There is not a jockey anywhere who would not have been caught up in the excitement and atmosphere of Royal Ascot. I found it interesting and educational to see how His Highness Sheikh Mohammed's racing and breeding operation works and prepares for such a big occasion.
There is not a jockey anywhere who would not have been caught up in the excitement and atmosphere of Royal Ascot. Just to be there was a privilege, and in my role with Godolphin these days, I found it interesting and educational to see how His Highness Sheikh Mohammed's racing and breeding operation works and prepares for such a big occasion.
It was not my first time at the Royal meeting. I rode a Hong Kong horse called Happy Zero for John Moore in 2010. He failed to handle Ascot's undulations and finished 22nd in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes. But it gave me a real taste for the meeting.
I have been visiting from Australia over the past 10 days. The purpose of the visit has been to acquaint myself with the training methods adopted here, and to see how the whole business works in the UK. I have spent time with Saeed bin Suroor and Charlie Appleby at Newmarket, seeing how the stables are organised, watching gallops, observing the different ways to get a horse ready for the big day.
I have been assistant to trainer John O'Shea in Sydney for just over 12 months. These days, we have some good horses coming over from Europe, so it is interesting and important to see their training regime here.
For me, it has been a real eye-opener, a great education. In Europe, all training is done off the racecourse. In Australia, most training takes place on the racetrack itself, and this leads to a different style of training.
At Godolphin in Sydney, we have an excellent private training facility at Osborne Park, a 45-minute drive out of the city, but we also have scores of horses stabled and trained on the racetrack at Warwick Farm. We will often switch a horse from one place to the other, depending on what suits the horse at the time.
Australian racing is all about speed. You find that horses know exactly what they have to do when they get to the home turn in a race because they have been taught in their work to accelerate when they reach the bend. They step up a gear.
When riding for John Moore in Hong Kong (which is very Australian in its style of racing), I found a lot of horses from England and Ireland quickly adapted. They had been trained up stiff hills previously, but they quickly changed when prepared on a flat track. They could be trained to quicken.
I am a great believer in the saying "When in Rome..." The style of the racing, whether it be England, France, Australia or wherever, usually dictates how they train and race.
I was lucky enough to ride for Bart Cummings, the greatest trainer of stayers in Australia. Bart has trained 12 Melbourne Cup winners, and that has been achieved on the track.
At Godolphin, we are really looking forward to the new season in Australia, which starts on August 1. We had 30 individual two-year-old winners this season, so we have plenty of talent in store for the big three-year-old races ahead in the forthcoming Southern Hemisphere spring.
The imports, Contributer, Hartnell and It's Somewhat, all did extremely well for us since coming Down Under, and they can again play a big role for us in weight-for-age races.
From my visit to look at the Godolphin operation in the UK, the one over-riding point that stands out is that the horse comes first. Everything possible is done to cater for the horse.
I am now looking forward to the next stage of my trip, a four-day visit to Dubai. I feel very fortunate to have experienced first-hand the racing in the UK, and the magnificent Royal Ascot week, and I take back to Australia some great memories.
Darren Beadman was one of Australia's greatest jockeys before injury forced his retirement from the saddle three years ago. He won 7 Sydney jockeys' titles, two Melbourne Cups, and was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall Of Fame in 2007. He is now employed by Godolphin as assistant trainer to John O'Shea, based in Sydney.
