{"id":245643,"date":"2025-07-07T16:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T16:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/245643\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T16:00:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T16:00:11","slug":"aidan-obriens-group-one-strike-rate-now-threatening-own-world-record-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/245643\/","title":{"rendered":"Aidan O\u2019Brien\u2019s Group One strike rate now threatening own world record \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aidan O\u2019Brien\u2019s<\/a> big race hot streak means he is on track to threaten his own world record Group One haul <\/a>this year.<\/p>\n

The Irish man saddled a remarkable 28 Group One winners in 2017, and going into this week\u2019s Newmarket July festival<\/a>, he is on the same top-flight strike rate so far this season. <\/p>\n

Delacroix in the Eclipse <\/a>last weekend was O\u2019Brien\u2019s 10th Group One success of the campaign. That\u2019s the same tally as at this stage of the 2017 season when Roly Poly made it number 11 in the Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes.<\/p>\n

The Ballydoyle team has a trio of fillies in this Friday\u2019s Falmouth, including the French Oaks runner-up Bedtime Story and January, who ran third to Cercene in the Coronation Stakes. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien\u2019s hopes of a record sixth victory in Saturday\u2019s Al Basti July Cup look to principally revolve around Whistlejacket, although he also left in Ides Of March at Monday\u2019s latest acceptance stage. <\/p>\n

Supplemented at a cost of more than \u20ac41,000 each into a contest widely regarded as Europe\u2019s most prestigious sprint were last year\u2019s 2000 Guineas <\/a>winner Notable Speech and another Godolphin hope Spy Chief. Sheikh Mohammed\u2019s team also has the leading hope Symbol Of Honour entered.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien last won the July Cup with Ten Sovereigns in 2019, when he emulated his legendary Ballydoyle predecessor Vincent O\u2019Brien\u2019s haul in the race.<\/p>\n

Whistlejacket won the July Stakes at the meeting as a two-year-old and was sixth in Royal Ascot\u2019s Commonwealth Cup last month when Ryan Moore reported he was repeatedly denied a clear run.<\/p>\n

The three-year-old is a general 8-1 shot to successfully rebound from that and join a stellar list of previous O\u2019Brien winners such as Stravinsky (1999) and Starspangledbannner in 2010.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien\u2019s run of recent success, including an unprecedented clean sweep of Europe\u2019s three big derby prizes, compares with anything in his unparalleled career.<\/p>\n

\"WhistlejacketWhistlejacket won the July Stakes at the Newmarket meeting as a two-year-old. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

In 2017, he began his record run with Churchill in the Newmarket 2000 Guineas and beat Bobby Frankel\u2019s old mark of 25 when Saxon Warrior landed the Futurity. He added to that with Mendelssohn at the Breeders\u2019 Cup before ending a momentous campaign with Highland Reel\u2019s Hong Kong Vase success.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s feature event is shaping up as a clash of some of the sport\u2019s superpower operations.<\/p>\n

As well as the Ballydoyle pair, and Godolphin\u2019s trio of potential runners, the Qatari Wathnan team look to have a big player in Flora Of Bermuda. She ran third to the French star Lazzat in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Royal Ascot on her previous start. <\/p>\n

Wathan also has Night Raider in the race and he steps up a furlong from the King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot, when out of the money behind American Affair. His trainer, Karl Burke, is hopeful a furlong longer trip can help his horse substantially. <\/p>\n

\u201cNight Raider is a very quick horse, there\u2019s no doubt about it, but I think he\u2019s a horse that likes to get into a rhythm, and he\u2019s more chance of getting into that rhythm over six furlongs than he does over five,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think over five at the top level they jump and go so hard early and he\u2019s a horse that likes to jump and get into a nice rhythm, which I think he has more chance of doing over six and he obviously can stay seven as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSix is the ideal trip, whether he\u2019s up to a Group One at this stage of his career, we\u2019ll find out on Saturday,\u201d Burke added.<\/p>\n

Despite his international commitments to Juddmonte, Colin Keane still tops the jockeys\u2019 table in Ireland, leading Billy Lee by 43 winners to 37.<\/p>\n

With Lee out through suspension, Keane travels to Tramore on Tuesday for a single ride on the smart bumper performer Seo Linn <\/b>in a mile-and-a-half maiden.<\/p>\n

A winner at Cheltenham last November and at Aintree in the spring, Paddy Twomey\u2019s mare has twice come up short on the level this summer, but this looks an ideal opportunity.<\/p>\n

Tramore even has its own \u201cderby\u201d on the card, although it is a moderate handicap with a topweight rated just 55. Significantly, local trainer Henry de Bromhead is persevering with the 43-rated Stepdance <\/b>and Wayne Hassett takes off a valuable 3lbs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aidan O\u2019Brien\u2019s big race hot streak means he is on track to threaten his own world record Group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[95381,1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-245643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-oisin-murphy-court-case-pa2025","9":"tag-racing","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114812788730242344","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}