Champion Owner title adds gloss to monumental UK season

Godolphin received the UK Champion Owner award for a 14th time on British Champions Day at Ascot on Saturday, 16 October, with Creative Force also announcing himself at the sprinting top table with a first G1 victory on the European season’s last major fixture.

Creative Force comfortably beat a field of seasoned performers in the G1 British Champions Sprint, adding his name to an exceptional group of three-year-olds in the UK this season that has also included Derby and King George hero Adayar and St Leger victor Hurricane Lane.

Only a short-head defeat for Master Of The Seas in the 2,000 Guineas back in May denied Charlie Appleby a clean sweep of the colts’ Classics. With G1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes winner Native Trail spearheading an exciting clutch of juveniles, there is optimism that next year’s Classic crop can reach similar heights.

Colette bounced back from a hoof abscess to post a dominant win in the G2 Tristarc Stakes at Caulfield in Australia on the same day. The five-year-old mare, successful in the G1 ATC Australian Oaks in 2020, looks set to bid for more G1 honours in the Empire Rose Stakes at Flemington later in the month.

The G1 Cox Plate takes place at Moonee Valley this Saturday, with star colt Anamoe aiming to become a rare three-year-old winner of Australia’s top weight-for-age race. The Street Boss colt has already stamped himself as the best of his generation following an impressive win in the G1 Caulfield Guineas.

Europe still has a handful of top-level contests to come this year and Godolphin is set to be represented in G1 races in France this weekend. G2 Prix Chaudenay runner-up Kemari is due to return to Longchamp for Sunday’s Prix Royal-Oak, with unbeaten two-year-old Goldspur on course for the Criterium de Saint-Cloud 24 hours earlier.