Sceptre Sessions Headliner Porta Fortuna “In A Great Place” And Could Race On

[Wandering Eyes]

Champion filly Porta Fortuna still has “plenty of racing left in her” according to trainer Donnacha O'Brien, who admitted that he will be experiencing “mixed emotions” when his stable star goes through the ring at the forthcoming December Mares Sale at Tattersalls.

The daughter of Caravaggio made it to the racecourse only once in 2025, when registering her eighth career win in May's G2 Lanwades Stud Stakes at the Curragh, but she has been given a clean bill of health by O'Brien ahead of her appearance during the second of the two Sceptre Sessions on Tuesday, December 2.

“She's always been a very, very sound filly throughout her career, other than the little tweak that we got before Ascot [after her win at the Curragh],” said the trainer. “She put on a good bit of weight when we gave her the break and we decided that we probably weren't going to get her to the [G1] Matron [Stakes] in time. When that happened, the owners took the decision just to keep her in light work until the sales and keep her happy and healthy, so that's what we're doing.”

He added, “She's in a great place now. She's a filly that potentially has plenty of racing left in her if that's what her new owners want. She's a special filly. She's achieved a lot already and possibly can achieve much more in the future.”

Certainly, whether she races again or not, Porta Fortuna has already put together a CV which identifies her as one of the most decorated fillies to have raced in Europe in recent years.

A four-time winner as a juvenile, including the G3 Albany Stakes and G1 Cheveley Park Stakes, she returned the following the season with a runner-up finish in the G1 1,000 Guineas, before winning at Royal Ascot for the second year in a row when beating five individual Group 1 winners in the G1 Coronation Stakes.

 

 

“My highlight of her racing career so far would probably be the Coronation in Ascot as a three-year-old,” O'Brien said of that memorable success. “It was probably the highest-quality race she ran in. She impressively beat the Cartier Champion Two-Year-Old filly in Opera Singer and obviously to do it on the biggest stage in Royal Ascot is very special.”

Porta Fortuna herself was crowned the Cartier Champion Three-Year-Old Filly at the end of 2024, having followed her Coronation victory with two further top-level triumphs in the Falmouth Stakes and Matron Stakes.

The horse of a lifetime for a partnership consisting of Taylor Made's Medallion Racing, Steve Weston, Dean Reeves and Barry Fowler, Porta Fortuna was bought privately after making a successful debut at the Curragh in the colours of her owner-breeder, the O'Brien family's Whisperview Trading Ltd.

She is the first foal out of Holy Roman Emperor's Too Precious, who is a full-sister to the triple Australian Group 2 winner and G1 Australian Cup runner-up Numerian, as well as the G3 Prix Francois Boutin third Montesilvano. This is also the family of the G1 St Leger-winning sire Milan and the Derby and Irish Derby hero and prolific sire Kahyasi.

O'Brien continued, “She was one of my picks of our homebreds when she was a yearling. Then, when she came in, she was very professional and did everything very nicely from day one. She was always a very precocious two-year-old.

“She's a very good-looking filly. She's not massively tall, but she's very scopey. She has great length and she's a great mover. She has a very strong backside on her, strong neck, shoulder and back – she's an impressive specimen.

“She's built probably like a fast filly, but she stretches out to a mile easily and probably would get a little bit further if we ever tried it. She looks quite like her sire Caravaggio in that sense.”

Characterising his stable flagbearer for the past three seasons, O'Brien added, “There's no badness in her. She's just a very hardy filly. She loves her work and loves everything she does.

“I'm really looking forward to the Tattersalls Sales and seeing her selling. Obviously, it'll be mixed emotions but, at the same time, it'll be exciting to see who's there and trying to buy her. Hopefully, it'll be a night to celebrate her, her career and everything she's achieved. It'll be exciting to find out what the next chapter holds for her.”

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