Appleby so sure Notable Speech would be right by his side

You cannot keep a good man down, as the saying goes, and in the case of Charlie Appleby the dark days were never going to last long.

It was business as usual at the beginning of the season for the Moulton Paddocks handler, with the Craven meeting providing a typical conveyor belt of winners quickly followed by Opera Ballo’s statement win in the first all-star mile clash at Sandown.

However, both the Guineas – so often dominated on home soil – and Derby trial season have come and gone with the disappointments stacking up and no Epsom contenders to champion. If not quite distress signals coming from the Godolphin corner of British racing’s heartland, than maybe one or two jitters.

However, when needed most Appleby always had a trump card up his sleeve, a horse who had been there and done it on the domestic and international stage and one fully primed to prove the ace in a stacked Lockinge deck of cards.

Fortune has sometimes deserted the supremely talented Notable Speech. But when Appleby asked for a favour in the the early summer sun of Newbury, the 2004 2000 Guineas hero was there to provide it.

Appleby said: “It’s been a tough couple of weeks, but you just have to keep a steady hand. The horses looked well and I was always confident it would turn around. I said to the team ‘don’t change anything, it’s worked for 15 years so let’s stick to the plan’.

“It’s a sign of weakness if you start worrying. I never change things and I always say to the team what we’ve always done, don’t change it, it’s always worked and it’s a model we know.

“When you run horses in these trials sometimes horses aren’t good enough and are finding their level and of course it was lovely to have those winners (double at Newmarket on Friday) to springboard into this weekend, but it wouldn’t have overly worried me if we hadn’t.

“I knew this horse was 110 per cent ready and he’s come out and done the job.”

If Appleby is the unflappable figurehead of the operation, then loyally by his side is William Buick, equally cool, equally proven on the biggest stage and someone with zero doubt the good days would soon emerge from the gloom.

Buoyed by the confidence instilled from his long-time boss, the 37-year-old headed to post full of belief in a horse who may have provided Guineas glory and Breeders’ Cup brilliance but has also given the jockey the occasional nightmare with his tendency to prove a hostage to fortune.

Buick added: “It’s a great team and a privilege to be part of. Charlie is a great trainer and a great man and I’m very privileged to be in the position I’m in.

“There’s a lot of ammunition at Charlie’s and this is one of our headline horses. He’s a Guineas winner coming to a Lockinge at five and he’s an old pro now.

“We expected him to win and nothing has ever wavered from that. Everyone was delighted with him at home and Charlie was giving me nothing but confident vibes, so I came here with no reason to think otherwise.

“We had two winners yesterday and this lad has done his job today, it’s a long season ahead and Charlie is a top trainer.

“We’ve been together now for quite a long time and I would like to think we know each other well. I must say I enjoy every day I work for Charlie and he deserves a lot of credit for this win today.”