Run The Numbers – Blue blitz – How Godolphin conquered the world

While Godolphin’s Australian operation is undergoing a period of change, globally it was one of the most significant weekends in the Blue Army’s long history, including a long-awaited Kentucky Derby victory. Run The Numbers charts Godolphin’s extraordinary Group 1 record.

Before Saturday’s historic win by Sovereignty at Churchill Downs, Godolphin had had 13 Kentucky Derby runners without success. Essential Quality, third (fourth across the line) in 2021, came closest of those, but it had been one of the few global races which had avoided Sheikh Mohammed’s giant operation.

The Bill Mott-trained homebred swept past race favourite Journalism to record an emphatic and drought-breaking victory on Saturday, becoming Godolphin’s 445th Group 1/Grade 1 winner.

A few hours earlier, on the other side of the Atlantic, Godolphin’s Ruling Court, trained by Charlie Appleby, had delivered Group 1 win number 444 in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, in the process becoming the sixth winner in the all-blue of that Classic race, and third in four years.

As opposed to Sovereignty, that Justify colt was purchased by Godolphin as a breeze-up two-year-old for an Arqana record of 2.3 million euros in 2024. 

The day prior to that double Godolphin success, the Brad Cox-trained homebred Medaglia D’Oro filly Good Cheer delivered the Kentucky Oaks to Godolphin for the second time, the other being with Pretty Mischievous in 2023.

Then to complete an outstanding weekend for Sheikh Mohammed’s team, Desert Flower, another homebred by one-time Australian shuttler Night Of Thunder, gave Appleby a Newmarket double, winning the 1000 Guineas, bringing up the trainer’s first, but Godolphin’s fifth win in the fillies’ classic.

The flood of wins took Godolphin’s Group 1 total to 446 overall – although it is arguably more (more on that later) – and put it in the headlines across the racing world, something that the operation has become used to over the last 33 years.

There were headlines of a different kind in Australia last week, when the global powerhouse’s Australian arm confirmed it would no longer pursue a private training model. The upshot of that was an end to the exclusive training arrangement with James Cummings.

The Cummings and Godolphin relationship has been phenomenally successful and delivered 48 Group 1 wins in the eight years since they joined forces. In that period Godolphin has won 196 Group 1 races globally, with only Appleby (81) having trained more elite winners for them in that time.

Cummings sits third on the overall Godolphin list of Group 1-winning trainers, which is headed by Saeed Bin Suroor on 193 ahead of Appleby on 88. Andre Fabre is a distant fourth to Cummings on 18. There have been 27 trainers who have trained Group 1 winners for Godolphin.

Leading G1 trainers for Godolphin*

Trainer	G1 wins Advertisement
Saeed bin Suroor	193
Charlie Appleby	87
James Cummings	48
Andre Fabre	18
Kiaran McLaughlin	14
Mahmood Al Zarooni	12
Brad H Cox	12
John O’Shea	10

* Peter Snowden trained 29 G1 winners for Darley (not officially recognised among Godolphin’s official stats)  

Cummings also holds the honour of having trained Godolphin’s most successful Group 1-winning horse Anamoe, who won nine times at the top level in Australia.

All in all, Cummings trained 23 individual Group 1 winners in the all blue, of which 21 were bred by Darley and 19 were by Darley stallions.

As we learned last week, several other Australian trainers will be given the chance to add their names to that record.

We don’t know who they are as yet, except we know that Cummings will be one of them, with his new training arrangement from August 1 set to see him as one of several trainers to be utilised in a public training context.

Australia’s role in the Godolphin global success story can not be undersold, especially over the last few years.

Interestingly, the official Godolphin Group 1 data does not include those races won under the old Darley colours in Australia. So, it doesn’t include any of the 29 Group 1 winners prepared by Peter Snowden in Australia, nor the four by the Guy Walter-trained Appearance.

With that in mind, we have focused on data since 2015, which reveals 66 of Godolphin’s 233 global Group 1 winners, or 28.3 per cent, have come in Australia. That is the most of any country, eclipsing the USA (54) and Great Britain (36).

Backing that up, in the past decade, Randwick has been the most successful Group 1 track for Godolphin worldwide, with 28. Godolphin’s ‘home’ track Meydan (18) is second while Flemington (14) is third and Rosehill (13) fourth. Overall, the blue Godolphin colours have won Group 1 races at 42 different tracks in 10 different countries since 2015.

The one trend in recent years has been the level of success in the United States. After claiming 13 Grade 1 wins Stateside in the six years between 2015 and 2020, it won eight American Group/Grade 1s in 2021, 11 in 2022, and 10 in each of 2023 and 2024. It already has two after the Kentucky Oaks and Derby double.

Of those 41 American Grade 1 wins since 2021, 12 have been in Breeders’ Cup races. Appleby, with 14 Grade 1 wins in that time, is one of six successful American Grade 1 trainers for Godolphin in the last five years, perhaps a pointer as to why it may have opted to move to a public training model in Australia.

Group/Grade 1 winners globally for Godolphin since 2015  

Year	Australia	USA	Elsewhere
2015	5	3	8
2016	4	2	6
2017	4	3	11
2018	10	1	19
2019	10	1	16
2020	4	3	11
2021	5	8	13
2022	10	11	9
2023	6	10	8
2024	6	10	11
2025	2	2	2
Total	66	54	114