“I’m just super-relieved, really,” Oisin Murphy said after winning the 1,000 Guineas on Mawj here on Sunday. For slightly different reasons, the winning trainer’s primary emotion was probably much the same.
Murphy, Flat racing’s champion jockey for three seasons running until 2021, is finding his way back to the top of the sport after a 14-month ban ruled him out in 2022. Saeed bin Suroor, by contrast, is a former champion who has never been away, but has effectively been forced to watch from the sidelines in recent years as Charlie Appleby, who also trains exclusively for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation, has turned out one champion after another.
