Princess Child

The breakthrough moment came at Galway in August 2025, when jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle described knowing the race was won the moment they straightened for home, the horses in front of them "paddling" as Princess Child picked them up. It was the kind of win that felt like relief as much as celebration. O'Brien had been campaigning her hard specifically to get her head in front in a stakes race — she had been placed in that grade so many times without winning that the black type was piling up without that all-important victory next to her name. Then came Tipperary just weeks later, a second stakes win, and O'Brien put it plainly afterwards: she deserved it, and now she had it. "She is a Group winner now," he said, "which is kind of job done."

Her best distance is between seven furlongs and a mile, where she has won 2 of 7 races — roughly 1 in every 3.5 attempts at those trips, a markedly better record than across her career overall where the figure is closer to 1 in 8. It is a meaningful difference, and O'Brien clearly has that in mind as he plots her season. She ran a fine second in the Express Stakes behind Celestial Orbit on her most recent outing, and her trainer has flagged a potential rematch in the Lanwades Stud Stakes as a target.

O'Brien's yard has been in tremendous form this season, sending out 160 winners — a volume that speaks to a serious operation — and Princess Child is one of the horses they are clearly still ambitious about. She last raced just one day ago, is very much a live, active campaigner, and if her recent form of two wins and a second from her last three completed runs is anything to go by, there may be more to come.