The year 2025 has already been a blockbuster. Consider the Grand National at Aintree, where an emotional, teary-eyed Willie Mullins didn’t just reach the summit; he planted his family flag and claimed the entire mountain.
Five of the top seven homes are included in the entire top three, culminating in a father-son fairytale as Patrick Mullins powered Nick Rockett to a victory that was equal parts Hollywood ending and Irish sporting folklore. Yet, for all the heartstrings tugged and headlines made, what truly resonates is the unrelenting ambition: Willie Mullins, now closer than ever to a second British trainers’ title—and still, as ever, searching for new heights.
On the flat, the tempo has been white-hot from the tapes. Royal Ascot gleamed under a relentless June sun, the five-day festival ablaze with international brilliance and a record-breaking 286,000-strong crowd. Trawlerman pulverized the Gold Cup field in 4:15.02, a new mark etched alongside the most dominant staying performances in modern memory. In the St. James’s Palace Stakes, Field Of Gold—revving like a thoroughbred motorcycle, to steal jockey Colin Keane’s metaphor—stamped his authority with daylight between him and the rest of the field.
But while so many stories have already been written this year, plenty more narratives are still about to unfold. Here are four huge races still to come before 2026 rolls around, and what fans can expect to see in the coming weeks and months.
Breeders’ Cup Classic
There are horse races, and then there is the Breeders’ Cup Classic—a multi-million dollar, mile-and-a-quarter cauldron where reputations are forged or broken before a global audience. On November 1, Del Mar will stage the sport’s North American summit, and the air crackles with anticipation.
Sovereignty seizes the favourite’s label with online horse betting sites, and he does so with ironclad logic. The latest Bovada horse betting odds currently have him trading at 6/4 after a 10-length Travers Stakes masterclass that sent handicappers scrambling for superlatives. Unbeaten at the Classic distance, backed by Godolphin’s gilded operation, he has become the axis around which power rankings revolve.
Sovereignty… again?! This horse is a PROBLEM. #BelmontStakes
pic.twitter.com/gL4LQU7nKQ— Bovada (@BovadaOfficial) June 7, 2025
Still, this race breeds upsets and unearths vulnerabilities—Fierceness and reigning champion Sierra Leone linger just behind in the betting, both with an arsenal of closing speed that could unpick even the most formidable lead. In a year defined by astonishing margins and instant-classic duels, the Classic’s outcome could hinge on a single tactical misstep or a blinding moment of sustained brilliance.
The Everest
If the Breeders’ Cup Classic is horse racing’s answer to the Super Bowl, The Everest is its Las Vegas—fast, brash, impossibly high-stakes, where money talks and only the rapidly exceptional need apply.
Set for the end of October at Royal Randwick in New South Wales, Australia, this lucrative lightning bolt over six furlongs has, since 2017, upended every orthodoxy in world sprinting. Here, the titans of speed clash for riches that would make even Sheikh Mohammed blink.
No runner comes into Randwick with more media heat than Ka Ying Rising. Honed on the brutal Hong Kong circuit, installed as a short-priced 1.50 favourite following a string of world-best speed figures, and guided by Zac Purton—whose judgement from the saddle borders on clairvoyant—he looks a beast apart. Yet, The Everest has never been short on curveballs.
Local hero Think About It, the People’s Horse, is all acceleration and attitude at bigger odds. The sectional times, though, don’t lie—Ka Ying Rising can rip through the final two furlongs faster than anything seen at Randwick since the race’s inception. The only question? Can the visitors complete their coup, or will the Sydney siege mentality summon an upset for the ages?
Champion Stakes
Ascot’s QIPCO Champion Stakes is the cerebral jewel in Europe’s end-of-season crown—a Group 1, mile-and-a-quarter contest. Since 1877, this race has anointed giants: Frankel, Cracksman, and Magical among them. Its allure? The best of Britain, Ireland, France, and sometimes farther afield, meeting for divisional supremacy on soft, autumnal ground.
All eyes now fall on Ombudsman, the Godolphin star leading the ante-post markets at 2.60. With a glittering Royal Ascot victory in the logbook and a closing kick tailor-made for testing conditions, he is a clear statistical standout. Still, intrigue abounds: Calandagan sits close at 3.25, packing a formidable turn of foot, and Derby hero Delacroix, already a Classic winner, stalks with intent.
Who has the stamina to navigate the straight and solve the tactical puzzle Ascot so often throws up? Ombudsman’s mix of speed and intelligence gives him the analyst’s edge, but anything less than perfect execution, and rivals will pounce.
King George VI Chase
Boxing Day’s sporting crown returns to Kempton Park: the King George VI Chase, a Grade 1, three-mile gallop through winter’s heart that’s shaped the legends of jumps racing since 1937. Here, stamina, bravery, and flawless jumping aren’t just virtues—they’re prerequisites. This race immortalized both Kauto Star and Desert Orchid, both icons who racked up a mighty nine victories between them, five to the former and four to the latter.
For 2025, the heat of expectation falls on Fact To File—3/1 favourite, trained by Willie Mullins and himself a monument to precision. His annihilation of the field in the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham earlier this year, coupled with measured Gold Cup ambitions, makes him the statistical pick and the emotional favourite. But the narrative is far from settled.
Gaelic Warrior (9/2) has tactical guile, while former Grand National winner Il Est Francais (9/1) could thrive if conditions turn testing. Factor in adverse weather and the unpredictability of British chase fences, and the stage is set for an endurance epic where only the surest will survive.
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