Horse Racing: Electrocutionist to Counter Shock Start

There is millions of pounds' worth of horseflesh in residence at Godolphin stables in Newmarket, the British base of the world's most ambitious ownership project. Walk into the main office, though, and you would never guess. Where most trainers have worn carpet, piles of paperwork and dog-eared copies of the Racing Calendar, Godolphin has a huge, bright, glass-clad lobby that would do credit to a company with a FTSE listing. If it was conceived as a statement of intent, a sign that Godolphin approaches international racing with corporate rigour, it works.

But if the presentation at their showpiece facility seems impossibly smart and slick, Godolphin's performance on the track in Britain so far this season has been anything but. The royal blue silks have a typically impressive strike-rate of 25 % in this country, and just over 28% as a whole in 2006. In terms of Group One winners, however, the European season has yet to yield any success.

If there is a race to have on the horizon at a time like this, though, it is surely the King George at Ascot, a race that Godolphin has won five times before.

And this year's renewal arrives at the precise moment when Godolphin seems to be shaking off its torpor, with six winners from its last 16 starters. Electrocutionist, whose victory in the Dubai World Cup in March is their sole Group One in 2006, will line up for them at Ascot on Saturday, along with a pacemaker to ensure a decent gallop for their No 1 runner.

Simon Crisford, Godolphin's racing manager throughout its 12-year history, is sitting in an office which could comfortably accommodate a tennis court, and adopting - as ever - a positive outlook.

"The horses are definitely running better now than they were a few weeks ago," he says. "Certainly, when we got back from Dubai, the horses were completely out of sorts, bang out of form, but they appear to have turned the corner.

"We don't really know why it happened, and it was obviously an awkward time of the year for us. But the main thing is that Godolphin is not just about today, tomorrow or yesterday. You can't look at a six-week period in our short life and think that everything rests on it. We take a much broader outlook, and hopefully our stable will be active all the way through until December."

Electrocutionist finished second behind Ouija Board in the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot, when Godolphin was still stuck in second gear, and is confidently expected to improve on that form when he returns to Berkshire on Saturday.

"The Dubai World Cup was a stunning performance," Crisford says, "but if you take the form on face value, it was on a different surface and he would still need to improve on it to beat Hurricane Run. But he's a good horse, and he's sharper and tighter than he was at Royal Ascot, so we're expecting a big run from him. He would remind us much more of a horse like Swain than he does of some of our other, really flamboyant winners of the King George. He's out of the same sort of mould. He's a grinder and a battler and very honest, but we just can't know whether he can find that little bit extra that will be required on Saturday."

Whatever the result this weekend, Crisford insists that morale at Godolphin remains unflaggingly high.

"We judge our success on Group Ones, and on that basis we're falling short this year. We could have rushed the horses on to the track early on to try and counter the problems, but we said no, we have to be patient, because we always do what's right for the horses. Godolphin is a moving thing, it's evolving and changing, and it will change again in the future.

"There is no business on the planet that doesn't have a few hurdles along the way. Everything going swimmingly well at all times just isn't how life is."

Court appeal for Fallon

Kieren Fallon will take his fight to ride in Britain to the high court today, when he attempts to overturn a ban imposed by the Horseracing Regulatory Authority pending his trial on a charge of conspiracy to defraud Betfair customers. Should the case be decided in his favour before Saturday, Fallon would be free to ride Hurricane Run in the King George at Ascot. If Fallon is absent, Christophe Soumillon will ride.