Donnacha O'Brien

Four-time Group 1 winner Porta Fortuna is set to headline this year's Tattersalls December Mares Sale. She will be consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency and will head the fourth edition of the Sceptre Sessions, which will be held on Monday, December 1 and Tuesday, December 2. Trained by Donnacha O'Brien for a partnership consisting of Taylor Made's Medallion Racing, Steve Weston, Dean Reeves and Barry Fowler, the daughter of Caravaggio will be offered as the winner of eight of her 13 starts and nearly £1.3 in total prize-money. A...

Cartier Champion three-year-old filly Porta Fortuna (Caravaggio) will miss the remainder of the season, according to a press release from the ownership group of Taylor Made's Medallion Racing, Steve Weston, Barry Fowler, and Dean Reeves. She will instead be prepared to be sold this fall at an as-yet-to-be-determined bloodstock sale. Porta Fortuna had a training setback in advance of the June 17 G1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, which would have marked an attempt at a third straight win at the Royal meeting. Her trainer, Donnacha O'Brien, reported that she...

Ana O'Brien made the breakthrough as an owner at Killarney on Wednesday when Group 1 entrant A Boy Named Susie (Starspangledbanner), who is trained by her brother Donnacha, created a big impression to land a race that Derby hero Lambourn was successful in 12 months ago. There was huge significance to Ana's first success as an owner given it came eight years after she suffered a career-ending fall at the track. Lambourn is not the only high-class horse to have emerged victorious from the Irish EBF Median Sires Series Race...

Leading bloodstock agent Mark McStay has labelled the ITM Barrier Trials as one of the most important innovations on the Irish racing scene for a number of years but implored more trainers to get behind the initiative ahead of the return of the concept at Naas on Monday.  This year marks the fifth running of the ITM Barrier Trials, with trainers like Joseph O'Brien, Gordon Elliott, Gavin Cromwell, Jessica Harrington, Henry de Bromhead and Donnacha O'Brien heavily represented across a 10-trial card that features races over six and seven furlongs...

Exposed on the wing the whole way through Sunday's G2 Lanwades Stud Stakes, Porta Fortuna had good reason to cave in on her seasonal return but that is just not her style. Defying any rustiness and a penalty in The Curragh's mile contest, last year's G1 Coronation Stakes, G1 Falmouth Stakes and G1 Matron Stakes heroine was delivered passing two out by Ryan Moore to take control and justify 5-4 favouritism by half a length from Gleneagles' One Look. Moore was truly in the zone on Sunday and in no...

Donnacha O'Brien has revealed that impressive Group 3 Athasi Stakes heroine Atsila will be supplemented for the Irish 1,000 Guineas at the Tuesday entries stage. Atsila did not make her debut until April this year when winning at Bellewstown before taking a massive step forward when landing the Athasi Stakes at the Curragh. "The plan is to supplement her on Tuesday for the 1,000 Guineas," O'Brien said. "Her form looks strong. To be fair to Barry [Fowler, owner] he is game for anything. It was my fault that I didn't...

Coming into Monday's G3 Coolmore Stud Auguste Rodin Irish EBF Athasi Stakes on the back of a debut win at modest Bellewstown, Barry Fowler's Atsila sprang a minor surprise to stake her Irish 1,000 Guineas claim over the same mile trip and Curragh track later this month. Belying inexperience by having the nous to thread between rivals under Gavin Ryan towards the business end, the daughter of Phoenix Of Spain who was a 11-1 shot overhauled the experienced Cercene inside the final 100 yards for a half-length verdict. There was...

It's exceedingly rare to see a Kentucky Derby point race run on a Tuesday, but thanks to a week of catastrophic weather in the Commonwealth, that's what is happening at Keeneland as a field of seven line up to contest the last of the major Derby preps--the GI Toyota Blue Grass Stakes. On the rail, and fortuitously drawn to the inside of a closer, is 'TDN Rising Star' River Thames (Maclean's Music). With the small field, the speedster will likely encounter considerably less traffic trouble than that post position would...

Everyone recognizes that with the glut of entertainment options today, it's harder and harder to provide experiences that really wow people. In the old days, a trainer would accept a horse from an owner, and hope to never hear from him again, or, to quote an old Charlie Whittingham adage, "Treat owners like mushrooms. Keep 'em in the dark and feed 'em horse manure." Those days are gone, and racing syndicates are now taking the game one step beyond mere communication—not only providing a constant stream of videos, trainer messages,...

The wait is almost over. With less than a month until the Flat season proper gets underway, what better time to draw up a list of under the radar runners, beginning with Brian Sheerin's nominations from Ireland. From potential Classic contenders to well-handicapped sprinters rated 76, our man in Ireland has put forward 10 horses who will hopefully prove profitable to follow this season. Giselle (Ire) Frankel (GB) filly out of Newspaperofrecord (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) Form: 213 Trainer: Aidan O'Brien Giselle could be one of the most exciting...

It's not that Medallion Racing, a branch of Taylor Made, didn't get off to a good start. It was anything but. A racing partnership whose goal is to gets its partners to experience racing at the highest levels around the world, Taylor Made was delivering on that promise. Out of 250 plus starts, Medallion, at one point had raced five Grade I winners, won 28 graded stakes and had 72 top-three finishes in graded stakes. But what it didn't have was a superstar, the type that could win multiple Grade...

He's been on board for both her Group 1 wins and on Wednesday morning Frankie Dettori was reunited with Emily Upjohn (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) for a spin on the grass track at Del Mar ahead of lining up for the Breeders' Cup Turf. It has been exactly a year since Europe's most recognisable jockey signed off with a Champion Stakes triumph in Britain before jetting to his new life in California. This new chapter started in the best possible way with another top-flight win, in the Breeders' Cup...