Breeders' Cup Breakthrough: Willie Mullins Reflects on a Historic Upset

Minutes after Ethical Diamond (Awtaad) shattered the Del Mar clock in the 2025 GI Breeders' Cup Turf, on-site analysts declared it to be one of the most remarkable wins in the World Championship's 42-year history. The 5-year-old gelding had not just defied his 27-1 odds; he had completely rewritten a cross-disciplinary rulebook.

Seven months later, National Hunt legend Willie Mullins is still wearing the quiet smile of a man who pulled off the ultimate heist in transitioning a maiden hurdle winner at Punchestown in February into a Breeders' Cup champion by November.

From his home amidst the rolling green of Closutton, Mullins was happy to relive his first Breeders' Cup experience. When asked if he agreed that the achievement belongs in the record books, his genial nature momentarily parted to reveal a razor-sharp drive underneath.

“I think so, yeah,” Mullins reflected. “There was no way we would have dreamt of seriously taking on those horses at home. It shows that you've got to try. It was one of the biggest wins, I'd say, in Closutton's history. To win a Breeders' Cup flat race, you can't get better than that.”

Breaking the traditional mold has long been a feature of Mullins's operation. Before building his own powerhouse yard, he learned under his father, Paddy Mullins, and served as an assistant to Jim Bolger. Yet around the time he struck out on his own in 1987, Mullins found a wildly unconventional third source of inspiration in Monty Roberts, the American cowboy who traveled the globe teaching natural horsemanship. Mullins attended one of his lectures at Phoenix Park.

“A lot of people were saying that it was a load of crap,” Mullins recalled. “I actually bought into it. It was like a man telling me how to speak Russian in an hour. He spoke to his horses in a whole different language. Whereas we'd been brought up with a sort of English cavalry method of breaking and training horses, he had a whole different outlook on it.”

Mullins implemented the ideology into his everyday training regime. He recalled how he sent one filly to two different specialists and both quickly sent her back saying she couldn't be broken. He brought the horse home and instructed one of his riders using Roberts's method.

“I had him riding her in the yard in 20 minutes,” he said. “It was amazing stuff.”

Still today, as the most successful conditioner in Cheltenham Festival history and the winningest trainer across Irish racing, Mullins relies on the wisdom gained from those early influences.

“When I have a difficulty at home here, I always think what would my father have done and normally that sorts it out, especially dealing with owners,” he said. “And then having the Monty Roberts way of doing things, that just opened every door in my book.”

The ability to decode an equine mind is just one layer of how Mullins dominates the jumps sphere while simultaneously raiding the Flat, an approach that ultimately led to Ethical Diamond's metamorphosis.

Ethical Diamond wins at Punchestown | Racing Fotos

Purchased for 320,000gns as a 3-year-old winner on the Flat, Ethical Diamond broke his maiden over hurdles in his sixth start for Mullins. Moving back to the Flat later that summer, the gelding won at Ascot and then captured the Ebor Handicap at York, prompting Mullins to begin mapping out a Group 1 campaign. Owner H O S Syndicate, which was founded by Andrew and Margaret Heffernan, already had a horse running in the G1 Melbourne Cup, so Mullins came up with the idea to run Ethical Diamond three days earlier at the Breeders' Cup.

Fortuitously, this plan also allowed Mullins to fulfill a lifelong ambition.

“Del Mar is a place I've always wanted to have an excuse to go to,” Mullins admitted. “We made our plans to go and H O S Syndicate was game enough because I rang Margaret Heffernan and I told her, 'We're not going to finish first, second or third. We probably won't finish fourth or fifth. If the favorite gets a bad draw and we get a good one, we might finish sixth.'”

Mullins credits Dylan Browne McMonagle, who was fresh off a season as Ireland's champion jockey, for coming up with the winning game plan. McMonagle spent the 48 hours leading up to the Turf studying Del Mar's track bias.

Mullins admitted that when Ethical Diamond broke last from the outside post and raced at the back of the field, he began to second-guess the entire adventure.

Celebrating at the Breeders' Cup | Breeders' Cup Eclipse Sportswire

“For most of the race I was wondering what was happening and I said, 'Oh jeez, the horse is going to make a show of us now,'” Mullins recalled. “Then I could just see Dylan winding him up coming into the far end and the further he went, the better he was. I thought to myself, 'Wow, at least we're going to have a top six finish.'”

It wasn't until about fifteen strides before the wire that Mullins finally considered the possibility of winning the race. Having the Charlie Appleby trainees Rebel's Romance (Dubawi) and El Cordobes (Frankel) round out the top three only added to the irony of Mullins's pre-race run-in with the Godolphin trainer.

“I asked Charlie where to watch and he said I should come out and stand on the edge of the track, which I did,” Mullins said with a wry smile. “So then when we were in Dubai this year, I asked Charlie where I should watch.”

Appleby good-naturedly told Mullins that he could find his own place to watch from here on out.

“What I found extraordinary is that we were looking at horses that you couldn't get near in Europe and here he was flying by them,” Mullins reflected. “I think a combination of tactics, ground and the makeup of the racetrack–it's a very tight racetrack–just suited our fellow more than the others. The Breeders' Cup were great hosts. The only pity was I had to leave so early and get on the flight to Melbourne.”

If tactics were the driving force behind the Turf triumph, Mullins admitted they were also the roadblock behind Ethical Diamond's flat six-year-old debut in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic, where the gelding could only rally for fifth.

I Am Maximus, Nick Rockett, State Man, Galopin Des Champs, Ethical Diamond, Energumene | courtesy Willie Mullins

“It's easy to be wise afterwards,” he acknowledged. “We used the wrong tactics, but we learned from that and I think the lessons we learned there will suit us later on in the season, especially in European racing rather than American racing.”

After a trip to Royal Ascot, Ethical Diamond will point toward a return to the Breeders' Cup. Mullins indicated that the stepping stone will likely be the G1 King George IV and Queen Elizabeth Stakes on July 25, which offers a 'Win and You're In' ticket back to the Turf.

“I imagine most of the time we would be running for place money rather than win money, but to have a horse good enough to go to those places is an achievement in itself from our point of view,” said Mullins.

Of course, Mullins has played the unsuspecting underdog in similar spots before.

The racing titan said he will always consider last year's Grand National victory with his son Patrick riding Nick Rockett to be the most meaningful achievement of his career, but among his mountain of other accomplishments over the years, the Breeders' Cup sits near the top.

“I'm very proud of what we've done here at Closutton,” he said. “We had a photo shoot the other day with the Grand National, Champion Hurdle, Gold Cup, Champion Chase and Breeders' Cup winners. I'm not sure any yard will ever do that ever again.”