Godolphin Once more Sweeps Eclipse Proprietor, Breeder Titles
Godolphin continues to interrupt new floor as Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s worldwide racing and breeding operation celebrates for 2025 its fifth consecutive 12 months as winner of each the excellent breeder and excellent proprietor Eclipse Awards.Proprietor: Godolphin, 206; Spendthrift Farm, 7; Eclipse Thoroughbred Companions, 2; Bruno Schickedanz, 2; Susumu Fujita, 1; Klaravich Stables, 1; Voter Abstention, 1.Breeder:Â Godolphin, 212; WinStar Farm, 2; Aaron and Marie Jones, LLC, 1; Calumet Farm, 1; Don Alberto Company, 1; Northern Racing, 1; Tanma Company, 1; Voter Abstention, 1.
Based mostly in america at its Darley at Jonabell Farm close to Lexington, Godolphin is the primary entity to win the Eclipse excellent proprietor award for six consecutive years and the primary to win each proprietor and breeder honors in the identical 12 months for 5 consecutive years.Â
Underneath the names Godolphin and Darley, Sheikh Mohammed has earned a report 15 Eclipse trophies in these two classes. Godolphin additionally was excellent proprietor for 2012, 2009, and beneath the identify Darley Secure in 2006, when it shared the title with Lael Stables. Godolphin/Darley moreover received each classes in 2012.
“The awards are fairly completely different. There are an terrible lot of hurdles to recover from as a breeder, in order that makes it very significant,” stated Michael Banahan, Godolphin USA’s director of bloodstock. “You is usually a top-end proprietor with out having to tackle the long-term threat of growing a broodmare band, doing the matings, hoping that your foals come out wholesome and properly, elevating them for a few years, after which hoping that they develop the best way you need them to develop. Discuss to any breeder and it is most likely one of the troublesome issues to do, to get a horse on the high-end stage.”Join BloodHorse Each day
Within the 2025 season a complete of twenty-two black-type winners have been bred by Godolphin, together with 12 graded stakes winners that visited the winner’s circle sporting the racing steady’s distinctive blue silks. These graded stakes winners included Sovereignty , who reached one other milestone for Godolphin by changing into its first Kentucky Derby (G1) winner. Additionally amongst them was homebred Good Cheer , who delivered to Godolphin its second victory within the Kentucky Oaks (G1). Godolphin turned the primary proprietor/breeder since Calumet Farm in 1952 to win the Derby and Oaks in the identical 12 months.
Sovereignty nonetheless had extra to show. The homebred son of Into Mischief  out of the Bernardini mare Topped received 5 of six begins final 12 months, which included the Belmont (G1) and Travers (G1) stakes. His solely loss was a second within the Florida Derby (G1).Â
“We totally loved the Travers, it was such a dominant efficiency by him that day,” Banahan stated. “You can sit again and actually take pleasure in that final furlong of the race. The Derby and the Travers are the 2 races that might be very excessive on our checklist any 12 months to hopefully win.”
Sovereignty delivered a milestone for Corridor of Fame coach Invoice Mott, too, by changing into his first winner within the Midsummer Derby.Â
Going ahead, count on Godolphin to proceed being laser-focused on producing horses able to profitable on the largest phases worldwide.
“It would not make any distinction what sport you are in. In the event you’re a competitor and also you wish to problem your self to be the very best within the enterprise or the very best within the sport, there’s new challenges each single 12 months,” Banahan stated. “We have new crops coming by, and I do not suppose it ever will get outdated.
“The collective of the proprietor and the breeder awards, they’re probably the most significant ones on the market as a result of it isn’t resting on one famous person horse. It exhibits throughout the board that our steady is wholesome,” he continued. “We’re getting the correct horses with the correct trainers and competing in the correct races to achieve success. That is one thing that our entire group, all our employees, can take lots of delight in as a result of everyone seems to be concerned.”
