The Lion In Winter

The breakthrough came at The Curragh in July 2024, and from that point things accelerated quickly. Six weeks later, he landed a Class 1 — one of the top races in Britain — at York on the 21st of August, a result that confirmed the promise his placed efforts had been quietly signalling all along. Trainer Aidan O'Brien, whose yard at Cashel has sent out 144 winners already this season, spent the winter sharpening him up with a specific target in mind: the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury, one of the most prestigious mile races on the calendar.

The groundwork for that campaign began at Leopardstown in April, where The Lion In Winter won five weeks ago in what O'Brien described as a deliberate warm-up run — he admitted the horse got a little tired, but was clear that he hadn't wanted him peaking too early. "He has a lot of racing to do this year," O'Brien said, signalling that this is a horse being managed carefully over the long haul rather than aimed at one big day.

In Class 1 company specifically, he has won 1 from 4 races — a 25% win rate, or one in every four runs at the very top level. That is a respectable return in races where every rival is supposed to be exceptional. His jockey at Ascot, Christophe Soumillon, offered a detail that suggests there may be more to come: "He quickened up very well," Soumillon said — and a horse who can find another gear late in a race at this level is exactly the kind of horse who wins big days. Having raced just yesterday, The Lion In Winter is firmly in the thick of what looks like the most ambitious campaign of his career so far.