Aidan O'Brien looks ahead to Champions Day at Ascot
Delacroix's clash with Ombudsman is the headline act
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Aidan O'Brien is closing in on his own record of 28 Group 1 wins in a calendar year
Delacroix v Ombudsman has been flat racing’s biggest storyline of the season and Aidan O’Brien insists the two-time Group 1 winner is ready to star in Saturday’s mouth-watering finale, writes Phil Campbell.
The three-year-old colt heads to Ascot locked at 1-1 with his Godolphin-owned rival after two explosive showdowns in July and August.
Ryan Moore and Delacroix produced a sensational win in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown after seemingly being out of contention with two furlongs to go.
But the John & Thady Gosden-trained colt responded with victory at the Juddmonte International Stakes at York a month later.
While Ombudsman hasn’t raced since his last win, Delacroix, who is racing for the final time on Saturday before becoming a stud, returned to the winner’s enclosure at Leopardstown last month with a comfortable triumph in the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes.
The eyes of the racing world will be on the Qipco Champion Stakes this weekend and O’Brien believes the horses recent good form will stand him in good stead.
WOW 🤯🤯🤯
— Horse Racing Ireland (@HRIRacing) July 5, 2025
An unbelievable finish from Delacroix as Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore team up to land the Coral-Eclipse! 🔥#GreenTeam pic.twitter.com/KNOCpIRhcH
“It's so far so good with Delacroix,” he said. “Everything has gone well with him since Leopardstown. It looks like it will be decent ground and hopefully it will stay that way because that's what everybody wants.
"We were delighted with Delacroix at Leopardstown. He really accelerated that day, and he did the same at Sandown in the Eclipse. We couldn't be happier with the way his season has gone for him."
The market is currently split three ways between the two main protagonists and Calandagan so picking a winner is anybody’s guess, but the 56-year-old explained being involved in huge races is what the sport is all about.
“This is what everyone does it for, to see the best horses meeting on the big days,” said O’Brien. “Everyone wants competitive, fair races. Owners, breeders, spectators, punters, that’s what they all want. Win, lose, or draw, it’s great to be part of it.”
Christophe Soumillon will be aboard Delacroix for a second time following their success at Leopardstown with Moore all but confirmed to miss the remainder of 2025 with a stress fractured femur.
O’Brien has full faith in the Belgian jockey and is confident he can deal with any repeat of the field’s reluctance to go with the pacemaker, as was the case in the Juddmonte International Stakes when Birr Castle stormed 20 lengths clear, a race O’Brien subsequently described as a “farce”.
“That’s the six-million-dollar question, isn’t it,” he said when asked about a potential repeat of York. “It’ll be interesting. All the pacemakers can do is their job. It’s up to everyone else to follow them. If they decide not to, it’ll be the same again, won’t it?
“The plan in York was that we’d follow the pacemaker if no one else was going to, but it didn’t work that way. Who knows, in those races anything can happen. Hopefully it’s a properly run race.
“Christophe has ridden plenty for us over the years, so he’s good.”
Another subplot to the meeting at Ascot is O’Brien’s march towards his own world record for the most Group 1 wins in a calendar year, which currently stands at 28.
Currently on 22 after Precise’s win in the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket, O’Brien has opportunities for more Group 1 success with Stay True in the British Champions Long Distance Cup, Bedtime Story in the British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes and The Lion In Winter in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, to go alongside Delacroix.
But never one to get blinkered by records, O’Brien said his sole focus remains getting the best out of his horses.
He added: “We don’t think too much about that. We take one race at a time, do the right thing by each horse, and do our best to win. Every one of those races is so difficult to win. When it happens, we’re delighted, and that’s all you can do.
“Obviously, we set out to win races, but we get beaten in plenty too. We don’t dwell on them too much; we move from one race to the next straight away. If we get beaten, we move on. If we win, maybe we stay up a bit later thinking about it.”