Appleby Making Gulfstream Park Debut with Nations Pride

International Trainer to Saddle Favorite in $1M Pegasus Turf

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – A slew of numbers on globetrotting Nations Pride’s resume leave no doubt why he is the 2-1 morning-line favorite in the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1) presented by Qatar Racing Saturday at Gulfstream Park.

• There are the 10 victories in 19 career starts
• Four of those wins have come in Grade 1 events
• A total of 15 finishes in the top three during his career with Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby
• His purse earnings of $3,445,554 is by far the best in the full field of 12 scheduled to compete in the seventh edition of the 1 1/8-mile race
• A record of versatility. Gulfstream will be the 14th track the 6-year-old homebred will race over as he starts his fifth season.

Nations Pride and regular rider William Buick will leave from Post 7. Buick and Appleby are flying to South Florida from Dubai following the Friday card at Meydan. It will be Appleby’s first visit to Gulfstream Park. Nations Pride arrived at Gulfstream on Saturday after being flown from England and going through quarantine.

With victories in four of his first five starts, Nations Pride climbed the competitive ladder and advanced to the Epsom Derby (G1) in June 2022. He was a well-beaten eighth in that classic race and has not competed in Europe since. A victory in the Saratoga Derby Invitational (G1) two months after the Epsom Derby was the first stop on the road for Godolphin’s traveling man.

“He's always shown a good level of ability, progressing from 2 to 3 and from there on, he sort of progressed throughout his career,” Appleby said. “We found that the conventional tracks, the flat tracks of America and Dubai, suited him. So that's why he's mainly been internationally campaigned, really.”

Six weeks after the Saratoga success, he won the Jockey Club Derby (G3) at Aqueduct and went on to complete his 3-year-old season with a fifth in a troubled trip as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1). His stablemate, Rebel’s Romance, was the winner.

Since then, Nations Pride has raced in Dubai, Germany, at Woodbine in Canada, Bahrain, Aqueduct, Saratoga Race Course and at Colonial Downs, where he won the 1¼-mile Arlington Million (G1) in August. A second visit to Bahrain in November for the $1 million International Trophy produced another rare off-the-board finish – he was 20½ lengths back – and confirmed that he isn’t a horse for every course.

“It's there for everyone to see now that twice we've been to Bahrain [and] we've gone right-handed he's been beaten. So, he's definitely a left-handed horse,” Appleby said. “There's no doubt about that. Obviously, we need to stay where that suits us on the American program.”

Nations Pride usually competes in slightly longer events than the nine furlongs of the Pegasus World Cup Turf, but Appleby said the horse should be effective at that distance, too. Appleby is adding cheek pieces to his equipment to help keep him more focused.

“He's always traveled well throughout his races,” Appleby said. “We are coming back into it, but we just felt that when he won the Arlington you'd have to say that he traveled well there and he had the race covered. If you'd stop the clock there a furlong out or half a furlong shorter, or whatever it may be there, he’d have won comfortably then as well.

“Trip wise, it's not a concern. But, do I think we're as effective over that trip to going a mile and a quarter or a mile and a half?” he added. “I think 10 furlongs is probably his most ideal trip if you want to pigeonhole him into something like that, but I see no reason why the nine should be an inconvenience.”

Though Nations Pride has won on courses rated good and yielding, Appleby said he considers the horse to be more effective over firm ground.

Appleby had a bigger presence in North American racing in 2024 than past years. According to Equibase statistics he compiled a record of 14-14-14 from a career-high 59 starts. All of the wins were in graded stakes. He said it is a little too early yet to forecast how involved his Godolphin stable will be on this continent this season.

“Our American season or team will be sort of built around what develops in Dubai during the winter there, now, over the next coming months there,” Appleby said. “Those horses are predominantly horses that I will look toward potentially putting on an American program, obviously, because the style of training and the racing is similar to America what we see in Dubai. That will be structured accordingly over the course of the next eight weeks, anyway.”

Based on his success the past three seasons, Nations Pride figures to be on Godolphin’s American team again, but Appleby said he has not made developed a schedule of races for the horse.

“To be honest, we would just take it sort of race by race to be able to get to that,” Appleby said. “I’m not saying ‘at his age,’ making it sound like he's an old horse. We’re just at the stage of his career now we take it race by race and we’ll see. Like dropping back to the nine furlongs there on Saturday, that might sort of make us look to come back any further after this race. We won't know those answers until we've ran. I've got no solid future plans for him, just literally take it at one race at a time.”