Ancient Wisdom has all the answers in G3 Emirates Autumn Stakes

Ancient Wisdom continued Godolphin’s superb record in the G3 Emirates Autumn Stakes with a dominant display at Newmarket, UK, on Saturday, 14 October.

Horses trained by Saeed bin Suroor and Charlie Appleby had won six of the previous seven renewals of the mile contest for two-year-olds, including Ghaiyyath and Coroebus, with the only exception Persian King subsequently winning three G1 races for Godolphin.

A winner of two of his three previous starts, Ancient Wisdom soon settled in third towards the far rail as Ambient Friendly led the seven runners. The Dubawi colt stayed on passing the two-furlong pole and took up the running shortly after, opening up daylight over his rivals approaching the final furlong.

Ancient Wisdom powered further clear for William Buick in the closing stages and the Charlie Appleby-trained juvenile hit the line strongly to prevail by nearly four lengths over Chief Little Rock.

Charlie Appleby said: “We came here with confidence as we thought Ancient Wisdom had done very well since finishing third in the Pat Eddery Stakes. We had purposely given him a break because I felt I had mismanaged the horse on his second start. He won nicely at Haydock and then we backed him up quite quickly at Newmarket on quick ground, when he made hard work of it.

“Then I went to the Pat Eddery Stakes thinking we would win but, as we know, it has worked out to be a very good race. This performance marks up the winner of that race considerably again. From our own point of view, I felt the horse needed a break and I have not seen a horse for a long time do as well as Ancient Wisdom for a break. He is a typical Dubawi and time allows these horses to flourish.

“I told William to ride him with a bit of confidence today, in respects of going forward as I felt the trip was going to suit. We hoped the ground conditions would fine as well because he has a bit of knee action.

“Whether he is more of a Prix du Jockey Club horse or a Derby horse, we will get the winter out the way first. It is a long shout from here but, if you asked me where we would set our stall out for the spring, I would probably say the Dante.

“You might get sucked into one more run this year in something like the Futurity at Doncaster. I said to William that we will just let the dust settle but it was not my immediate thought.”

William Buick added: “That was a really good performance from Ancient Wisdom and I was quite taken by it. He handled the soft ground pretty well and the step up to a mile was going to suit him. He is a horse who will probably get further next year.

“He is a pretty straightforward horse and the plan was to follow whatever pace there was, which we did. When the ground is that soft, you never know how much horse you have underneath you, but he always filled me with confidence and I really liked the way he picked up.”