Donnacha O'Brien

It's not that Medallion Racing, a branch of Taylor Made, didn't get off to a good start. It was anything but. A racing partnership whose goal is to gets its partners to experience racing at the highest levels around the world, Taylor Made was delivering on that promise. Out of 250 plus starts, Medallion, at one point had raced five Grade I winners, won 28 graded stakes and had 72 top-three finishes in graded stakes. But what it didn't have was a superstar, the type that could win multiple Grade...

He's been on board for both her Group 1 wins and on Wednesday morning Frankie Dettori was reunited with Emily Upjohn (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) for a spin on the grass track at Del Mar ahead of lining up for the Breeders' Cup Turf. It has been exactly a year since Europe's most recognisable jockey signed off with a Champion Stakes triumph in Britain before jetting to his new life in California. This new chapter started in the best possible way with another top-flight win, in the Breeders' Cup...

Donnacha O'Brien is looking forward to taking on the boys with Porta Fortuna (Ire) when she bids for her fourth top-level victory of the campaign in the Breeders' Cup Mile at Del Mar on Saturday, November 2. The daughter of Caravaggio has been on a roll since returning to action this season with a narrow defeat to Elmalka (GB) in the 1,000 Guineas, subsequently reeling off a Group 1 hat-trick in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket and Matron Stakes at Leopardstown. All roads now lead...

Proving herself the complete racing machine on Saturday, Medallion Racing, Steve Weston, Barry Fowler and Reeves Thoroughbred Racing's Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio--Too Precious {Ire}, by Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) added Leopardstown's G1 Coolmore America 'Justify' Matron Stakes to her already enviable top-level tally with the minimum of fuss. Coming of age this summer with wins in the G1 Coronation Stakes and G1 Falmouth Stakes, the pride and joy of Donnacha O'Brien's stable who had also captured last year's G1 Cheveley Park Stakes was a touch free and fresh in the...

  The Curragh's American Racing Channel Irish EBF Fillies Juvenile Race is always a race worth intense scrutiny and Saturday's renewal did not disappoint with Coolmore dominating the finish and their prized homebred Falling Snow (Ire) (Justify--Winter {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}) edging it to become the second TDN Rising Star on the card. Sent off the 7-2 second favourite for this seven-furlong conditions event won in the recent past by Hydrangea (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and in which Opera Singer (Justify) was runner-up to A Lilac Rolla (Ire) (Harry Angel {Ire})...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Monday's Observations features the half-brother to a dual Classic winner. 17.18 Killarney, Mdn, €18,000, 2yo, 8f 20yT SARATOGA (IRE) (Camelot {GB}) is the 10th foal out of Dialafara (Fr) (Anabaa), who has proven such a rich font of class for Coolmore in producing Galileo's dual Classic winner Capri (Ire)...

As admirably straightforward as she is classy, Steven Weston, Barry Fowler, Medallion Racing and Reeves Racing's G1 Coronation Stakes and G1 Cheveley Park Stakes heroine Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio--Too Precious {Ire}, by Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) took her latest task in her stride when dominating Friday's G1 Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket. Always travelling comfortably tracking the pace under Ryan Moore, the Donnacha O'Brien-trained 10-11 favourite was left in front approaching the two-furlong pole and despite drifting right when in the clear was able to open up a 3 3/4-length...

Ryan Moore has been booked for the ride on the G1 Coronation Stakes and G1 Cheveley Park Stakes heroine Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio) in Friday's G1 Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket, for which seven fillies and mares were confirmed on Wednesday morning. With no Ballydoyle representative in the line-up, Moore is free to link up with the Donnacha O'Brien-trained filly, racing for the Medallion-Weston-Fowler-Reeves partnership, with Oisin Murphy who steered her to success in the Cheveley Park back on David Howden's G2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes winner Running Lion (GB)...

   The X-Ray Files series, now in its second year and presented in cooperation with the Consignors and Breeders' Association, uses conversations with buyers and sellers to contribute to the discussion on the sales and training process. Joseph O'Brien, the son of legendary trainer Aidan O'Brien, has steadily built up an impressive reputation of his own, first as a jockey with 31 top-level wins worldwide and now as a trainer with Group 1 wins from Ireland to Australia, France, England and the U.S. O'Brien became the youngest jockey to win...

Barry Fowler and Steve Weston's Dundalk maiden winner Usdi Atohi (Ire) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}--Eria {Ire}, by Zoffany {Ire}) finished last of six in May's G3 Naas Fillies' Sprint when last seen and bounced back in style to register a first black-type triumph in Wednesday evening's Listed Coolmore Ten Sovereigns Tipperary Stakes. The 20-1 outsider was swiftly into stride and stalked the tempo in second from flagfall at the Limerick Junction venue. Shaken up soon after passing the quarter-mile marker, she engaged Powerful Nation (Ire) (Sioux Nation) entering the final furlong...

In 2023, when Porta Fortuna (Caravaggio) went to Ascot for a shot at the G3 Albany Stakes, which she would go on to win, the other partners in the ownership group tried to convince Mark Taylor to come along on the trip. Taylor Made's Medallion Racing had bought Porta Fortuna along with Barry Fowler, Steve Weston and Dean Reeves after her two-year-old debut win at the Curragh last April, and had already been rewarded with three graded stakes wins, including the G1 Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes, and a second in...

You can keep your fashionistas, foodies, royal processions and Group 1 races. Give me the scenes that followed the success of Crystal Black (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) in the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes any day of the week instead.  Win, lose or draw, the Wear A Pink Ribbon Syndicate who own Crystal Black came to Ascot for a party. Boy did their rapidly progressive gelding provide them with something to celebrate and the scenes that followed his success for the father and son team of Gerry and Colin Keane will go...