Sunday’s racing tips
Carlisle 12.32 Halpha Soleil 1.02 Lost Frequencies 1.32 Telepathique 2.02 Florida Dreams (nap) 2.37 Handstands 3.12 Inis Oirr (nb) 3.47 Medieval Gold
Huntingdon 12.48 Mermaids Cave 1.18 Bongo Man 1.48 Pic Roc 2.20 Scavengers Reign 2.55 Pure Carbon 3.30 Jack Hoola 4.05 Lelantos
Updated
O'Brien family double the highlight on a fine day for Europe
The European team had two winners on the first day of the 2025 Breeders’ Cup meeting at Del Mar as Aidan O’Brien took sole control of the record for winners at the meeting with 21 following an easy win for Gstaad in the Juvenile Turf.
Gstaad’s victory completed an excellent day for the O’Brien family, after his son, Donnacha, had earlier registered his first Breeders’ Cup success, with Balantina in the Juvenile Fillies Turf.
Christophe Soumillon, whose only previous winner at the meeting was 20 years ago, made light of a difficult draw in stall 14 on Gstaad and had the 6-5 favourite settled three wide at the first turn. He then made steady progress down the outside going to the final turn, before taking it up at the top of the stretch.
The win took Aidan O’Brien one clear of the American legend D Wayne Lukas’s total of 20 Breeders’ Cup victories.
There were some significant withdrawals from the European squad in the hours before Friday’s opening-day card, as Aidan O’Brien’s Precise, the hot favourite for the Juvenile Fillies’ Turf, and Military Code, a leading fancy for the Juvenile Turf Sprint, were both ruled out. In the absence of Precise, however, O’Brien’s younger son, Donnacha, enjoyed the first Breeders’ Cup success of his career, as Oisin Murphy extracted Balantina from a tight pack of runners on the home turn to run out a comfortable winner.
Balantina was just a second winner at the meeting for Murphy, who had a turbulent year that included a car crash in April and a subsequent conviction for drink-driving, before he emerged as Britain’s champion jockey for a fifth time.
“To be honest, she took to the track very well,” Murphy said. “Donnacha was very upbeat [about] the way she trained in the mornings. And she’s incredibly athletic and she handled the track like it was made for her. That’s my seventh Group One win of the year, and a lot have been on bigger priced horses.”
Donnacha O’Brien has many memories of family trips to the Breeders’ Cup as a child.
“We’ve been coming here a long time, since we were babies, really,” he said. “To watch Dad do it year in and year out, and [his brother] Joseph to get winners. It’s nice to be on the board.”
The European team came up short in the opening turf race, the Juvenile Turf Sprint, as Cy Fair made the most of a good break from the stalls and held the late charge of Aidan O’Brien’s Brussels, who lost several length with a slow start.
In the card’s races on the dirt, meanwhile, Ted Noffey, the odds-on favourite, ground out a one-length win in the Juvenile while John Sadler’s Super Corredora took the Juvenile Fillies.
