Jan Brueghel

The career arc has been fast and steep. He broke his duck at The Curragh in May 2024, won a Class 1 at Goodwood in August, then followed up at Doncaster in September — and after that, jockey Sean Levey was already talking about him as a potential Gold Cup horse, a stayer capable of stepping up in trip and competing over much longer distances. That kind of talk after a single season is not thrown around lightly. His most recent win, the Coronation Cup at Epsom in June 2025, was another Class 1, and O'Brien noted afterwards that Jan Brueghel simply does not surrender — pass him slowly and he will drag you back into it, ears pricked at the line like he's barely broken sweat.

Ryan Moore, one of the most celebrated jockeys in the world, has ridden him in 6 of his 7 races and they have won 4 of those together. That kind of partnership, where a trainer repeatedly puts his best rider on the same horse, tells you something about where this horse sits in the pecking order of a yard that has sent out 144 winners this season alone.

The one complication heading into 2026 is the absence. Jan Brueghel has not raced for around nine months, and any return from a long break carries a question mark. O'Brien has suggested the Coronation Cup — which he won last year — is back on the radar, with a prep run before it. The race has been boosted significantly in prize money this year, raising the stakes and likely the quality of the field. Whether Jan Brueghel comes back as good as he left is the only thing worth wondering about. Everything else in his record suggests the ceiling has not yet been found.