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The first of the four weekends that will decide the champions of the 2025 Flat season in the northern hemisphere passed in a blur of Classic and Group One action at Doncaster, Leopardstown and the Curragh, and while Aidan O’Brien, as ever, emerged with a lion’s share of the spoils, there were also hints that he will not have things all his own way as the cavalcade moves on towards Paris, Ascot and finally the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar in California.
It was encouraging too – since variety, after all, is the spice – that it was not the usual suspects from Godolphin and Juddmonte that were giving Ballydoyle the most to do.
Karl Burke and Eve Johnson Houghton were the only British-based trainers to saddle a winner at the two-day Irish Champions Weekend meeting at Leopardstown and the Curragh, and both returned home with a Group One success – just the second of her career in the case of Johnson Houghton, who took the National Stakes with Zavateri. Burke, meanwhile, sent out a treble from just seven runners over the two afternoons, highlighted by Fallen Angel’s victory in the Group One Matron Stakes on Saturday.
And there was a confidence-boosting Group One winner too for Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing operation, to kick off a vital period for the owner after a substantial eight-figure investment in both bloodstock and property ahead of the 2025 campaign.
Thus far, it seems fair to say that Amo’s season has not gone entirely to plan.
Joorabchian spent just shy of £25m on yearlings at last October’s Book 1 Sale at Tattersalls alone, completed his purchase of the historic Freemason Lodge, Sir Michael Stoute’s former stable in Newmarket, in early January and moved Raphael Freire from his former base in Lambourn to take charge of Amo’s new British HQ in the spring.
Freire was then ejected from the hot seat just four months later, having saddled eight winners from 52 starters, to be replaced by Kevin Phillipart de Foy from early July. Royal Ascot was winnerless, and so too the July meeting at Newmarket and the Ebor festival at York. To date, Freemason Lodge’s best win of the year was Hollywood Treasure’s 16-1 success in the Listed St Hugh’s Stakes at Newbury.
Beyond the main base in Newmarket, however, there have been distinct signs of life in recent weeks, with Adrian Murray’s yard in Ireland posting two Group One wins, with Power Blue in the Phoenix Stakes and, on Sunday, Arizona Blaze in the Flying Five at the Curragh. The latter contest was a win-and-you’re-in for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar, and since the same horse finished second in the two-year-old equivalent last year, it is an obvious end-of-season target.
Karl Burke’s Aylin, owned in partnership with the Al Shaqab operation, also has a guaranteed spot in the starting stalls at Del Mar, in the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf, after her win in the Group Two May Hill Stakes at Doncaster last week.
Amo has drawn a blank with 14 previous runners at the Breeders’ Cup, so any win at the meeting would be a cause for huge celebration. If one of the big-ticket yearling colt purchases at last year’s sales could emerge as a Classic contender for the spring of 2026, meanwhile, the overall grade in Amo’s end-of-term report might suddenly improve from a so-so C to a very solid B-plus.
The long-term goal for Joorabchian and his partners, including Evangelos Marinakis, the Nottingham Forest chair, seems to be to complete the same virtuous circle as John Magnier’s Coolmore Stud operation. First, find a top-class stallion, then encourage breeders’ to use him by supporting his offspring relentlessly at the sales, race the best of them and then retire them to stud in turn.
Step one in particular requires both an eye-wateringly large investment of both time, effort and money, and no small amount of good fortune along the way. But if, and it is a big if, you can find a stallion like Sadler’s Wells or Galileo – or Godolphin’s Dubawi or Frankel at Juddmonte – they can conceivably cover 150-plus mares each year at a six-figure fee per cover, for a couple of decades. Galileo earned £580,000 for his owners when he won the Derby in 2001. At the height of his powers as a stallion, he was raking in substantially more than that every two or three days of the covering season.
Delacroix, Saturday’s Champion Stakes winner, seems certain to be the next big recruit to the Coolmore roster, perhaps without seeing a racecourse again.
O’Brien has spent the last couple of months emphasising the importance of Delacroix to Coolmore as an outcross from the Sadler’s Wells/Galileo line, and “the lads” might prefer to leave breeders with the memory of his fine turn of foot in the Leopardstown straight, rather than, say, a laboured effort on soft ground in the Champion Stakes at Ascot.
As for Amo, meanwhile, considerable hope will now be invested in Charlie Johnston’s Ancient Egypt, a son of Frankel who cost 1.1mgns (£1.15m) at the sales, as the season draws to a close. Ancient Egypt has won both of his starts to date and, along with Power Blue, who has a speedier pedigree, holds an entry in the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket on 11 October.
A colt near the top of the ante-post betting for the 2,000 Guineas would make all of Joorabchian’s cash-flashing, both last year and this, feel like money well spent. Coolmore and O’Brien have dominated the beginning and middle of the 2025 Flat season, but the upstart Amo operation could yet play a major role in the finale.
