Godolphin jockey James Doyle looks back on his Newmarket Guineas double on Coroebus and Cachet – in his own words
Godolphin stalwart James Doyle finally made his British Classic breakthrough at the weekend in sensational fashion as he landed a memorable Guineas double at Newmarket.
After a couple of near-misses in the past, Doyle partnered Charlie Appleby-trained Coroebus to beat his stablemate, the hot favourite Native Trail, in the Qipco 2000 Guineas before an all-the-way success 24 hours later on George Boughey’s Cachet in the fillies’ equivalent, the 1000 Guineas. Here the 34-year-old reflects on an amazing weekend.
It’s incredible, isn’t it? It just feels like a complete blur and whirlwind. It’s amazing how hard the Classics are to get, so for two to come along like they have and so smoothly as well, I couldn’t have wished for things to have gone as well as they did.
To have these big crowds back and to feel the racing atmosphere like it once was is just incredible and it reminds me of something that my mother has always said to me – I remember winning on Cityscape, which was my first big winner in the Dubai Duty Free, she didn’t feel that I quite took in everything. That’s why I just took myself off on my own on Coroebus when I pulled up just to have a moment to really reflect on it.
I’ve ridden some big winners around the world but I’ve never felt a feeling like that. The closest to the atmosphere that I’d felt before that was probably Big Orange’s victory in the Gold Cup which was an incredible day, but it was very close to that if not a touch better.
The 2000 Guineas has always been something that’s always annoyed me, looking at replays over and over again of Kingman’s Guineas, Barney Roy’s Guineas. They were as good as their generation at this stage, but they both fell short through no fault of their own but a victim of circumstances, i.e. draw biases and how the races unfolded.
I was a bit emotional pulling up as I couldn’t believe the way it worked out. It has been a tough couple of years. I’ve had good opportunities on Hurricane Lane in the Arc and things like that but it just hasn’t worked out for whatever reason, so you have a few years on the sidelines a bit when you have previously had a good time of getting to feel what it is like to win these big races, and when you don’t for a little while it does frustrate you a little bit.
When you do feel it again it is incredible; that was probably why I got quite emotional, actually. William [Buick] is a great friend of mine and I think he would have known this meant a lot. He came up and said: “You deserve that one, well done.” He sees the work we both put in the mornings and we have been best mates and competitors for a long time and he can sense I get frustrated when I see him riding all these good horses.
After Adayar won the Derby I thought, “Oh Christ - this is so tough to get on the right one!” I remember Charlie rang me afterwards and said: “We are just starting to get the hang of this so don’t worry, sit tight and it will all be fine.” He was dead right.
He is an incredible man to work for and it is so enjoyable going into Moulton Paddocks four days a week and getting to know these horses and being part of this incredible team.
Full credit to Charlie. He’s an incredible man and an incredible man to work for. It’s honestly a privilege to work for him and to ride a 2000 Guineas winner. It’s a privilege to be a part of what’s happening at the minute, it really is.
The main thing speaking to William was that he [Coroebus] has been very relaxed in his work but the first run of the year you always have to watch that they don’t want to do too much too early and from that draw my only worry was getting left without any cover.
There was just one moment where it looked like I could be caught on a wing and he was quite fresh early on. I was a little bit worried but no sooner did we go a couple of strides I just had to bring him back slightly just to make sure I could get him but after going for half a furlong I was pretty happy.
He still slightly travelled a little bit stronger than was ideal and I had to fetch him back a couple of times but he just warmed into the race so easily I could have afforded to sit for a bit longer. Ryan [Moore, on Luxembourg] came a bit quick on my outside and I kind of had to go for it then.
If that didn’t come then he’d have been much more impressive but we were going a little bit on what we saw at the back end of last year at Newmarket. You’re banking on potential he showed that day but by God he’s got potential all right. I have to say the turn of foot he showed there was incredible.
There is no reason to believe he won’t improve from today as he was quite exuberant through the early part of the race. I think had Ryan not joined me and forced my hand to go early, I could have afforded to be even cheekier and he would have won even more impressively. I just asked him a couple of questions going into the dip and he responded incredibly and he hit the line great and showed a potent turn of foot.
I rode Cachet a couple of times last year and she was Group 1 placed in the Fillies’ Mile. George [Boughey] and I were talking about it beforehand, she seems to be much stronger this year although that last half a furlong took forever.
I was praying for the line but she’s all guts and she loves this track. She really puts the race to bed between the three and the two and we were clinging on late on.
I really just got the chance to enjoy today. We knew she kind of wears her heart on her sleeve and knows this track inside out, so I felt as long as we could get those cheap sectionals midway – which it felt like we’d got – I could be brave and let her use her stride into the dip.
She goes through it so well that it’s almost like she eyes it up from a way out and she really lets rip through it, so it was just a case of hoping she’d hang on to the line. As we know the mile was a little bit too far for her last year but George certainly thought that she’d developed enough through the winter that she’d hit the line much better than she did as a two-year-old and it came just in time.
Obviously I lost the ride on her. I rode her a couple of times in the backend of last year and she went to America and quite understandably the owners wanted to use an American jockey and it was great to see her run a great race. I was looking forward to riding her in her trial and obviously it didn’t work out but it’s the way things go and I’ve been lucky enough to jump back on her and it’s just amazing really.
I knew what she could do but it was just how she would see out the mile as a three-year-old. George has trained her to absolute perfection and she’s hit the line when she needed to. I was thinking that something was going to pick me up any second and my dreams would be over but thankfully she’s so tough and she was well seasoned as a two-year-old, which I think stood her in really good stead.
I was thinking that perhaps Silvestre [de Sousa] on Flash Betty in stall one would be leading us and when we popped out he wasn’t there and I was quite happy to do our own thing and nobody really tackled me through the mid-part of the race – so it just worked out absolutely beautifully really.
A special thank you to George – obviously he has a young, growing team but he’s doing amazing things and I think he’s a name we’ll be hearing a lot about in the future.
My mother has been on the path with me and has seen the struggles I had to go through. She can relate and feel the things I go through and she has been a great mentor to me throughout my career.
She flew back from America against my sister’s [Sophie’s] wishes – who is pregnant and is due in July – but my mother said James has got a good chance in the Guineas and I’m not missing that for the world so she flew back especially a couple of days ago. She flew to Dubai the night Cityscape won the Dubai Duty Free and she met me off the track and it was the same story [after the Guineas].
I started off as an amateur when I was 16 and still in school – I remember doing one of my French GCSE exams and I had to run around the corner to the racetrack afterwards!
It’s very funny how things work out. This game is a hard one in that sometimes it can be so ruthless and it can be tough on you and other times when the cards fall in the right direction, they fall in your favour. It would be great to do the quintuple but you can’t be too greedy, can you?
• Visit the Godolphin website and the George Boughey stable website
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