Aidan O'Brien: my leading 3yo hopes for 2025

Pedigree: Frankel x Quiet Reflection (Showcasing) 

We won’t be in a rush and we’ll take out time with her. Obviously what she did was very unusual – you couldn’t really believe that a t filly would do that, win three Group Ones over three different distances.

She’s quick and got a mile well in America and you’d imagine that she’s going to be a miler-type - she might get a mile and a quarter but who knows.

She’s big, she’s powerful and she has a great mind, a great constitutions. She was obviously going through her races very easily and doing her work very easily. If you see her in a race she travels very well and when she quickens she puts a lot of her races to bed. 

She has a lot of class, that’s what she has, and that’s what made her very different really.

Pedigree: Wootton Bassett x Jigsaw (Galileo)

We thought the world of him in the spring and we kinda ran of time and he didn’t end up starting until late.

He’s an unusual horse that he has speed. We always thought he would get a mile plus and we always had in our head that there was every chance he would get a Derby trip – he’s out of a Galileo mare, he has a very easy and relaxed way of going. He’s very exciting. 

I suppose what we did wasn’t fair to him, to bring him back after a maiden straight into the Dewhurst just a few days after really. He ended up being drawn where he was and Ryan [Moore] had to do a lot of his donkey work on him and James [Doyle, on third Ancient Truth] attacked him very early which didn’t really suit him, a horse only after having a run a week before and he still didn’t surrender and he was still going at the line we felt, so we thought it was an incredible run out of him really.

He’s wintered very well – you couldn’t be happier looking at him. He’s very relaxed and physically he’s a great size and shape. His racing weight last year as a two-year-old looked very like what the real good horses look in the autumn. He could be very exciting really.

Pedigree: Sea The Stars x What A Home (Lope De Vega)

Again we won’t rush him, he could go the Guineas but obviously he looks a Derby-type horse and if he doesn’t go to the Guineas he’ll start in a trial. 

He’s not over big, a nice size. He looked mature as a two-year-old and obviously he has a great mind. 

What he did was very unusual when he won his maiden, he quickened up very well, and when he went to York I suppose the way he dominated the race and the pace he showed, and the way he quickened and found plenty made him look very exciting. 

We often see with those type of horses that it can be an advantage if they finish their seasons very fresh; he was nowhere near his end he had two very kind of easy runs; I don’t think Ryan even [used the stick] in York. He had two very good experiences I think and that can stand to them from two to three really. 

Pedigree: Wootton Bassett x Immortal Verse (Pivotal)

He loves good ground and probably likes to be produced late. He’s a very good mover so I’d imagine he’s a miler-type on nice ground.

Pedigree: Wootton Bassett x Entreat (Pivotal)

We always thought the world of him and we just probably didn’t get it right with him. 

He's a fast horse and able to quicken, he was super impressive in France [the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere] when Christophe [Soumillon] rode him and took his time on him, and he said when he quickened he put the race to bed very quick. He probably doesn’t do too much when he gets there so we learnt a lot about him as we went.

He’s a big and imposing individual as well, so physically you’d imagine he’d be better at three. 

Pedigree: Dubawi x Tepin (Bernstein)

He was a bit of a baby and a bit slow to learn on his first few runs but learnt as he went along and Ryan [Moore] was very impressed with him at Doncaster [in the Futurity Trophy] and felt he was still coming at the line. 

He’s a Dubawi but looks like a horse who’ll have no problem getting a mile and a quarter and could get a mile and a half. 

He has loads of scope - sometimes Dubawis can be a little bit short and strong – but he’s not and he’s a big rangy type, he’s out of that very good mare. 

He’s another one to look forward to as well.

Pedigree: Night Of Thunder x Scintilating (Siyouni)

She’s cantering at the moment, physically she’s done very well. 

She’s a very quick filly looking at her; we’ll be thinking of starting in the Guineas and seeing does she get a mile or not but she looks very exciting, really what she did in Ascot [in the Albany Stakea] she shouldn’t have been able to do. It’s a very difficult thing to get stopped once in Ascot, and I think she might have got checked twice or three times in the race and still won very easily. 

She’s a very strong physical, she’s big and powerful and she has loads of scope. She’s in the ‘could be anything’ category.