Continuing Godolphin reshuffle brings jockey Barzalona’s exit

Barzalona's ouster follows departures of long-tenured racing manager Simon Crisford and jockey Frankie Dettori

Mickael Barzalona rides Addictive Dream in the Specialist Bank ‘Dash’ on Derby Day at the Epsom Derby Festival, in Surrey, southern England, on June 7, 2014. Carl Court / AFP

The changes at Godolphin just keep on coming. In the latest twist, Mickael Barzalona will leave Moulton Paddocks in Newmarket, where he stuck it out during the Mahmood Al Zarooni doping crisis, and return to France.

Barzalona becomes the latest to leave the international racing operation of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

It was a move long overdue. Barzalona will be taken back under Andre Fabre’s wing, from where he emerged onto the world stage in 2011 when he won the English Derby on Pour Moi.

His wildly euphoric celebration of standing up fully in his irons metres from the line was a mixture of youthful exuberance, sheer talent and the confidence that Fabre had drummed into him.

It was a trick he repeated when he won the Dubai World Cup on Monterosso in 2012, but there has been no time since then that Barzalona has been even half as jubilant.

His ride on Pour Moi was perfect in that his mount enjoyed being ridden from off the pace, an aspect of jockeyship at which Barzalona excels.

Far from being a signature of his riding style, the late flourish seems to have consumed Barzalona. He increasingly had become one-dimensional.

Too often at Meydan Racecourse during the Dubai World Cup Carnival, he was caught too far back, and too wide, on the bend. Using up a horse’s energy unevenly in a race is an unforgivable error and Barzalona often emptied the tank to maintain a poor position.

When it was announced last week that Kevin Manning was to ride in the English Derby on Sudden Wonder, a horse that likes to be held up in his races, Barzalona's departure seemed imminent.

Manning had ridden Princess Haya’s New Approach to win the Derby in 2008. Since then, the Irishman had ridden eight times for Godolphin in Britain and seven of those were on Dawn Approach, sired by New Approach.

Speaking to Charlie Appleby, it is more the concept of the stable jockey that concerns him, rather than Barzalona himself.

Few rookie trainers receive as much responsibility as Appleby did when Al Zarooni was banished. Under such intense pressure, he has decided to take his destiny in his own hands: if the move is a failure at the end of the European season in November, it was his call.

Barzalona is 22. He has won a Derby, a World Cup and a St Leger. He is a natural in the saddle and is likely to re-emerge from his slump as a wiser, stronger and more savvy rider.

As for Godolphin, the pace of change is remarkable. This is an organisation that was founded on the troika of trainer Saeed bin Suroor, racing manager Simon Crisford and jockey Frankie Dettori. For 18 years, the three men kept Godolphin among racing's elite.

Crisford and Dettori are gone. Ditto Al Zarooni. Barzalona is the latest part of the restructuring at the international stable, and it is almost certain there will be more.

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