Two of the world’s championship race meets, the Breeders’ Cup and the Melbourne Cup Carnival, offer up a feast for racing fans this weekend.
One of the biggest storylines is Aidan O’Brien’s chase for the single-season Group 1 record, which he set in 2017 when he won 28 elite-level races. He sits on 25 so far this year.
O’Brien has also won 11 more Group 1 races than any other trainer, with Chris Waller his nearest rival on 14. Both trainers will get the chance to build on their totals on either side of the Pacific.
But who have been the other Group 1 stars so far in 2025?
As of Sunday, 367 of 439 Group 1 races worldwide this year have been run; by the end of the two upcoming championship meets, that will sit at 399.
The 367 Group 1 races so far have been staged in 18 countries on six continents and at 69 racecourses. They have been won by 302 horses, bred in 15 countries, by 199 stallions. There have been 150 winning jockeys and 179 winning trainers.
Via Sistina’s thrilling Cox Plate win took her to the top of Group 1 winners worldwide, at least in volume. It was her fifth Group 1 win of the year, one more than Hong Kong’s Everest hero Ka Ying Rising, while 10 horses have won three.
She can make it six in the Champions Stakes on the final day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
Her pilot James McDonald is set to be named World’s Best Jockey for the second year in a row and the third time in four years. While that title is based solely on the top 100 Group 1 races, he is in the lead both in terms of quantity and quality.
McDonald has won 15 Group 1 races, two ahead of the injured Ryan Moore, four clear of William Buick and five more than Christophe Soumillon and Flavien Prat. Damian Lane and John Velazquez, both on nine, will ride in Japan and the United States respectively this weekend before taking on McDonald in the Melbourne Cup; they may be joined by Joao Moreira, who sits on seven.
Before the Melbourne Cup, McDonald will skip three Group 1 races on Victoria Derby Day, instead riding in the Golden Eagle in Sydney – perhaps the only Australian contest that actually deserves an upgrade to Group 1 status.
The Breeders’ Cup will go a long way to determining whether the United States or Ireland is top of the breeding world – and in that respect, it is every bit the world championships it professes to be.
To date, there have been 59 individual American-bred Group 1 winners who have won a combined 73 Grade 1 races. The Irish have produced 52 individual Group 1 winners, but collectively they have won 71 features.
The upcoming festivals will also go a long way to determining the leading Group 1 stallion globally. It is likely to be Wootton Bassett, whose unexpected death last month left a hole in Coolmore’s stallion ranks; he has sired nine Group 1 winners who have won 11 features between them.
Dubawi and Frankel have both produced six Group 1 winners, while Into Mischief has produced five – alongside Night Of Thunder and Snitzel – but his sons have won a combined nine Grade 1 races, led by top three-year-old Sovereignty.
Where Wootton Bassett is likely to maintain his advantage over Into Mischief is that, in addition to the Breeders’ Cup, he also has key chances lining up at the Melbourne Cup Carnival, including Al Riffa and Presage Nocturne in the Melbourne Cup, Gallo Nero in the Coolmore Stud Stakes and Providence in the Victoria Derby. ∎
