THE five juvenile Grade 1 winners at this year’s Breeders’ Cup meeting in Del Mar contained a mix of familiar names in this column, and some new faces. Aidan O’Brien’s two winners, Henri Matisse and Lake Victoria have been reviewed previously, but still deserve a short resume.

This week we saw the 2025 stud fee for Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) soar to €300,000, and after the year he has enjoyed, this is hardly surprising. To sire four Group or Grade 1 winners with his first Irish-conceived crop was surely beyond even the wildest dreams of Coolmore, and he backs that up with another nine blacktype winners, while 20% of all his two-year-old runners this year have earned some blacktype. An amazing achievement.