O’Brien family on course to try to secure more Breeders’ Cup glory

The O’Brien’s have already turned one of this year’s big Group One dates into a family benefit and could strike again at the Breeders’ Cup in Keeneland later this week.

No one has saddled more Breeders’ Cup winners than Aidan O’Brien who sends another massive squad to the 43rd renewal of US racing’s showpiece event.

The first five of 14 Grade One races worth over $34 million in all will take place on Friday night. Billed as “Future Stars Friday”, it will stage the major two-year-old races up for grabs on turf and dirt.

O’Brien has won 21 Breeders’ Cup races, a record he holds jointly with controversial US trainer Bob Baffert. He has won 25 Group One races so far in 2026, just three shy of his 2017 world record tally.

In 2022, he saddled three Breeders’ Cup winners at Keeneland and his team this time includes the outstanding filly Sun Goddess who is odds-on for the Juvenile Fillies Turf event on Friday.

The Irishman has won races all three times the Breeders’ Cup has been staged at the Kentucky track, including Found’s memorable success over Golden Horn in the Turf 11 years ago.

O’Brien’s sons Joseph and Donnacha have also saddled Breeders’ Cup winners. Donnacha, 28, was successful with Balantina in Del Mar last year while his older brother scored with Iridessa in 2019. It made him just the second person to both ride and train a Breeders’ Cup winner.

The scale of the family’s success was underlined at last month’s Irish Champions Festival when between them they won all four Group One races on the second day at the Curragh.

O’Brien snr won with Scandinavia and Sun Goddess while Joseph’s Folsom Blues landed the National Stakes. That colt is on course to line up in Friday’s Juvenile Turf. Donnacha’s Comanche Brave won the Flying Five and will take on the US flyer Bacio in Saturday’s Turf Sprint.

Comanche Brave also struck at the top level in the July Cup during the summer and will again be ridden by new British champion jockey Billy Loughnane.

“He’s had a great year, especially with his wins, and we love taking horses to the Breeders’ Cup when we have one good enough. And he looks like he’s more than worth his place in the line-up so we’re looking forward to it,” Donnacha O’Brien said.

“It’s been the plan to go to the Breeders’ Cup since he won at the Curragh and Billy is going to ride him.

“We thought about running him in the Prix de l’Abbaye but in the end we decided to go straight to America. Everything has gone to plan, there has been no holdups and this has been his main target for a while.”

[ Breeders’ Cup: Aidan O’Brien makes history as son Donnacha gets a first winnerOpens in new window ]

He added: “We’ve been going over to the Breeders’ Cup since we were kids and we always have a good time over there in America. It’s one of our big targets towards the end of the year and anything we have that we think can be competitive over there, we certainly try to plan towards.”

This Breeders’ Cup is likely to feature a bumper Irish team that includes Jessica Harrington’s attempt at notching another notable success with Hotazhell in the $5 million Turf over a mile and a half.

Harrington will try to join an elite corps of Irish trainers to have struck at the meeting and no doubt hope for a better experience than in 2023 when her runners Givemethebeatboys was ruled out by officials on the morning of his race following a veterinary examination.

“I know they’ve got to be careful but being careful and totally OTT are two different things. I don’t agree with them,” Harrington said at the time. “They pushed and poked my horse and said no. We have no appeal and they haven’t told us where he is lame.”

Hotazhell, who ends his racing career in Keeneland before going to stud, is part of an ultra-strong Irish team shaping up for the Turf. Ballydoyle’s Diamond Necklace tops most ante-post lists while Benvenuto Cellini and Johanna Walsh are also in the mix.

Ethical Diamond sprang a huge surprise to win the Turf a year ago and is as low as 12/1 to repeat for Willie Mullins. Three horses have won the race twice, the last of them being Rebels Romance in 2022 and 2024.

Willie McCreery and Ireland’s new champion jockey Billy Lee will take their chance with Jancis in Saturday’s Filly & Mare Turf.

[ Racing has feel-good story with Billy Lee a deserving champion jockeyOpens in new window ]

Separately, conditions will be ultra-testing for Galway’s final fixture of 2026, a flat card that opens with a two-year-old fillies maiden which has a record of identifying future top-notch talent.

Jessica Harrington’s Wunderschon has a very decent 91-rating but with Ballydoyle’s juvenile team in flying form it could pay to side with Petticoat Bay stepping up from her promising Curragh debut.

Stable mate Imposing could also step up from his own promising Leopardstown debut later on the card.