Sunday, 4 May 2025: Ruling Court denied the late charge of Field Of Gold for a Godolphin success in Saturday’s Group 1 2000 Guineas.

RULING COURT (centre, white cap) winning the 2000 Guineas Stakes at Newmarket in England.

Charlie Appleby  has enjoyed considerable success in the 2000 Guineas over the last few years, taking the race for the first time with Coroebus in 2022 before Notable Speech 's impressive victory on turf debut in 2024.

He came into the race double-handed – represented by wide-margin Meydan victor Ruling Court  and Champion Two-Year-Old Shadow Of Light , a back-to-back Group 1 winner at the end of last season. It was left to William Buick  to make the difficult choice, with the jockey siding with Ruling Court and Mickael Barzalona  booked to ride Shadow Of Light.

Purchased for 2.3 million euros at the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale, Ruling Court had been an impressive debut winner at Sandown as a juvenile, and lost little in defeat when third behind Derby hopeful The Lion In Winter in York's Group 3 Acomb Stakes. The son of Justify returned as a three-year-old with a wide-margin success in the Listed Jumeirah 2000 Guineas during the Dubai Racing Carnival, and came into the 2000 Guineas with the benefit of race-fitness over the majority of the field.

There was little pace in the early stages, and it was up to the Saeed bin Suroor-trained Tornado Alert to take the lead for the first half of the race. As the field entered the Dip, Ruling Court began to make eye catching headway from the near-side rear and hit the front alongside stablemate Shadow Of Light, who had been making similar progress on the far side. The pair battled for the final furlong, before Field Of Gold  came with a sweeping late run to separate the Godolphin duo, finishing half-a-length behind Ruling Court at the line.

Appleby said: "I could spend all day here thanking everybody but everyone knows what they've done. Each year it gets harder. It was a great race coming into it. John's (Gosden) horse (Field Of Gold) there looked great and the way he won the Craven, he was the horse we all had to beat.

"It's been hard for William. It's a tough call to get off a champion two-year-old (Shadow Of Light) but the team have done a great job and I feel we've all collectively got our heads together and got the right people on the right horses.

"Mickael's (Barzalona, jockey) given the other horse a great ride as well and to have a horse like him who finished the way he did, it'll be interesting to see what Mickael's got to say.

"The mile was just that question mark. Has he run better than I thought he would? No, I wouldn't have run him otherwise! Most importantly it's great for His Highness Sheikh Mohammed and Team Godolphin. He was a purchased horse as we know but Justify is a sire we saw a bit of last year and we felt that ought to be involved as well and he's been an exciting horse since we purchased him."

Ruling Court is entered for the Derby in June and has earnt quotes of 12/1 from Paddy Power for the Triple Crown.

"People are obviously going to ask about him being the only horse we've entered in the Derby but most importantly we're going to enjoy today and let the dust settle and try and formulate a plan as to whether we stick to that Derby route," added Appleby.

"I'd be confident that we will do, hopefully, but they're the kind of decisions that we'll make collectively.

"When you watched them walk round the paddock he's got the High Chaparral (damsire), he's got that sort of length to him that you can see him as a Derby horse and that's what we had our minds on during the course of the winter. Shadow of Light - I haven't had the chance to chat with Mickael properly but the connections have come up to me and mentioned that he thought he saw the mile out there, so he's going to be a fun horse for the summer and ultimately he'll probably go to the St James's Palace.

"Hand on heart, you don't come into these races undercooked but I do think he'll actually come forward again, dare I say it, for this run and we'll have some nice healthy discussions about Ruling Court and potential Derby plans."