Aidan O’Brien has reached 20 Group One successes in 2026, but faces a battle against the clock if he is to threaten his own world record haul of 28 top-flights wins set in 2017.
True Love hit number 20 when supplying her trainer with a first success in Sunday’s Prix de la Forêt on Sunday’s Arc de Triomphe programme at Paris-Longchamp.
Now the Group One spotlight switches to Newmarket this week and the establishment of the two-year-old pecking order with O’Brien’s Ballydoyle team set to come up against a familiar foe.
Charlie Appleby’s Godolphin squad have the unbeaten Musical Times as hot favourite for Friday’s Fillies Mile.
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However, the prospect of a mouthwatering clash between Godolphin’s unbeaten Desert Castle and O’Brien’s exciting Darkness Falls in Saturday’s Darley Dewhurst Stakes could dominate the spotlight.
The Irishman needs one more Dewhurst victory to claim an outright record nine wins in Britain’s most prestigious two-year-old race. O’Brien is on eight alongside the great 19th-century trainer John Porter and Frank Butters.
Darkness Falls tops an O’Brien trio in an entry of just seven horses left for the Dewhurst after Monday’s latest acceptance stage. Godolphin also have three with the Champagne winner Desert Castle favourite to give Appleby a fourth win in eight years.
The son of Frankel beat a Ballydoyle runner, Sergei Diaghilev, when landing the Champagne at Doncaster last month by three lengths under Billy Loughnane despite hanging notably to his left in the closing stages. He was quickly made an odds-on favourite for the Dewhurst.
The only interloper into the potential superpower clash is Gentle Hurricane – fourth in the Champagne – for Andrew Balding, a Dewhurst winner last year with the ill-fated Gewan.
O’Brien can also call on both the Coventry winner Great Barrier Reef and the recent Curragh maiden winner Raging Bull.
Darkness Falls, though, earned rave reviews when landing the new Group One Golden Fleece Stakes over nine furlongs at last month’s Irish Champions Festival in Leopardstown.
He is already an 8/1 favourite for next year’s Derby while Desert Castle is a general 4/1 market leader for the 2000 Guineas. City Of Troy in 2023 was the last of O’Brien’s Dewhurst winners.
O’Brien has half of the dozen entries in Friday’s big fillies race and it is the outcome of a series of upcoming Group One juvenile contests that are likely to determine his chances of threatening his own world record.
Doncaster’s Futurity at the end of the month is another opportunity while there are two more Group One contests for juveniles left at Saint-Cloud later in the month. There are also a series of two-year-old races on turf at the Breeders’ Cup.
The $34 million Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland is likely to see True Love try to add to her top-level haul in the Mile while O’Brien hasn’t ruled out going to Kentucky with Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe third Diamond Necklace.
“The funny thing about her is it’s only in the last month that she’s been able to take a normal horse’s work, so there’s every chance she’s been weak all year and is just starting to progress now,” O’Brien said.
“She could go to the Breeders’ Cup Turf and the lads [owners] could keep her in training next year. It depends on what they want to do.”
In other news, racing is set to resume at the Chelmsford track in Essex, southeast England, next month with live pictures at the all-weather circuit switching to Sky Sports Racing from Racing TV.
There has been no racing at Chelmsford since March when the track’s previous licensee went into administration.
Arena Racing Company (ARC) has secured a multiyear lease for the facility and, subject to the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) granting a licence, it plans to begin racing again on November 2nd. Five other fixtures are planned before the end of the year.
“We are delighted to confirm the signing of the lease with the freeholders and that racing will return to Chelmsford City Racecourse,” ARC operations director Kieran Gallagher said.
“We are grateful to the BHA for their ongoing support during the process currently under way of relicensing the racecourse and we look forward to getting everything prepared to welcome horses, owners, trainers and racegoers back in November and starting a new era under the ARC banner.”
Tuesday’s Galway action is over jumps and a handicap chase there looks a good opportunity for Mount Shenshan, who justified some hefty market support over hurdles at Clonmel on Thursday. That was a step up on previous form and she can maintain that momentum in a contest where she gets a lot of weight from the course and distance-winning topweight Hees Dynamite.
Gordon Elliott’s bumper newcomer Ellen Imlach, in the later 5.15pm race, has a Ballybrit pedigree given she is a half-sister to the 2023 Galway Plate hero Ash Tree Meadow.
