Godolphin gear up for Champions Day under the watchful eye of Joe Osborne

How many horses do you need before you can hope to have three fancied runners on a £4m card like British Champions Day at Ascot? The answer, if the Godolphin experience is any guide, is 4,000. “That’s everything around the world, mares, foals, yearlings and racehorses,” says Joe Osborne, who took over as chief executive in June and has spent much of the intervening time travelling to see Godolphin bases in France, the US, Australia and Japan.

How on earth does one begin to manage the careers of so many animals, bearing in mind that the good ones must be identified by the time they’re two years old, or three at the absolute latest? “It’s about having good people managing them,” responds the unruffled Osborne, a 54-year-old Irishman with decades of experience in bloodstock, “and we’ve good people all the way through the ranks, every job that they do. Having good people makes it work. Once you have proper people and proper systems, everything else should fall into place.”

There were six Godolphin winners at Royal Ascot in the week Osborne’s appointment was announced, which did much to convince onlookers that Sheikh Mohammed’s team was doing plenty right. Equally, there are still those who feel it was a mistake for the organisation to lose the focus of its early years, when the all-blue silks were carried by a limited number of classy animals. Back in 1996, they had just 40 runners in Britain but won the 2,000 Guineas, the Eclipse, the Juddmonte International, the QEII and the Gold Cup among other fine races.

Osborne insists the focus remains as strong as ever on winning those top-class contests and suggests a broader base is needed in order to acquire the desired talent. “The pyramid of the thoroughbred globally is wide at the bottom and narrow at the top. That’s the way the business is. The percentage of Group One winners in the world is a very small one. Finding the very good ones is a challenge, that’s what makes it so intriguing for everyone.”

Distributing the good ones is also part of the challenge for Godolphin, a perceived unfairness on that front having led to the departure of Osborne’s predecessor, John Ferguson. Saeed bin-Suroor, one of the organisation’s two trainers in Newmarket, complained to the Racing Post that the two-year-olds he had been sent were all backward and had arrived months too late. Meanwhile, Charlie Appleby, Godolphin’s other trainer in the town, was having an outstanding year with the youngsters he had received.

As a result of that crisis, Godolphin no longer has an identifiable racing manager with responsibility for such matters. Ferguson had “racing manager” in his job description but Osborne does not and no appointment is planned.

“We’ve a team in place that do that,” Osborne says, “and we have processes in place to collate the information and make a decision. I don’t want to get into the specific inner workings of how it all fits together but the function is being done and we’ve got good dialogue with all our trainers all over the world.” The new system should mean that instant resignations are unlikely if a similar problem arises next year, though Obsorne does not express the thought in those terms.

He declines to discuss the circumstances of Ferguson’s departure but says his message to Godolphin staff around the world has been one of reassurance, “that Sheikh Mohammed remains as committed as ever to this game”. He describes his new post as “a huge honour” after 24 years working for the Sheikh in other roles. “It’s been incredibly enjoyable and very gratifying as well.”

Two policy changes in recent years appear to have helped Godolphin, starting with the decision to leave horses with their existing trainers when they buy animals that have already raced. Their three main runners at Ascot on Saturday, Harry Angel, Ribchester and Barney Roy, are all vindications for that decision.

Perhaps more important in the long run is the abandonment of the Sheikh’s decade-long boycott of Coolmore stallions. At recent sales, Godolphin has suddenly become an enthusiastic purchaser of the stock of the dominant stallion, Galileo. Osborne confines himself to saying: “We’ve been buying what we think are quality racing prospects at yearling sales and looking forward to having them next year.”

Having done quite so much international travel in his new role, Osborne must presumably be as much in need of a break as the horses who’ve been on the go since April. “No, not at all,” he protests. “I’m fit and healthy.” And he proved the point as recently as Sunday, running five miles along the Newmarket gallops as part of the Godolphin staff’s 1,000-mile challenge, in which 200 people raised money for the charity Racing Welfare. “So I’m not going to be intimidated by a bit of travel, now, I don’t think,” he laughs.

How much does today’s racing matter to the operation? “It’s end of season, so the horses that perform well there, it’s freshest in peoples’ minds. If it’s a colt’s last race or one of his last races, it certainly helps [when he goes to stud]. And any progeny of stallions that run well there, it seems to be remembered well, too. It’s a huge day.”

Saturday tips

Ascot 1.25 Desert Skyline 2.00 Quiet Reflection 2.40 Bateel 3.15 Beat The Bank (nb) 3.50 Cracksman (nap) 4.30 The Grape Escape

Catterick 1.50 Immortal Romance 2.25 Crotchet 2.55 Desert Ace 3.30 Tylery Wonder 4.05 Mr Sundowner 4.40 Showboating 5.10 Our Cilla

Market Rasen 1.10 Cabaret Queen 1.40 Not That Fuisse 2.15 Demon D’Aunou 2.50 Shrubland 3.25 Red Rising 4.00 Capitaine 4.35 Shake It Up 5.05 Grand Sancy

Ffos Las 2.10 Angels Antics 2.45 Eragon De Chanay 3.20 West Approach 3.55 Red Riverman 4.25 Clyne 5.00 Jonagold 5.35 Cereal Killer

Stratford 1.55 Sky Of Stars 2.30 Litterale Ci 3.00 Romain De Senam 3.35 Capeland 4.10 Wish In A Well 4.45 Desque De L’Isle 5.15 Mr One More 5.45 Sandy Cove

Wolverhampton 5.40 Connacht Girl 6.15 Kodicat 6.45 Master Singer 7.15 The Throstles 7.45 Navajo Star 8.15 Born To Reason 8.45 Joyful Dream 9.15 Haldaw