Minnie Hauk’s Juddmonte Irish Oaks success at the Curragh on Saturday means that Aidan O’Brien has saddled the winners of 33 per cent of Group One races run in Ireland, Britain and France so far this season.
The remarkable tally of 11 top-flight contests before even halfway through the campaign puts the Irish trainer in contention to break his own world record haul of 28 Group/Grade One races in a single season set in 2017.
One bookmaker makes O’Brien a 9-2 shot to do just that in what is fast turning into, even by his own stellar standards, a rare display of elite domination.
Minnie Hauk was his seventh Classic victory in 2025. The 2-11 favourite became the 16th filly to complete the Epsom-Curragh Oaks double and is a 10-1 favourite for October’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
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Afterwards, the Coolmore brains trust led by supremo John Magnier debated the correct route to Longchamp for her, either through the Yorkshire Oaks next month or a test over the Arc course and distance in the Prix Vermeille in September.
Both contests figure in the 46 top-class races still up for grabs in Europe’s three major racing jurisdictions this season. With global options also expanding in the autumn, including at the Breeders’ Cup, a new record tally could be on O’Brien’s radar.
What’s certain is that his current mark is equal at the same point as during his momentous 2017 campaign and that the resources he has available to him are unparalleled.
Over the weekend O’Brien revealed that his most exciting two-year-old Albert Einstein probably won’t race again this season. There are also doubts about the future of the Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Lake Victoria who may be retired.
Despite that, if anything, his hold on this season’s top races appears to be only tightening.
He has indicated the Coronation Cup winner Jan Brueghel will renew Epsom rivalry with the top French horse Calandagan in this Saturday’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.
That will allow him keep in reserve the dual-Derby hero Lambourn for a potential tilt at more Classic glory in September’s St Leger at Doncaster rather than take on holder horses in British racing’s midsummer highlight.
“At the moment I’d say Jan Brueghel is most likely to go to the King George, with Continuous. Lambourn is still on the boiling pot for it, but I don’t think he’ll be forced into it by any means, and he is a three-year-old,” O’Brien said.
“Jan Brueghel seems to be in very good form and everyone seems to be very happy with him. I’d imagine the lads might let him go there.
“That would mean Lambourn would have a couple of easy weeks and he might go to the Great Voltigeur, even though he’s a Group One winner, and kind of set him up for the Leger. They haven’t really decided yet, but reading between the lines that’s what could happen,” he added.
Almost immediately after the King George is the start of the Goodwood festival, where O’Brien horses are favourites for two of the three Group One contests up for grabs there.
Illinois is odds-on for the Goodwood Cup, while the Pretty Polly heroine Whirl tops lists for the Nassau Stakes. In between, Henri Matisse is set to again take on his St James’s Palace Stakes conqueror Field Of Gold. There are a handful of Group One prizes up for grabs in Deauville.
One horse out of the King George equation is the King Edward VII Stakes winner Amiloc. He hasn’t recovered from his Royal Ascot exertions in time to satisfy his trainer Ralph Beckett.
“It’s a training decision and Ralph felt he could just do with a little bit more time having had a hard race at Royal Ascot,” said a spokesman for Amiloc’s ownership. “The real racing for this horse will be in the autumn time and Ralph thinks it’s a little too quick after his last race. It’s nothing more than that and nothing untoward.”
Monday evening’s domestic action in Ballinrobe is more ordinary fare, but the transformed handicapper Deuteronomy gets a shot at completing four wins in a row. Nicola Burns’s mount keeps winning by half a length but has been upped 9lbs for winning at Limerick and has to overcome a wide draw.
