Patience and process: The reasons behind Godolphin’s outstanding Classic crop

Cover image courtesy of Godolphin

Green Spaces, Observer, Tentyris, Tempted, Beiwacht and Attica. Six Group 1 winners from one 3-year-old crop. Eight Group 1 races in a single season.

On the opening day of The Championships at Randwick, that depth was on full display. Godolphin had strength across the card, but had to wait until the final Group 1, the Australian Derby, to convert. Well-fancied runners Observer (Ghaiyyath {Ire}) and Tentyris (Street Boss {USA}) were undone by the conditions, leaving Bjorn Baker-trained Green Spaces (Street Boss {USA}) to deliver.

In doing so, the colt handed Godolphin just their second Australian Derby - and underlined exactly what this crop has become.

“Yesterday was great in the Derby, but also frustrating with a couple of other runners. That's just part of racing and we're glad that we can have the number of horses competing in those races and then luck plays its part,” Godolphin’s Woodlands Farm Manager John Sunderland said.

“That’s the thing we’ve learned. You’ve got to be patient. Every horse is judged when they finish racing, not on the day-to-day.

“We’ve been trying to breed a Derby winner for 23 years. This year, we've had our first one with Observer who was on fire in the Victorian Derby and had a bit of an off day with the track yesterday. Then we had Green Spaces win yesterday. So after a long time trying to breed one, we had two in the one year with two different horses. An absolutely fantastic result.”

A Derby 23 years in the making

More than just the two Derby’s, this season has been a massive one for the Royal Blue colours with the racing team winning 10 Group 1 races with eight horses. Six of those are 3-year-olds. Street Boss (USA)’s resurgence is leading a massive season for Godolphin’s 3-year-crop, responsible for dual Group 1-winning sprinter Tentyris, G1 Surround Stakes winner Tempted, and on Saturday, he added Green Spaces.

The other three top-flight 3-year-olds this season are G1 Victoria Derby and G1 Australian Guineas winner Observer, G1 Golden Rose winner Beiwacht (Bivouac), and G1 Spring Champion Stakes winner Attica (Lonhro),

Gallery: Six of Godolphin's leading 3-year-old crop.

“It's been a phenomenal crop. Sometimes you get that. Back in 2016, we had a similar crop of horses. We had a lot of runners in the Golden Slipper that year, then we won the Golden Rose with Bivouac and the Golden Eagle with Colette. They were all one crop, just spread out of three seasons. This time, we are doing it all in one year, which is great,” said John Sunderland.

This season, the older horses are doing well too with former good 3-year-old, now 5-year-old gelding, Tom Kitten (Harry Angel {Ire}) winning the G1 All-Star Mile for the second successive year to add to his G1 Spring Champion Stakes at three. Pericles (Street Boss {USA}) won the G1 Futurity Stakes, as well as his second G2 Tramway Stakes.

Having strong processes and a good team is the key

One point that Sunderland kept coming back to during the discussion was the holistic processes across the whole Godolphin operation, from the NSW farms at Woodlands and Kelvinside to the Victorian farm, then working with all their different trainers.

“It’s all about systems and processes. Some years you have really good years and other times you're scratching your head, but you've got to stay the course a little bit and not panic or worry about it. We are in it for the long haul,” said Sunderland.

“Some of those results are about that. Look at Outdoor (dam of Green Spaces). She was born and raised with us and here she is now as a Group 1-producing mare. She's a very intriguing mare, because she's out of a dual Oaks winner in Serenade Rose, which I guess where Green Spaces gets his stamina from. But her first foal was Trekking who won two Group 1s over six furlongs.”

Outdoor (Redoute’s Choice) won three times and is one of only three live foals for Champion 3YO Filly and triple Group 1 winner Serenade Rose (Stravinsky {USA}) whose other two foals were both stakes-placed.

Outdoor’s first foal was Trekking (Street Cry {Ire}) who won the G1 Goodwood Handicap and G1 Stradbroke Handicap as well as over $5.8 million. Her second foal, Winnie Star (Medaglia D’Oro {USA}) won the Listed Macau Derby Trial. She then had three more winners, including stakes-placed Plymstock (Ribchester {GB}) before Green Spaces.

Outdoor has a yearling colt by Pinatubo (Ire) and a colt weanling by Harry Angel (Ire). She was served by Traffic Warden in 2025.

“The breeding industry is a very intriguing industry. Sometimes you think you're on top of it, and then it just shows up to these anomalies,” Sunderland said, referring to how a mare who won over 1300 metres and 1400 metres can produce a dual Group 1-winning sprinter and a Derby winner.

The results are spread across two farms

Tentyris was foaled in Victoria, but raised at Woodlands, and he’s a typical example of how the system operates.

“We’ve always had a strong connection between both farms,” Sunderland said.

“We're really lucky to have both farms and both farms work very well together as does Kelvinside. From that point of view, it's just everybody working in together with the systems that we have in place. They haven't really varied that much. Fortunately, we have got great teams on all the farms and everyone's working in together to get results like yesterday.

“James Manning and his team down in Victoria do a fantastic job. The guys at Woodlands do a fantastic job and then they all come up and get broken in over at Kelvinside.”

Sunderland explained that the two farms work cooperatively with broodmares residing where the stallion they are set to be covered by is standing.

“If they are going to a stallion in New South Wales, they’ll come up here and vice versa, so it just depends on where the mare’s mating is. Pericles was born and raised in Victoria and so was Tom Kitten.”

When asked if there were climate similarities between this crop of 3-year-olds and the boom crop of 2016, Sunderland didn’t think so.

“We've had some fantastic years in other years too, like Anamoe was born in 2018. I don't think you can contribute too much to that sort of thing (climate), but we're very fortunate that we have got two farms that we can move between. If one's having a drought, or one is having floods which happens, then we've got the flexibility to move horses.

“I keep coming back to the processes and procedures in place and the people doing it and then you're producing good luck horses along the way. That's the end result because we're a breed to race operation, to try and produce stallions. That's ultimately what our business model is.”

Street Cry’s long term influence

With three of the six Group 1-winning 3-year-olds by Street Boss, a son of Street Cry (Ire), two others, Attica and Beiwacht, are both out of Street Cry mares. Only Observer, who is out of Lonhro mare Smooth, doesn’t have Street Cry in his pedigree.

“Street Boss has been a fantastic stallion. Tentyris started as one of the favourites in the TJ Smith after winning the Coolmore and the Lightning, and Tempted who won the Surround this year. Both were very good 2-year-olds and here they are running as 3-year-olds over sprint distances, and then he gets Green Spaces to come out as a Derby winner,” said Sunderland.

“He’s just across the whole board, he’s getting a quality of horse that can compete at the high level, but over different distances.”

Attica is the first foal of Savatiano (Street Cry {Ire}) who won 12 races for trainer James Cummings and Godolphin, including five Group 2 races. Beiwacht is the second stakes winner, after Listed winner Gravina (Sebring), for Metastasio (Street Cry {Ire}) who won the Listed Chairman’s Stakes at two for trainer Peter Snowden and Godolphin.

“Street Cry's been a great stallion for us. He’s obviously sired Street Boss and as far as the mares go, he’s been outstanding. He’s a very influential stallion.

“Street Boss has really clicked with that Danehill line. Anamoe is out of a Redoute’s Choice mare, as is Green Spaces, then you’ve got Tentyris and Tempted who are both out of Exceed And Excel mares. And we’ve got plenty of that (Danehill) here. It’s exciting to have a horse like Anamoe going to stud and doing such a good job with his foals and yearlings. There’s a lot of excitement there for his future.

“Tentyris will be coming along at some stage, right? Hopefully it's a little while off yet.”

With 88 stakes winners under his belt, Street Boss is yet to make a mark as a sire of sires but his sons at stud are largely all from the second half of his career, led by Anamoe and Traffic Warden at Darley, and Hanseatic at Rosemont Stud.

Making stallion prospects

The whole system at Godolphin feeds into the stallion barn at Darley who stood 14 stallions across their Victorian and NSW farms in 2025.

“This season, the racing has been really fantastic as we've had so many colts and by various stallions. In other years where the girls are the predominant ones who are winning the big races, we hope that they will go on like Savatiano and be the mother of the Group 1 winners,” said Sunderland.

Tempted is the sole filly among the six Group 1-winning 3-year-olds, and she’s out of Calliope (Exceed And Excel) who produced Group 2 winner Kallos (Medaglia D’Oro {USA}) with her first foal and has exciting Group 2-placed 2-year-old Zambales (Pinatubo {Ire}) also on track this season. Calliope won the G3 Magic Night Stakes at two.

“She's been a really good producer for us. Calliope was very good race for herself, a daughter of Exceed And Excel, and a stakes winning filly herself, and she's produced Tempted, who literally could be anything.

“We've got a mare like Dazzler, who's the dam of Bivouac and Corruscate. He’s been a phenomenal young stallion for us has Bivouac, to get a Group 1 winner like Beiwacht in his first crop.” Dazzler (More Than Ready {USA}) won her first two starts at two, and is a half-sister to Group 1 winner Guelph (Exceed And Excel) and Group 2-winning sire Ghibbellines.

“We’ve got diversity (in our pedigrees). I know Australia loves speed, but it's not just about speed. There's a lot of races in that mile to middle distance bracket that certainly has a lot of appeal, particularly with fillies as they are racing over a longer period of time.

“It’s important to get new blood too, like Ghaiyyath and Too Darn Hot who have both been outstanding. The pedigrees are very important.

“Physicals are one thing but we're not selling. Anamoe was an outstanding looking horse and Tempted is beautiful, but then, Green Spaces took his time, but he's now starting to develop into a wonderful racehorse and fill out himself and he'll end up being a beautiful horse when he's finished.”

Commercially driven but not for the sales

There’s an interesting dichotomy with Godolphin and Darley. As a farm who only breed to race, and not to sell as yearlings, they can make choices that might not work in the commercial sales ring. But they aren’t removed completely from understanding the market, because they stand stallions who need to be commercially viable in the sales ring to support the clients who utilise them.

“We’re lucky that we’re not commercially driven to have to get horses ready for the sale, so we can give them the time to mature. It goes against the whole commercial side of things, but some of our best horses have been born quite late. Anamoe was a late foal, as was Bivouac, even going back to when Lonhro was born,” said Sunderland.

“Colette was also a very late foal. But we can afford to do that because we are not commercially driven and it teaches you a lot about producing racehorses. Their birthday definitely doesn't decide whether they race.”

Lonhro was born on December 10, 1998, and first raced as a 2-year-old on 18 November 2000 when second on debut, before he’d reached his birth date. Anamoe, born on November 16, was fifth on debut as an October juvenile, before winning the Listed Merson Cooper Stakes two days before he reached his second birthday.

Colette (Headwater), who won the G1 Australian Oaks and G1 Empire Rose Stakes, was born on November 29. She didn’t race at two. Bivouac, like Lonhro, ran second on debut before he’d reached two whole years of existence, having been born on November 4, but debuting on October 20. He won a Listed race in the autumn and the G1 Golden Rose at three, adding two more Group 1 wins after that.

“You're not pushing the horses, it’s more about letting the horses do their thing. Commerically, when standing stallions, these horses have got to have 2-year-old form, like Tentyris and Broadsiding, and then they train on to be great three and 4-year-olds.

“Most people will tell you that the good horses have shown something at two, that doesn’t mean they are winning the Slipper, but they've obviously shown something. It's just having the patience not push them too hard when they don't need it, and that results in getting more longevity. And we are reaping the rewards with our current 3-year-olds.

“It comes back to systems and process. They are all getting reared the same way. Jason Walsh our racing manager, deserves credit for this, and the whole team. Andy Makiv, our new director, everyone. There’s a lot of team work that goes on in the background, from matings all the way through. It’s about trusting those process and looking at the horse and going from there.

“We're very fortunate that we work for a guy who's very passionate. Our principal Sheikh Mohammed is very passionate about what we do. Patience is an important part of the whole process and not changing things up too much and sticking the course.”