Dorset

The Curragh, Ireland's most famous flat racing venue, already feels like home. Two wins from four races there is a record that suggests the track genuinely suits him, and his first career win came there on 28 June 2025. Jockey Jack Cleary painted a vivid picture after that day: Dorset jumped cleanly, led from the front, and simply refused to let anyone past. "He was really enjoying himself out in front," Cleary said. "He was very tough the whole way to the line." That is not just a horse winning a race — that is a horse winning it on its own terms.

He has not stopped progressing since. His last two races of 2025 produced back-to-back victories, including the Goffs Million — a prestigious sales race worth serious prize money — and a Group 3 race over seven furlongs at Leopardstown in October, where Cleary was quietly confident throughout. "I always felt I'd hold off Daytona," he said afterwards. Winning a Group 3 is significant: these are among the better-quality races in the sport, and doing so as a young, still-developing horse puts Dorset firmly in the conversation for the biggest prizes.

O'Brien's team are thinking big. The trainer has spoken openly about a Derby preparation, with the French Derby specifically mentioned as a potential target — a race run over a mile and a half in Paris that attracts the best three-year-old horses in Europe. That ambition is not idle talk. Cleary noted after The Curragh that Dorset should handle a mile fine, and with the horse having raced just seven times, there is every reason to believe his best is still ahead of him. When a yard of this size points a horse at a French Derby, it is worth paying attention.