Internationals Shine Bright Like A Diamond at Del Mar

[Wandering Eyes]

DEL MAR, USA — “I'm just glad Willie Mullins doesn't train too many Flat horses,” said Charlie Appleby after his dual Breeders' Cup winner Rebel's Romance was relegated to the sidings by the runaway train that is Ethical Diamond. The five-year-old's jaw-dropping performance in the Turf, in partnership with Ireland's new champion jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle, had even Mullins stunned as he attempted to take in the magnitude of this latest landmark in his extraordinary career. 

Plenty of trainers will agree with Appleby – and the latter did at least gain some recompense later in the afternoon with his fourth win in five years in the Breeders' Cup Mile, while Francis Graffard notched a breakthrough win in the Filly & Mare Turf with Gezora and Yoshito Yahagi took the most coveted prize of the Classic with the outstanding Forever Young. But it is Mullins's primary association which makes his latest achievement under the Californian sun all the more remarkable. He's a jumps trainer, right? Cheltenham and Punchestown are his regular domains, not Del Mar. Well, not until Saturday anyway.

Ethical Diamond's route to his record-shattering romp over some of the best middle-distance horses in the world would appear to be as unorthodox as they come until you consider the stable in which he is trained. From finishing 15th of 19 in a handicap hurdle in the hands of the late Michael O'Sullivan at Leopardstown's Christmas meeting, the Awtaad gelding broke his maiden over hurdles at the fifth time of asking at Punchestown just over a month later. Thereafter, he has kept some pretty fancy company: at Cheltenham, then in the Scottish Champion Hurdle at Ayr, before winning at Royal Ascot, York and now Del Mar.

“My only pressure was that we wouldn't be tailed off and make a holy show of ourselves,” said Mullins as he beamed his way through the press conference aided by a ready supply of large Bourbons handed to him by the Breeders' Cup's Josh Christian. There's still time, if the Bourbon keeps flowing at the rate. 

“I very rarely celebrate before the line, but when he hit the front I think I was celebrating a furlong out, which is unlike me, but then it's pretty unlike me to have a winner at the Breeders' Cup.”

Flanked by the Heffernan brothers Michael and Andrew, Mullins set about describing to those gathered how he had calmed the headstrong Ethical Diamond, whose top-level win was delivered at odds of 28/1.

“Normally with the Irish horses coming to America, we gun them up to try to get out of the stalls quick. We were doing the opposite with this fellow,” he said. “We put a hood on him to slow him down. When Dylan jumped out, he just wheeled him across and behind and just got him relaxed and got him spitting out the bit. 

“He's just improving now that we have refined the tactics. He can be a very difficult ride. Now that we have figured out the best tactic for him, it's turned him inside out. And Dylan being the guy he is, he's very cool, and he executed it perfectly.”

There was little time for Browne McMonagle to enjoy the festivities as he had a plane to catch for home, where it will doubtless start to sink in that he is now his country's champion jockey for the first time.

“He's a different class: jumps, Flat, anywhere around the world, he turns up every time,” the jockey said of Mullins before he departed. “It's great to top off the year that we've had. It is unbelievable.”

Mullins will now reply on the services of Kerrin McEvoy for his next mission in Melbourne, where he will saddle Absurde for the same owners in a bid to add 'the race that stops the nation' to his burgeoning list of major Flat wins. Australia had once been on the radar for Ethical Diamond, but the strict veterinary protocols for the Melbourne Cup had rendered him ineligible. 

“My assistant trainer, David Casey, came up with this plan,” Mullins said of his Breeders' Cup challenge. “I thought, why not? We're not going to try to win it. We'll come over here to finish fifth or sixth hopefully. When I saw the entries and our draw at 14, I said maybe sixth or seventh or eighth. Then when Aidan's horse [Gstaad] won from 14 yesterday, that gave me a little bit more confidence that it can be done. If you can do it over a mile, then a mile and a half, it should be easy.”

For Charlie Appleby and William Buick the day was to improve significantly when Notable Speech coasted round the rails to give trainer and jockey their fourth success in the Mile – most notably all won with sons of Dubawi.

“Last year, he was the highest-profile horse we ever brought here,” said Appleby of the 2,000 Guineas winner who finished third in the same race in 2024. “He is tailor-made for this track.”

He added, “Then Will's ride around there was copybook. If you could ever write a script on how to go around there, that was how. He got him out, got a nice pitch two or three back and we always knew we have the cutaway here—even if he was a couple lengths off them at the cutaway, he's got that electric turn of foot that we've seen throughout his career.”

With Darley having already announced the retirements of Rosallion, Inisherin and Shadow Of Light to the European stallion roster for 2026, Appleby said that he was hopeful that Notable Speech will remain in training as a five-year-old.

Gezora may now stay on in America to race closer to home for her owner Peter Brant, but she has played a significant role in a tremendous season for Francis Graffard, who stands on the cusp of his first trainers' championship after wins in the Arc, Champion Stakes, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Prix de Diane, Poule d'Essai des Pouliches and now a Breeders' Cup.

“This season has been pretty much incredible,” he acknowledged. “We've had very nice horses, but it's a lot of work but everything went really well with us through the season. We've been able to win these amazing races and it's created a lot of emotion and we've enjoyed that very much.”

Graffard may not be finished yet as he heads next to Tokyo for the Japan Cup with Calandagan. And indeed, the international racing circuit through next winter and spring will also benefit from appearances from Forever Young (Real Steel) – who will surely aim to defend his Saudi Cup crown – as well as Notable Speech and Ethical Diamond. 

Yoshito Yahagi and Charlie Appleby know their way around the Middle East but Willie Mullins may need a little help. Asked whether Ethical Diamond will be pointed towards the Dubai Sheema Classic, he replied, “When's that?” Once furnished with the late March date, he added, “Well, I'll be home from Cheltenham by then anyway.”

Prior to that, however, and before the jumps season kicks in properly, he has the Melbourne Cup on his mind for a syndicate set up by Andrew and Margaret Heffernan just so they could see more of their grandchildren. 

Mullins recalled, “Margaret rang me up one day and said, 'Willie, I want you to get a horse or two for my grandchildren. I only meet them at funerals and weddings, and none of the little feckers are getting married anymore, and I don't want to meet them at my funeral so I want an excuse to go to big meetings, to bring all my grandchildren to the races.' 

Little could Margaret have imagined that her plan would end up with two of her grandsons hightailing it straight from LA to Melbourne in pursuit of an audacious Group/Grade 1 double within the space of three days.

They may yet enjoy a fairytale ending but it was not to be for Frankie Dettori, whose final three Breeders' Cup rides included a gallant third for the nine-year-old Khaadem in the Turf Sprint.

“I enjoyed my last ride,” he told Matt Chapman after dismounting from the Mitsu Nakauchida-trained Argine. “Perhaps I didn't give her my best ride but I am thankful that I can walk off from the sport in one piece. I've had a tremendous career and I've really enjoyed it.

“I was prepared for it and luckily for me I had one dress rehearsal two years ago. It's finished and we're going to close this chapter and open a new one.”

Dettori will long be remembered for the many glorious – and a few controversial – chapters of his extraordinary career in the saddle. Saturday was a day for new champions to be crowned and, as ever, the Breeders' Cup delivered those memorable championship moments in rapid succession. 

 

 

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