Ethical Diamond wins Breeders’ Cup Turf
Just when you were thinking that Willie Mullins had scaled just about every peak that he could possibly scale, he goes and wins the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar last night with Ethical Diamond.
Willie who? they said when Ethical Diamond arrived in California. They generally don’t follow National Hunt racing in America. Legendary steeplechase trainer, said the people who knew more. And Ethical Diamond? Four of his previous six races had been over hurdles, they said, and the two flat races in which he ran were handicaps, not graded races. They sent him off at 20/1, and it could have been a multiple of that.
But that was all to reckon without the genius of Willie Mullins. More Cheltenham Festival winners than any other trainer ever, perennial champion National Hunt trainer in Ireland and dual champion in Britain. The 1-2-3 in last season’s Grand National, and five of the first seven. Royal Ascot winners and, if the ball had hopped a little more kindly for him in Australia, he would be a Melbourne Cup-winning trainer too.
“I’ve always said that winning the Grand National with Patrick on board was special,” Mullins told NBC in the immediate aftermath of the race. “But this might come second best.”
Ethical Diamond’s last two races may have been handicaps, but they were the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Ebor at York, and he had won both races impressively. And he had Dylan Browne McMonagle for company last evening.
If ever you needed another reminder of the immense talent of the young Donegal man, the newest Irish champion jockey, you had it in Del Mar last evening. Ethical Diamond was last into the stalls, stall 14 of 14, widest of all, and he was last out of them. Fourteenth of 14 as they raced down the back the straight to the first turn, his rider quickly had him across behind runners and onto the inside rail, saving ground as they raced around the first two turns.
From there, he made his ground gradually. Thirteenth as they raced up past the stands with a circuit to run, 12th as they started down the back straight final time, and travelling well as Silawi took them along at a good pace. The rider took a tug as they started around the final two bends, no more than two wide when they started to turn, then out and making his ground among horses.
Three wide when he asked him for his effort and still only ninth, he went widest of all around the home turn and into clear sailing. Minnie Hauk hit the front at the top of the home straight, she went on from Goliath as Rebel’s Romance set off in pursuit, in the early throes of the Ballydoyle-Godolphin match that many had anticipated coming to fruition in the Turf. But that battle never really got the chance to materialise because, as soon as Rebel’s Romance was out into the clear, Ethical Diamond was setting sail down the outside, momentum up. He hit the front with just less than a furlong to run, and he cleared away to win by over a length from Rebel’s Romance.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” said Mullins. “I was counting the horses around him going down into the last bend, and I thought, Dylan, have you gone mad going around the outside?! But he did tell me he was going to do that. And then, when I looked at where he was and the speed he was going, I said, this is going to be on. And next thing, I said a furlong down, this is over.”
Ethical Diamond was Mullins’ first Breeders’ Cup runner.
“I have to give a shout out to David Casey,” the trainer said. “He does a lot of my entries, and he said, let’s do the Breeders’ Cup with this fellow.”
It was a landmark winner for Dylan Browne McMonagle, another milestone in a year of milestones for the young man from Letterkenny.
“It’s an unbelievable training performance by Willie Mullins,” the rider said. “He’s something else. He was expecting him to run a nice race. To be placed would be huge. I was quietly confident myself beforehand. His form is very very good. He’s a horse who likes to relax and when he can relax he can do everything good. He won the Ebor on his last start in York, and it was like he joined in at the two-pole. It takes a good horse to do that. The trip was never going to be a problem. From a wide draw, we decided to take back and relax. Thankfully we went a good gallop, and it was a nice smooth race for me. I travelled into it really good, I could go where I wanted. We thought we’d be staying in and riding for a bit of luck, but I had so much horse everywhere, I was able to go where I wanted, and he bolted up.”
He will be officially crowned Irish champion jockey of 2025 at The Curragh today, the last day of the Irish flat season.
“This is unbelievable,” he said. “It doesn't get much better than this. To have a few rides here is huge, but to win one of the biggest races of the weekend is massive. So a massive thanks to everyone who has got me here, and for the connections and Willie to have the faith in me. I was delighted to get the opportunity, and thankfully we paid it off.”
© The Sunday Times, 2nd November 2025
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