Notable Speech scoring the Grade 1, Rogers Woodbine Mile. (Michael Burns Photo)
Breeders’ Cup Closer Look
Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby is not a fan of failure, to say the least, so when he the master of Moulton Paddocks returns to the World Championships with a previous beaten favorite like Mile market leader Notable Speech (GB), the racing world takes note. A winner of 30 North American Grade 1 events—with a sparkling 11-for-27 (41%) Breeders’ Cup record—Appleby is bullish that the homebred son of Dubawi can make amends for a three-quarter-length third last year in the same affair.
“I think he’s coming in this year with more experience under his belt, being a year older, obviously—and you can’t beat the experience he has behind him,” said Appleby, who seeks his fourth Mile victory in five years and his fifth Breeders’ Cup win at Del Mar.
Notable Speech entered the 2024 Mile as a well-touted 3-year-old with authoritative victories in the Group 1 2,000 Guineas and Group 1 Sussex Stakes during the meat of his season before a disappointing final prep in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin over soft ground—all over either straight or right-handed courses. After last year’s Breeders’ Cup—his first over a tight, left-handed bend—Appleby designed a plan to have him that much more prepared for a second attempt.
“He’s taken on the best European and American horses and he’s had a nice prep there at Woodbine around the tight inner track—so he goes there in good order and with his head in front last time, which he deserved to,” he said. “The reason we went to Woodbine was to give him that much more experience on that kind of track, as well as to give him a little bit of confidence with a win immediately under his belt—and that’s what he got.”
This season commenced with two fourths in Group 1 company, the Lockinge and Queen Anne, beaten by just over 2 lengths. In the Lockinge, he was left with too much to do while ring-rusty and in the Queen Anne rider William Buick lost the whip inside the final furlong in what was a paceless, oddly-run race. He then returned to finish a 2¼-length fifth when cutting back to 6f in the Group 1 July Cup before flying home to just miss by a head in August’s Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois—an effort that hinted that he was coming back to his very best. He underlined that sentiment by handing the Woodbine Mile field its backside four weeks later in mid-September.
“He’s always impressed and pleased us at home, which gives you confidence, but to be honest, he’s not disappointed us on the track,” Appleby said. “Some of those runs, especially at Deauville and Royal Ascot—every run this season he has done well, especially as you break down the individual races. He was probably unlucky in the races he’s lost. Even when he ran in the July Cup, had the field not split and if he been covered up a little bit more and given a target, it would have been a different story.
“I think that the July Cup, as well as the typical way we train throughout the season has got him to this point,” Appleby concluded. “We go hard in the spring and then the summer comes for us and we target the Breeders’ Cup—so he is at his best at this time. He ticks every box and is ready for another crack at the Mile.”
Notable stats for Notable Speech: Appleby has brought three horses back for a second run in the Breeders’ Cup—all winners. Modern Games (IRE) returned a year after winning the Juvenile Turf to take the 2022 Mile; Master of The Seas (IRE) won the 2023 Mile two years after scratching at the gate of the 2021 edition; and Rebel’s Romance (IRE) won the 2024 Turf two years after his triumph in the same race.
