British and Irish raiders head to Keeneland this week for the Breeders’ Cup on Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October, and history suggests they will not be making up the numbers. Since 2006, trainers based in Britain and Ireland have won 57 Breeders’ Cup races, and 35 of those have come in the last ten years alone.
Aidan O’Brien and Charlie Appleby have led the charge, but the roll of honour also includes Willie Mullins, who struck with his first ever Breeders’ Cup runner at Del Mar 12 months ago. Here is how the British and Irish have fared at the big US meeting, and what it could mean for this year’s challengers.
British and Irish record since 2006
The European challenge has grown stronger with almost every passing year. British and Irish stables won 22 Breeders’ Cup races between 2006 and 2015, an average of just over two a year, and they drew a blank altogether in 2007 and 2014. In the following ten years that figure rose to 35, and there has been at least one British or Irish winner every year since 2015.
The Turf has been the most fertile ground, with 15 wins for Britain and Ireland since 2006, ahead of 13 in the Juvenile Turf and nine in the Filly & Mare Turf. Six Miles, four Juvenile Fillies Turfs, three Juvenile Turf Sprints, three Marathons and two Turf Sprints complete the picture, so 52 of the 57 winners came on grass.
Dirt success has been much harder to come by. Raven’s Pass in the 2008 Classic and Vale Of York in the 2009 Juvenile both won on the synthetic surface at Santa Anita, and Jo Hughes’ London Bridge in the 2013 Marathon is the last British or Irish winner of a Breeders’ Cup race on dirt.
| Race | British/Irish winners since 2006 |
|---|---|
| Turf | 15 |
| Juvenile Turf | 13 |
| Filly & Mare Turf | 9 |
| Mile | 6 |
| Juvenile Fillies Turf | 4 |
| Juvenile Turf Sprint | 3 |
| Marathon (no longer run) | 3 |
| Turf Sprint | 2 |
| Classic | 1 |
| Juvenile | 1 |
More in focus: record since 2016
All 35 British and Irish winners over the last ten years came on turf, and they have taken a vice-like grip on the biggest grass prizes. Eight of the last ten runnings of the Turf have gone to Britain or Ireland, along with seven Juvenile Turfs, six Miles and six Filly & Mare Turfs.
The peak came at Keeneland in 2022, when British and Irish stables won a record six races across the two days. O’Brien landed the Filly & Mare Turf with Tuesday, the Juvenile Fillies Turf with Meditate and the Juvenile Turf with Victoria Road, while Appleby won the Turf with Rebel’s Romance, the Mile with Modern Games and the Juvenile Turf Sprint with Mischief Magic. That is a good omen for this year, with Keeneland’s three previous Breeders’ Cups producing 12 British and Irish winners.
| Year | Horse | Race | Trainer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Gstaad | Juvenile Turf | Aidan O’Brien |
| 2025 | Balantina | Juvenile Fillies Turf | Donnacha O’Brien |
| 2025 | Notable Speech | Mile | Charlie Appleby |
| 2025 | Ethical Diamond | Turf | Willie Mullins |
| 2024 | Lake Victoria | Juvenile Fillies Turf | Aidan O’Brien |
| 2024 | Henri Matisse | Juvenile Turf | Aidan O’Brien |
| 2024 | Magnum Force | Juvenile Turf Sprint | Ger Lyons |
| 2024 | Starlust | Turf Sprint | Ralph Beckett |
| 2024 | Rebel’s Romance | Turf | Charlie Appleby |
| 2023 | Unquestionable | Juvenile Turf | Aidan O’Brien |
| 2023 | Big Evs | Juvenile Turf Sprint | Michael Appleby |
| 2023 | Master Of The Seas | Mile | Charlie Appleby |
| 2023 | Inspiral | Filly & Mare Turf | John & Thady Gosden |
| 2023 | Auguste Rodin | Turf | Aidan O’Brien |
| 2022 | Meditate | Juvenile Fillies Turf | Aidan O’Brien |
| 2022 | Victoria Road | Juvenile Turf | Aidan O’Brien |
| 2022 | Mischief Magic | Juvenile Turf Sprint | Charlie Appleby |
| 2022 | Modern Games | Mile | Charlie Appleby |
| 2022 | Tuesday | Filly & Mare Turf | Aidan O’Brien |
| 2022 | Rebel’s Romance | Turf | Charlie Appleby |
| 2021 | Modern Games | Juvenile Turf | Charlie Appleby |
| 2021 | Space Blues | Mile | Charlie Appleby |
| 2021 | Yibir | Turf | Charlie Appleby |
| 2020 | Glass Slippers | Turf Sprint | Kevin Ryan |
| 2020 | Order Of Australia | Mile | Aidan O’Brien |
| 2020 | Audarya | Filly & Mare Turf | James Fanshawe |
| 2020 | Tarnawa | Turf | Dermot Weld |
| 2019 | Iridessa | Filly & Mare Turf | Joseph O’Brien |
| 2018 | Line Of Duty | Juvenile Turf | Charlie Appleby |
| 2018 | Expert Eye | Mile | Sir Michael Stoute |
| 2018 | Enable | Turf | John Gosden |
| 2017 | Mendelssohn | Juvenile Turf | Aidan O’Brien |
| 2017 | Wuheida | Filly & Mare Turf | Charlie Appleby |
| 2016 | Queen’s Trust | Filly & Mare Turf | Sir Michael Stoute |
| 2016 | Highland Reel | Turf | Aidan O’Brien |
Best British and Irish trainers to follow
O’Brien is the undisputed king of the Breeders’ Cup among European trainers. His 21 wins in total put him level with Bob Baffert at the top of the all-time trainers’ list, and 18 of them have come since 2006. The Ballydoyle maestro has dominated the Juvenile Turf in particular, winning it eight times with Wrote, George Vancouver, Hit It A Bomb, Mendelssohn, Victoria Road, Unquestionable, Henri Matisse and Gstaad, and he has won the Turf seven times, most recently with Auguste Rodin in 2023.
Appleby has matched O’Brien’s 11 wins over the last ten years, and his overall tally of 12 all came after Outstrip gave him a first success in the 2013 Juvenile Turf. Godolphin’s trainer has been at his most potent since 2021, winning nine races in five years, including three in 2021 and three more at Keeneland in 2022. Rebel’s Romance also joined High Chaparral and Conduit as only the third dual winner of the Turf when following up his 2022 success in 2024.
John Gosden and Sir Michael Stoute have five wins apiece since 2006. Gosden’s include Raven’s Pass, Enable and, alongside son Thady, Inspiral, while Stoute won back-to-back Turfs with Conduit and later added Dank, Queen’s Trust and Expert Eye before his retirement. Elsewhere, Ralph Beckett has won with Muhannak and Starlust, and the O’Brien family has spread its wings further still, with Joseph O’Brien striking with Iridessa and Donnacha O’Brien winning last year’s Juvenile Fillies Turf with Balantina.
| Trainer | Wins since 2006 | Wins since 2016 |
|---|---|---|
| Aidan O’Brien | 18 | 11 |
| Charlie Appleby | 12 | 11 |
| John Gosden (incl. with Thady Gosden) | 5 | 2 |
| Ralph Beckett | 2 | 1 |
| Brian Meehan | 2 | 0 |
Statement British and Irish winners from the past
Raven’s Pass remains the only British-trained winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Frankie Dettori steered Gosden’s colt to victory at Santa Anita in 2008, a year in which Conduit also gave Stoute the first of his two Turf wins and Donativum completed a Gosden double in the Juvenile Turf.
Enable produced arguably the greatest European performance in the meeting’s history at Churchill Downs in 2018. Four weeks after her second Arc success, she battled past Magical to become the first horse to win the Arc and the Breeders’ Cup Turf in the same year, again under Dettori. The Italian also partnered Inspiral to Filly & Mare Turf glory in 2023, on the same weekend that Derby hero Auguste Rodin gave O’Brien and Ryan Moore the Turf.
Last year’s Turf was just as memorable. Mullins sent Ethical Diamond to Del Mar as a big outsider for his first Breeders’ Cup runner, and Dylan Browne McMonagle brought him home in front, while Appleby’s Notable Speech went one better than when third 12 months earlier by landing the Mile as the 5/2 favourite.
What this means for this year’s runners
There were 79 international pre-entries for this year’s Breeders’ Cup, with the final fields drawn on Monday evening. Four previous British and Irish winners were among them: Ethical Diamond and Notable Speech, who are pre-entered to defend their crowns, plus Gstaad and Ralph Beckett’s 2024 Turf Sprint winner Starlust.
Ethical Diamond could be joined in the Turf by George Scott’s Bay City Roller and O’Brien’s Diamond Necklace, while Notable Speech could face Andrew Balding’s Sun Chariot winner Blue Bolt in the Mile. The juvenile races look a typically strong source of European winners too, with Cheveley Park and Moyglare winner Sun Goddess heading the Ballydoyle charge in the Juvenile Fillies Turf and National Stakes winner Folsom Blues representing Joseph O’Brien in the Juvenile Turf.
The trends are clear. The best of the British and Irish raiders should be followed on turf, especially in the Turf, the Mile, the Filly & Mare Turf and the juvenile grass races, with O’Brien and Appleby the trainers to side with. Dave Young has broken down the key race-by-race trends for both Future Stars Friday and Saturday’s big turf races. On dirt, though, the record is far less inviting. For all the times and TV details, read our guide on when the Breeders’ Cup is on and how to watch it in the UK.
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