Australia has now become the focus for Godolphin, backed by billionaire Sheikh Mohammed, with more horses like Contributer and Hartnell expected to grace our shores.

Sheikh Mohammed's bloodstock advisor John Ferguson made the trip to Australia for the Golden Slipper only a week from Godolphin's biggest event of the year, the Dubai World Cup.

Ferguson did not get to take another Golden Slipper back to Dubai on Saturday night, but the second group 1 win of Contributer in the Ranvet Stakes has only built the confidence that they are targeting the right horses from Europe.

"It's great to see Contributer winning group 1s and for Godolphin to have four home-bred Golden Slipper runners, even though they didn't figure [in the finish] is a great sign," Ferguson said. "We have been very happy with the way things have gone over here and the operation is performing strongly."

It's not just the rich events in places like Sydney where Godolphin horses will race with two horses already being booked into Wellington stables ahead of this Sunday's $100,000 Statewide Sheds Wellington Boot.

The intensified targeting of Australian races is obvious, with three European horses sent to trainer John O'Shea since rebranding the stable at the start of the season. The trend had previously been for horses from Australia to head to Europe to bolster the Godolphin team there but Ferguson made it clear it would take a special horse to be sent north in the future.

"As far as horses from Australia going abroad, obviously you have races in England and Europe that suit them from a stallion point of view but you take each one individually," he said.

"In my opinion racing in Australia is so healthy you have to think very hard before moving horses. Now that Godolphin is here and it is a Godolphin team, we want it to be successfully in Australia."