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Hartnell, Astern and Charlie Appleby provided Godolphin with the highlights in a memorable year of racing In Australia in 2016 for the world’s most famous racing stable.

John O’Shea, Godolphin’s head trainer in Australia, sent out Hartnell, Astern, Holler and Hauraki to win Group One races in 2016.

Holler was the stable’s only autumn G1 winner in the Canterbury Stakes at Randwick in March, a victory that set him on the path to Royal Ascot.

He finished only seventh in the G1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes but it will certainly not be O’Shea’s last overseas excursion for Godolphin.

The new season started on a high with Astern winning the G1 Golden Rose at Rosehill. Despite two subsequent defeats the son of Medaglia D'Oro remains a horse of unlimited potential.

Hauraki got his deserved G1 win in the Epsom Handicap at Randwick in October but it was Hartnell's win in the G1 Turnbull Stakes at Flemington that provided the highlight of the year for Godolphin’s Australian team.

The ease of the import’s win underlined his great class, confirmed by his subsequent placings in the G1 Cox Plate and G1 Melbourne Cup.

Yet nothing had prepared Australian racing for the arrival of Charlie Appleby, Godolphin’s UK-based trainer, with a small team of unheralded imports for the Melbourne spring carnival.

By the end of the spring Appleby’s team of five horses had started in 10 races for five victories with all bar Second Wave earning a prize money cheque.

Appleby’s team won the G3 Geelong Cup (Qewy), G3 Bendigo Cup (Francis Of Assisi), G3 Lexus Stakes (Oceanographer), G3 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Francis Of Assisi) and finished second in the G1 Caulfield Cup (Scottish) and fourth in the G1 Melbourne Cup (Qewy).

It was quite a campaign that helped Appleby win him a major award in the UK as International Trainer Of The Year.

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It certainly was a year of global success for the boys in blue with almost 600 winners worldwide collecting just over $US37.5 million prizemoney.

However for Godolphin the true measure of their global aspirations is the number of G1 winners produced during the season.

The results for the year just ending will be satisfying for both Sheikh Mohammed his famous silks were worn by a total of 11 individual G1 winners from his stables in the UK (5), Australia (4), US (1) and Dubai (1).

Hartnell and Astern were among their headline horses with Ribchester and Hawkbill in Europe, Tryster in Dubai and the superb Frosted in the US.

Hawkbill's triumph in the G1 Coral Eclipse at Sandown Park, defeating The Gurkha in July for his sixth successive win, was a memorable UK highlight and there are high hopes he can build on that as a four-year-old in 2017.

The Richard Fahey-trained Ribchester achieved a win of equal merit when landing the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville in August.

His subsequent second to Minding at Ascot is indicative of a colt with the potential to establish himself as Europe's top miler in 2017.

In America Frosted retired in November having won six races from 19 starts.

In the frame in both the G1 Kentucky Derby and G1 Belmont Stakes at three, he proved himself a brilliant and durable performer at the top level over a long career on the track and seems destined to be just as successful as a stallion.

In his final season he won the G1 Met Mile at Belmont by an extended 14 lengths, arguably the most spectacular win at that level in New York in years. He also took the G1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga.

Charlie Appleby was also to the fore in Europe with Wuheida winning the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac at Chantilly while the Saeed bin Suroor-trained Thunder Snow won the G1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud.

Both are exciting classic contenders for 2017.

John Ferguson, Godolphin's chief executive and racing manager, said 2016 would rate as a highly successful year for the stable.

"Great teamwork internationally has enabled Godolphin to realise the potential of so many good horses in a number of different countries,” Ferguson said.

"Godolphin has achieved much in 2016 and we look forward to 2017 with confidence and optimism.”

Sheikh Mohammed has owned the winners of 253 G1 races in Europe.