short work of a couple of inferior rivals in a minor event. His second crack at the Champion Stakes was more successful than the year before but he found fellow four-year-old Bay Bridge half a length too good.
Blue Point (131)
Blue Point, a son of Shamardal like Pinatubo, is the best sprinter that Charlie Appleby has trained. While that was something that he proved later in his career, he was already a smart two-year-old, winning three times, notably the Gimcrack Stakes at York which he won impressively by three lengths, before suffering a surprise defeat to the Gimcrack third The Last Lion in the Middle Park Stakes.
Blue Point also finished third to Churchill when trying seven furlongs in the Dewhurst Stakes but that effort only served to confirm that he would prove best as a sprinter. Blue Point’s light three-year-old campaign was bookended by Group 3 wins at Ascot in the Pavilion Stakes and Bengough Stakes, with his better effort in between coming when third to Caravaggio and Harry Angel in the Commonwealth Cup at the same track.
Ascot was to prove a particularly successful track for Blue Point as it was also where he gained his only success at four, wearing down Battaash late on to win the King’s Stand Stakes which was both his first Group 1 success and his first win over five furlongs.
Blue Point’s best season was yet to come, though, and at five he won all five of his starts, beginning with a hat-trick at Meydan where his most significant victory came in the Al Quoz Sprint where he got the better of the American mare Belvoir Bay who was to win the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint later in the year.
Once again, though, Ascot provided the highlight of Blue Point’s season and, indeed, his whole career. Not only did he repeat his King’s Stand victory over Battaash from the year before, he then emulated Choisir’s double in 2003 by following up four days later in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes.
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Discover Sporting Life Plus BenefitsHurricane Lane (128)
Charlie Appleby was blessed with two top middle-distance three-year-old colts in 2021, both of them sons of Frankel, and, at least until Epsom, it appeared that Hurricane Lane was the better of them.
Hurricane Lane was unbeaten in three starts before the Derby, winning a novice at Newmarket at two, a conditions race at Newbury in the spring and then the Dante Stakes at York where he gave the impression he’d relish the longer trip at Epsom. He duly stayed the Derby distance but didn’t handle the track as well as longer-priced stablemate Adayar and finished nearly eight lengths behind him in third.
But Hurricane Lane quickly regained the winning thread back on more galloping tracks, finding plenty late on to cut down clear leader Lone Eagle in the Irish Derby, impressing with a six-length win in the Grand Prix de Paris and putting up one of the best performances in the St Leger in recent years with a totally dominant effort once sent to the front to beat the Derby runner-up Mojo Star.
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Discover Sporting Life Plus BenefitsHurricane Lane’s excellent season ended in defeat in the Arc, but his third place, beaten less than a length behind Torquator Tasso and Tarnawa, and in front of Adayar this time, was as good a race as he ran all year.
Like Adayar, he looked set for another good season at four but he too managed only two appearances and proved disappointing under firmer conditions than he’d encountered previously. Hurricane Lane was understandably a little rusty when returning in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot where he was third at odds on behind Broome but then beat only home in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud won by Alpinista just over a fortnight later.
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