Godolphin Lifetime Care

Team Godolphin spans four continents, from our home in Dubai to Europe, Australia and America and has approximately 1,000 horses in training. Our royal blue silks have become famous within racing at the very highest level with a host of big wins, including more than 240 Group Ones in 12 different countries.

Our primary trainers, Saeed bin Suroor and Charlie Appleby, have their home bases in Dubai and train from there during the winter months and at the historic Newmarket yards of Godolphin Stables and Moulton Paddocks throughout the British summer.

More information on Team Godolphin.

On arrival

When yearlings arrive from pre-training, they are allowed time to acclimatise to their new surroundings before embarking on a gentle training regime with their new trainers. Their progress is very carefully monitored; not only by their trainers who watch them exercise everyday but also by their jockeys and the team of stable staff who look after them. Like all top athletes, nothing is left to chance and everyone is committed to helping them reach their full potential. They experience a range of specialist treatments and equipment including swimming and seawater therapy and treadmills.

Routine

Their daily routine starts early, with breakfast and individual health checks before exercise and any treatments. Afterwards, they have time to relax and if the weather is good will be turned out to paddock for a while. They follow a carefully monitored diet and are fed three times a day.

Soon after arrival they will be doing one canter a day and this will progress to two canters twice a week over five furlongs. The distance they will end up racing over is influenced by their breeding and we reflect this in their exercise programmes with the more precocious types undergoing a more rigorous routine while the quieter ones are given more time to mature.

In the UK , when our horses are approaching being ready to race they will be transported by horsebox to another location, close by, for exercise. This gets them used to travelling and starts to prepare them for race day. If this experience worries a horse they may be taken to the racecourse for a practise, and walked around the pre-parade ring in order to familiarise themselves with the surroundings prior to being entered to run. They will also experience starting stalls as part of their pre-race training so that it is a familiar experience to them when they reach the racetrack.

Horses will travel to the racecourse with their own groom and a travelling head lad. If the racecourse in question is more than three hours away they will travel the day before and spend the night at the racecourse stables, if not they will travel on the day.

They will also experience starting stalls as part of their pre-race training so that it is a familiar experience to them when they reach the racetrack.

Differences around the world

In Australia, our horses undergo a similar training programme to the UK. The main difference is they also take part in Barrier Trials, which are a training race organised by the authorities in Australia. It is truly a practise race for young horses, as going to a Barrier Trial exposes them to what race day will be like. Familiarising a two-year-old horse with running in race-field-sized company helps the training process in a way that cannot be achieved in the morning. Also, a trainer may increase the workout intensity and is able to judge a horse’s fitness level in a low-pressure race setting.

Similar practices are carried out in Japan where all horses run under Sheikh Mohammed's name.

The peak of their careers

At the height of their racing careers, many of our horses will be competing in the most prestigious races around the world. They may also rest in different parts of the world depending on their trainers and programmes, meaning some of them get to travel quite a lot. We take great care in transporting our horses and have a fleet of specially equipped vehicles and aircraft enabling them to travel with the minimum discomfort and with full staff support. Whenever they arrive in new territories, they are given time to acclimatise before their training resumes.

A typical racing career spans about three years – from age two to five – at the end of which many of our horses retire to stud.