‘His Turn Of Foot Got Him Out Of Trouble’: Moore Delivers Delacroix In Time, Tenth Eclipse For O’Brien

[Wandering Eyes]

Saturday's G1 Coral-Eclipse said everything there is to know about the combined power of Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore as Coolmore's number one picked Delacroix and picked right again to extend his trainer's tally to 10. Undone by Epsom when the selected of the stable's Derby crew, the creation of a dream Dubawi-Tepin connection looked unlikely to play a part here as well inside the final two furlongs with all rivals still to pass but flew up the hill to deny the 6-4 favourite Ombudsman (Night Of Thunder) close home.

“It was a steadily-run race for that class of race, but this horse has a really good turn of foot and it made the difference,” Moore said of the heavily-supported 3-1 second favourite, who delivered the surge that had characterised his Derby preps this spring to beat Godolphin's market-leader by a neck. Ruling Court (Justify) was another 1 3/4 lengths away in third.

“It wasn't the first or the second or the third plan! He began okay, but nobody really wanted to make the running and I had to give way to William [Buick] as he was on an older, bigger horse. I thought we'd wait and go around, then Camille Pissarro came, so we had to wait again, but it was a good turn of foot that got him out of trouble.”

“He was the only horse here that hadn't won a Group 1, but he'd threatened to and right from the start as a two-year-old he's been held in high regard and he's obviously out of a great racemare and by Dubawi.”

What. A. Race

storms home to win the 50th running of the @Coral-Eclipse.

That's three successive Eclipses for Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore @coolmorestud | @Ballydoyle pic.twitter.com/MTBgJeGGTP

— Racing TV (@RacingTV) July 5, 2025

Handed TDN Rising Star status at The Curragh in August, Delacroix showed incremental improvement on his later juvenile tests without starting any fires. He showed in all three of his Pattern races that he could battle, but came out on the wrong side twice with Hotazhell (Too Darn Hot) edging the photo for the Futurity Trophy.

Forging his way to the top of the pecking order for the Blue Riband with emphatic wins in Leopardstown's key preps, the Ballysax and Derby Trial, he was all at sea in the main event and rolled home in ninth as the Ballysax runner-up Lambourn flew the flag. To many, it was a surprise that he was able to draw Ryan Moore from a Classic winner in Camille Pissarro (Wootton Bassett) in the lead-up but the way the market spoke beforehand it was increasingly clear as the clock ran down that he was very much the one here.

This was far from a fast-run Eclipse for the first five furlongs, with Sosie (Sea The Stars) and Hotazhell not pressing on from the front and Ombudsman denied the strong tempo he enjoyed at Royal Ascot. Having broken well, Delacroix was eventually forced to race in a pocket with Ombudsman sent forward out wide to keep tabs on the leading pair.

From three out, the dash began and in a hot final quarter mile Ombudsman saw off Camille Pissarro and looked to have it won but as he paid for his early exertions up the hill to the line Delacroix had the reserves to produce an impressive final sectional to nail it.

This was in many ways the race that first announced Ryan Moore to the world with his 2007 masterclass on Notnowcato and the rider now has five in the bag, with four of the last five among them. It was the 3-year-olds who held sway once again, making it five in a row and a distinct pattern in the process in this stallion-making race.

Aidan O'Brien was quick to pay tribute to the jockey who keeps making the operation's dreams come true on these big days. “I'd say it was one of his best rides,” he said. “It was kind of a fog to me, as there was so much happening but it looked incredible. We see him do it so often, whether it is from the front or the back.”

“We see Ryan every day and the things he does. I don't know how long he has been riding for us now, but I say every year he gets better. He makes himself better all the time. He was calm, collected and clinical there.”

Of Delacroix, he added, “When you can relax and quicken like that over a mile and a quarter it is a brilliant thing to have up your sleeve. He came at the death and it was mind-blowing from where he came from.”

John Gosden said of the runner-up, “It didn't turn out the way we thought, but he has run a wonderful race. He was trapped rather wide and he got close to a pace where the others have ended out the back with it and Delacroix has run us down late. Full marks to the winner and he has outstayed the lot of them and at the end it was down to stamina.”

Charlie Appleby said of Ruling Court, “Ten furlongs is his trip. Of course you want to go out and win, but I came here with the mindset that if I finish third in this calibre I will take a lot of positives out of it. It was a race that none of us expected to be run like that if I'm brutally honest with you. It wasn't our original plan to be where we were, but one thing I will say is that we know we are going now and that is to Deauville for the Prix Guillaume d'Ornano. He is a horse next year that hopefully we will be working back from a Prince Of Wales's Stakes.”

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