THOUGH he was a Royal Ascot winner and successful in the £500,000 Ebor Handicap at York this year, Ethical Diamond headed to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar having three wins on the flat and a single success over hurdles to his credit. None of these, or his placed runs, were in blacktype races.

While he had managed to win back all of his 320,000gns purchase price with those wins, the enormity of his achievement in taking home more than £2 million after his victory on Saturday cannot be emphasised enough. The impact of his victory and the manner in which it was achieved, in a new course record time, says so much about the genius that is Willie Mullins.

Gelded at two, Ethical Diamond was bred by William Kennedy in Tipperary, and raced in his wife Emma’s name when trained by Michael O’Meara. He raced three times for them at three, and won going away when stepped up to a mile and a half at Limerick. He next appeared in public at the Tattersalls July Sale.

After his move to Closutton, Ethical Diamond was unplaced in three starts over hurdles, admittedly twice in Grade 1s, and was to go winless in 2024, though running second in a Leopardstown handicap and fourth at Royal Ascot. He finally won a maiden hurdle at Punchestown in February this year and was fourth in the County Hurdle at Cheltenham. After the Scottish Champion Hurdle, in which he made no real impression, he had his attention turned back to the flat.

Always well regarded at home, he improved on his effort last year and won the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes at Royal Ascot this year. He was favourite again when readily winning the Ebor, and now he is a Grade 1 winner. While one is inclined to say that the win for Ethical Diamond at Del Mar was unbelievable, you can never say that where the five-year-old’s trainer is concerned. What the future holds for Ethical Diamond is exciting.

Hugely exciting

It is also a hugely exciting time for William Kennedy who, under Stanley Lodge, will offer a full-brother to Ethical Diamond at this month’s Goffs November Sale. He is just the fourth offspring of Pearl Diamond, a German three-year-old winning daughter of Areion (Big Shuffle). Pearl Diamond’s three-parts sister Precious Boy (Big Shuffle) won the Group 2 German 2000 Guineas and was runner-up in a Group 1.

This win for Ethical Diamond cements an already strong bond between Derrinstown Stud, where Awtaad (Cape Cross) stands, and William Kenndy. One of the first horses he bred, as Tullpark, was Bethrah, a daughter of the Derrinstown sire Marju (Last Tycoon). Kennedy sold her as a yearling for €160,000 to Shadwell. Bethrah is best known for winning the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas 15 years ago.

If you pay attention to my writings in this column you will know that Awtaad is my favourite stallion. He has everything, apart from always enjoying the support of breeders, especially when he was available for a giveaway €5,000. Thankfully he has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, and he will be much better represented in the years ahead, having had bigger books in recent seasons. Even with a very small crop of two-year-olds this year, numbering 29, Awtaad demonstrated his ability as a sire.

Awtaad’s juvenile crop this year has seen eight runners to date, five of which have won, and two are well above average. Magny Cours was runner-up in the valuable Tattersalls Ireland Super Auction race and again in the Group 3 Prix Miesque, while Awraad was beaten half a length in a listed race. The Derrinstown stallion added four new stakes winners in 2025, taking his tally to 15. In addition to Ethical Diamond, Waterford won a Group 2 in Australia, while the Shadwell-bred Naomi Lapaglia and Thalara won listed races.

There was a hugely significant breakthrough for Awtaad when the first of his daughters produced a stakes winner. Lifeplan (Kodi Bear) is the unbeaten winner of the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes and Declan Carroll believes that the colt is a worthy classic hope for 2026. One familiar son of Awtaad will be missing next year. Anmaat amassed more than €2 million during his career. He won the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan in 2023 and beat Calandagan in the 2024 Group 1 Champion Stakes.

WHAT a joy it was to see on social media that Welsh breeder Kelly Thomas was present at Del Mar to enjoy yet another top-level success for a colt that she bred. As she pointed out, she has four mares on nine acres, and yet is responsible for one of the best two-year-olds colts in both 2023 and 2025.

Thomas operates Maywood Stud in Carmarthenshire, and established the farm in 2003 after some years in equine education. She shot to prominence when breeding Vandeek (Havana Grey), one of the best European two-year-olds in 2023 who has just completed his first season at Cheveley Park Stakes, covering more than 160 mares. His juvenile half-brother Gstaad (Starspangledbanner) won the Group 2 Coventry Stakes, was runner-up in Group 1 races in France, Ireland and Britain, and fully deserved his Grade 1 success in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

Vandeek sold at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale for 625,000gns from Glending Stables, having cost 42,000gns. Gstaad was a different story for the breeder, and he sold as a foal to M.V. Magnier for 450,000gns on the back of Vandeek’s juvenile excellence. All of this is part of the fairytale story for Mosa Mine, a placed daughter of Exceed And Excel (Danehill).

Mosa Mine was bred by the then Kelly Strong, now Thomas. She sold as a four-year-old to Jill Lamb for £800, the agent repurchasing her for Thomas. In an 11-race career, Mosa Mine was in the care of four trainers, and came so close to winning for Jane Chapple-Hyam, beaten a head in a five-furlong maiden at three. She is a revelation in the breeding shed. A half-sister to five winners, Mosa Mine is herself the dam of six winners with her first six foals.

Mosa Mine has just two fillies, and one of these is back in the Maywood fold. A six-race winner in Sweden, Lady Kheleyf (Kheleyf) excitingly has a colt foal, just her second produce, by Gstaad’s sire, Coolmore’s Starspangledbanner (Choisir) in the Tattersalls next month. The other daughter of Mosa Mine is owned by Tally-Ho Stud.

Mosa Mine’s dam Baldemosa (Lead On Time) is a winning sibling to the Group 1 Prix Robert Papin heroine Balbonella (Gay Mescene), and she went on to become a most prolific breeder of high-class runners. They include champion European sprinter and successful sire, Anabaa (Danzig), Group 3 winner and Group 1 sire Key Of Luck (Chief’s Crown), and the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas winner Always Royal (Zilzal).

Starspangledbanner has covered 280 mares in the past two seasons at a fee of €45,000. He is approaching a landmark, with 47 stakes runners already to his credit, and his current crop of two-year-olds also includes Group 1 winner Precise (denied an opportunity to give the sire a second Breeders’ Cup winner this year), Group 3 winner Suzie Songs, and four other stakes winners. In addition, A Boy Named Susie was runner-up to Pierre Bonnard in a Group 1 recently in France.