Aidan O’Brien has plenty left to do in 2026, but the man who has won and done practically everything else in racing has a fresh Triple Crown project waiting for him in 2027.
It’s almost a quarter of a century since O’Brien first voiced ambitions to emulate Nijinsky’s epic 1970 English Triple Crown accomplishment.
Hawk Wing was the first of his horses to spark thoughts of a singular talent with the speed to win the mile-long 2,000 Guineas, the middle-distance class to win the Epsom Derby and the stamina to complete the treble in Doncaster’s gruelling St Leger.
The horse still officially rated the best O’Brien has ever trained ultimately finished runner-up in both the Guineas and the Derby and wound up being defined by a monstrous Lockinge success over a mile.
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The Leger test of a mile and 6½ furlongs has long since made it an anachronism in elite bloodstock terms. Nashwan (1989) and Sea The Stars (2009) won both the Guineas and the Derby but never remotely came within contention to try and complete the classic hat-trick.
The irony is how John Magnier’s Coolmore Stud has driven much of the commercial imperative that has reduced the Leger’s relevance and yet he apparently continues to be consumed by a desire to pull off a Triple Crown.
Camelot defied all business sense and started a 2/5 favourite to equal Nijinsky in the 2012 Leger only to come up short against Encke in a notorious race that appears to be still reverberating.
The following year, it emerged that Encke was among 11 other horses that tested positive for anabolic steroids which resulted in Godolphin’s trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni being banned for eight years.
Now Camelot’s son, Darkness Falls, is the latest colt being lined up to scratch Magnier and Co’s Triple Crown itch next year.
A recce to Newmarket’s Rowley Mile on Saturday saw Darkness Falls make light of a two-furlong drop in trip to beat Godolphin’s big hope Desert Castle by a neck in the Darley Dewhurst Stakes. It was a record ninth Dewhurst for O’Brien.
The real significance, however, could prove to be what occurs in seven months’ time should Darkness Falls return to the Rowley Mile and win the Guineas.
Since Camelot, there has been ‘TC’ talk surrounding other Ballydoyle stars. City of Troy and Auguste Rodin, however, fluffed their lines in the Guineas. Saxon Warrior flopped in the Derby. None of them subsequently went near the Leger.
Darkness Falls is an incredibly stingy 12/1 with some firms to pull off the feat and O’Brien is far from playing it all down.
“The Triple Crown is out of fashion at the minute because you simply can’t get a horse to do it,” he said. “How can you do it? It’s a very difficult thing to do, but it’s only when you get one you think is capable you then realise exactly how difficult it is to do. It’s the total test of the thoroughbred.
“You are testing every bone in their body. It’s the ultimate test and if they can pass that, they are special. They are more than unusual.
“This horse has an awful lot of class and a lovely mind. He’s very uncomplicated, he’s very classy and Ryan (Moore) felt he had plenty left. At least now we can sleep over the winter, see what happens in the Guineas and go from there."
More immediately, the Irishman will hope to put his stamp on a ninth British trainers’ championship with a lucrative performance in Saturday’s Champions Day action at Ascot.
O’Brien is odds-on to overhaul Andrew Balding in a title race that goes to the end of the year, but which could be decided by this weekend’s big-money pots.
Balding’s prizemoney haul of £8,733,326 (about €10.3 million) is marginally ahead of O’Brien on about €10.2 million.
Ascot will also be a target for Irish champion jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle, who finally returns to action with two spins at Roscommon on Monday.
The 23-year-old rider has been on the sidelines since sustaining a bad fall at Bellewstown in late August. At the time he looked like reeling in Billy Lee in the race for the title but will now hope to regain lost momentum ahead of some major international targets.
Talented apprentice Patrick McGettigan enjoyed the biggest success of his career when Tony Martin’s Alphonse Le Grande repeated his 2024 success in Saturday’s Newmarket Cesarewitch. McGettigan has three rides at Roscommon and Minaun View could prove the best of them.
The veteran Mogwli will have the 100th start of his career in one of the seven-furlong handicaps. Despite being ‘wrong’ on ratings, a combination of soft ground and an inside draw could see Willie McCreery’s stalwart mark the landmark with a ninth victory.
