Charlie Appleby to Bring Team to Sydney Autumn

ANZ Bloodstock News

Retained Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby is in the process of forming a raiding party for the 2016 The Championships on the back of his success at Melbourne in the spring. Appleby, who began training at Moulton Paddocks in Newmarket in 2013, sent just five runners to Australia for the Melbourne Spring Carnival, but between them they won five races and amassed over $1,500,000 in prizemoney.

The runners arrived back in Newmarket last week, and Appleby told ANZ Bloodstock News that they had each recovered well from their overseas exertions.

“They’ve all travelled back to the UK well, they arrived back in Newmarket in the early hours last Friday,” Appleby said.
 
“Scottish is a horse who we were really looking forward to running in the Emirates Stakes, which he unfortunately missed, but he’s back in the yard now and he’s sound, which is the most important thing.”

While Appleby is keen to return to Australia with a similar team next spring, he said it was unlikely that they would return to race in the autumn.

“Scottish will definitely be back out there next year, along with the likes of Qewy, Oceanographer and Francis Of Assisi, for the spring carnival. I’m probably going to work back from the spring carnival with them, otherwise it will be too much travelling.

“Asking them to fly out there three times in a year, it’s a big ask, they’ve all earned a break.

“Qewy was one we were considering for the Sydney Cup, but I’ve given it some thought over the last 48 hours and we have some other suitable horses for that race and he deserves some time off.

“You need the horses to be able to travel and adapt to their surroundings, which they all did. You could travel with the best horse in the world but if they don’t settle in and adapt, your plans won’t materialise, but those old boys took to it so well and they performed very well.”

Appleby, who has now trained Group / Graded winners in five different countries, is still finalising his team for the autumn, and he told ANZ Bloodstock News that he would have a definitive idea of which runners he would be sending to Australia in around a week.

The Australian Cup (Gr 1, 2000m) at Flemington in March is a race that is under consideration, while The BMW (registered as the H E Tancred Stakes) (Gr 1, 2400m) at Rosehill and the $2,000,000 Sydney Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) during The Championships at Randwick are other potential targets.

“We’re in the process of assembling a team for an autumn campaign in Australia,” Appleby said.

“Obviously they’ve got races like the Australian Cup in Melbourne in March, and The BMW and the Sydney Cup in Sydney which we will be taking a close look at.

“In about a week’s time we’ll have a better idea of the team we want to take, for now we are just mulling a few horses over, but we have some nice ones who we think will be ideal for the racing down there.”

Appleby confirmed that the horses who are to be campaigned in Australia in the autumn would be prepared in Dubai.

“When we work out who we’re sending down for the autumn, they’ll be prepared in the warm weather in Dubai.”