Charlie Appleby expects to be better represented in the major European races this season.
In 2024 a number of the older Godolphin horses targeted prizes in North America as the trainer felt they might struggle to make a major impact in some of the big races closer to home.
However, he's hoping that will change this summer, saying: "We campaigned our horses as we did last year, and I was quite open about it, to give ourselves the best chance to win graded races.
"With the three-year-olds that we’ve got they will most definitely be campaigned in Europe, for sure.
“We were left with a hole a couple of years ago in our older horses, but this year hopefully the likes of Notable Speech, who might start in something like the Lockinge and work towards the Queen Anne, and Arabian Crown, who will be looking at mile-and-a-half races, will fill the gap.
"You’ve got to have a good one to go and win them, you can’t just turn up. I just felt we didn’t have that, but hopefully this year we will have.”
One of the three-year-olds Appleby hopes can make really make a name for himself this term is Ruling Court.
A 2,300,000-euro Arqana breeze-up buy, he was last seen when finishing third behind The Lion In Winter in the Tattersalls Acomb Stakes. The son of Justify is currently in Dubai and the trainer already has an eye on his domestic campaign too.
"He’s done well out in Dubai. We felt that the training conditions out there would suit him and he’s on target to run in the Jumeirah 2000 Guineas on Super Saturday We could potentially look at the 2000 Guineas nearer the time. I think he will stretch out beyond a mile, so it’s whether we look at him as a Guineas horse or a Dante horse after his run at Meydan," Appleby explained.
"He’s done very well. He was a breeze-up horse so we gave him a bit of time before he ran in his Sandown maiden and he did what he did. It was always our target to look towards the Acomb, and full credit to the race planning team with the conditions of the race changing – that race will only get better year on year.
“What we saw with Aidan’s horse winning (The Lion In Winter), James Owen’s horse in second (Wimbledon Hawkeye) who went on and progressed throughout the season. We felt that was the strongest juvenile race of the season until the Dewhurst."
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