Decades of nurturing families and painstaking research behind matings have resulted in a recent bonanza for Godolphin's breeding and racing program that has been rewarded with its second consecutive title as Eclipse Outstanding Breeder and its third such title since 2012.
More impressively, Sheikh Mohammed's organization also snagged consecutively both Outstanding Breeder and Outstanding Owner titles, with both 2021 and 2022 racing seasons enriched by elite homebreds.
"In America last year, all our grade 1 horses were all homebreds. I think we've had this great opportunity to have lots of nice fillies that have been retired to the breeding program...so we have been able to reap the rewards of having strong broodmare bands and a strong stallion roster as well," said Michael Banahan, director of bloodstock for Godolphin USA. "One of our best horses in training was Speaker's Corner , by Street Sense , who is in our stallion barn here, and then we've seen the same in Europe with Dubawi leading the way with Coroebus and Rebel's Romance."
Dubawi, who stands at Dalham Hall Stud in England, sired four North American graded stakes winners in 2022 who captured seven graded stakes.
Godolphin was represented as individual breeder by 189 starters that captured 150 wins and another 242 placed finishes. These runners earned $18,621,521 in prize money and included 20 black-type winners.
Leading Godolphin's 2022 stable were 14 homebred graded stakes winners that include four Breeders' Cup World Championships winners: Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) winner Cody's Wish , Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) winner Rebel's Romance, Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) winner Modern Games, and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1T) winner Mischief Magic.
These 14 also included six multiple graded stakes winners: Cody's Wish, Matareya, Modern Games, Nations Pride, Santin, and Speaker's Corner. In addition to winning multiple graded stakes, each of the six also captured at least one grade 1 stakes during the year.
"A lot of it's a culmination of years of selecting the correct horses to breed and then it all coming together. We're probably in a bit of a golden era, this rich vein of form coming together for us in the moment," Banahan said. "You go back 15-20 years when Juddmonte were so successful in America and there was no stopping them. We understand it's cyclical, and we know it's not going to continue forever, but we put 100% effort into trying to do that."
