Kind Of Blue, Lazzat and the ill-fated Fallen Angel – more of which later – have done their bit to keep the momentum going at the very top level alongside a veritable blizzard of winners at the biggest meetings.
Yet James Doyle is not happy. Not entirely. The amiable, eloquent 38-year-old is smiling as usual, but there is a sense when their number one rider points out they have yet to land a winner at Group One level in Europe so far this year that it stings a little. In 2023 and 2024 they won one and in 2025 they won four.
With nights drawing in and the European calendar beginning to wind down, time and volume may not be on their side, with just six more Group Ones to go in England this season – five on British Champions Day and the Futurity at Doncaster – and three in France.
“We obviously want to be more successful at the top level,” says Doyle. “We had a number of Group One winners last year, but we are yet to have that Group One winner this year.
“Division has been unfortunate having hit the crossbar a couple of times. With a bit more luck in running he could have been a two-time Group One winner this year, in the Commonwealth Cup and the Maurice de Gheest. But that is the one thing that is missing this year.”
Wathnan have pursued a highly-acquisitive model since their inception. It is a strategy that has seen them grow, as well as build year-on-year, with five Pattern-race wins in 2023, 13 in 2024, 25 last year and 23 so far this season.
Doyle has been a key component since year two. After nine years with Godolphin, the last six when number two to William Buick, the Newmarket-born jockey signed up in October 2023, sold by a vision of a team that would one day put the operation at the forefront of international racing alongside the likes of Godolphin and Coolmore.
“I was in a good position, but I was a No.2 driver if you want to put it that way. I was always at the behest of either William (Buick) getting suspended or picking the wrong one or getting injured to have a crack at the best,” he says.
“And to be honest the vision as it was put to me by Richard Brown (racing adviser for Wathnan) was that he had been asked to organise a racing team the Emir of Qatar could be proud of and which would obviously grow year on year.
“We are three years down the line, we have 350 horses on the books and a number of Group One winners and a lot of exciting horses. We kind of do it differently because we are purchasing the bulk of our winners in order to find Classic winners, which can be difficult.
“But we have a number of broodmares and we are starting to breed our own horses so the wheels are in motion. We also bought a number of yearlings from Book 1 last year and they are late-developing types, so it will be interesting to see how they get on when they get to the track.”
On that score ParisLongchamp on Arc weekend was a tough place to be for the entire operation after the devastating loss of Fallen Angel, who was fatally injured in the Prix Daniel Wildenstein. The five-year-old was to have been a key building block for the future breeding operation.
A Group One winner on Champions Day, with Gregory, Paborus and Kind Of Blue all holding decent chances, would keep the totals building and bring some smiles back to the faces of both the team and Doyle.
Choosing between Kind Of Blue and Paborus, who both appear bound for the Qatar Racing British Champions Sprint Stakes, will not be easy for Doyle, who has on a few occasions been on the wrong one – a fact not lost on his friends in the weighing room.
“At Royal Ascot this year I only rode one of the winners and picked wrong three times,” explained Doyle. “I can generally see these headaches coming because we’ve got the winner then we buy another horse and we suddenly have two live bullets.
“It is difficult and I get plenty of stick off the boys in the weighing room as well, ‘Jeez who is picking your rides’, and things like that.
“Crucially I don’t think it affects my confidence though. We had a good week at Royal Ascot and we had plenty run well. It is a tough week in general and I have more than enough experience of going to that meeting, so picking one wrong doesn’t affect my confidence whatsoever.
“Ryan (Moore) is in the same predicament and he rode the wrong one in the 1000 Guineas in England and the 1,000 Guineas in Ireland. And they are trained in the same stable. With ours often coming from different stables it makes for some tricky decisions.”
The decisions may be more straightforward than Doyle would like in the Group Ones from now until the end of the current European season, with Gregory perhaps Doyle’s most likeliest candidate in the Qatar Racing Long Distance Cup, at least on this side of the Channel.
Gregory was Wathnan’s first Group winner in the Queens’ Vase, making virtually all under Frankie Dettori to land the Group Two a day before Courage Mon Ami announced the silks at the top table.
It would be nice symmetry should the now six-year-old Gregory under Doyle ensure the progress remains headed for the stars back at the same track on Saturday.