From soaring Hawk to dazzling Daryz: 10 equine stars who'll light up the summer
GIDDY UP: Ronan Whelan onboard Hawk Mountain comes home to win the Qatar Racing & Equestrian Club Beresford Stakes at the Curragh in September 2025. Pic: Tom Maher, Inpho
It’s June already and with the Epsom Derby on Saturday and Royal Ascot following close behind, the curtain has come down on act one of the 2026 flat season.
The stage is set, and the props are all in place for a summer of high drama. Here are ten horses who should add to the gaiety of the coming months.
It’s getting increasingly difficult to properly contextualise the achievements of Aidan O’Brien. Excellence at Ballydoyle is almost routine and expected so last season came and went with just the 26 Group One winners, only two short on his own world record in 2017. This season is promising to be just as good and Ballydoyle has already struck gold in several of the early season classics. Hawk Mountain should continue to be one of his leading contenders in the better middle-distance contests. He won three from four last year including a game half-length win from stable mate, Action, in the Futurity Stakes at Doncaster last October. He looked impressive on his reappearance when winning a Group Three at Chantilly last week and subsequently played second fiddle to Constitution River in an orchestrated Ballydole attack on the Frech Derby last week. He won’t be troubled by ‘give’ in the ground as the season progresses.
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Joseph O’Brien is building a career that could be even more remarkable than his father’s, given the variability and range of his successes. Although placed in both Irish and English Derby’s last year Tennessee Stud was short of the pace to make it as a top-class middle-distance colt but relished the longer distance when winning over a mile and seven at the Arc meeting at Longchamp in October. He’s had a couple of pipe openers this spring and Joseph will wind him up gently through the summer before a possible tilt at the Melbourne Cup in November.
Ralph Beckett, who trains his string at the picturesque village of Kimpton in Hampshire, has worked hard for years to become an overnight success. His best season came in 2024 when among his 127 winners were Bluestocking in the Arc and Starlust in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. He has some decent group race ammunition with the likes of Qirat and Pride of Arras, but he will need others to up their game if he is to maintain upward momentum. Bay of Brilliance is a candidate. A half-brother to Absurde the New Bay colt won twice at two, finishing his season with an eight-length romp at Redcar. Prior to that he beat Study of Words at Goodwood who won next time out by fifteen lengths. He impressed on his return when second in the Lingfield Derby trial and is 14/1 for Saturday’s classic and much, much stranger things have happened.
Like Ralph Beckett, Karl Burke has also been enjoying a lucrative time in recent seasons, reaching a career best total of 134 winners last year. He has already hit the ground running this season when Royal Champion grabbed over one and a half million euros when winning a Group One race in Saudi Arabia in February.
King of Cities was transferred to Burke from Richard Hannon after this tough and genuine four-year-old gained a rating of 110 when winning a group three at York last August. Burke says that “he’s an exciting horse and we are delighted to have him. He’s a horse I really like from what I’ve seen at home.” He ran well to be second in his seasonal pipe opener at Sandown in April.
George Boughey is yet another member of the new wave of English trainer’s making a big splash in flat racing and Saturday was another significant tipping point when he won the 2000 Guineas with the brilliant Bow Echo. Hopewell Rock was unbeaten in two races as a juvenile but had a late start last season and was unable to add to his winning record in four starts. A son of the increasingly influential stallion, New Bay, he was gelded over the winter and should strengthen and improve for better ground as the summer progresses. He made a promising reappearance when third at Newmarket in May.
Crestofdistinction is a talented sprinter who could play a part in heritage handicaps in the later part of the season. His trainer’s father, Mick Channon, was adept at finding the back of the net for England and Southampton in his day and Jack will be hoping to score at least a couple of times with Crestofdistinction. He has won two of his nine starts to date, the best performance coming in five-length win at Wolverhampton last June. Channon improved him by twenty pounds last year and despite a couple of moderate runs this season month his trainer remains convinced that there are good pots to be won with him later on, especially if he learns to settle.
Harrington received a lovely Christmas present last year when her Group One winning filly, Barnavara, who she owned with her extended family and friends, made an eye watering €5m when sold at the Tattersalls December sales. Harrington had hoped to continue training her, but she was subsequently exported to continue her career in Australia.
She will be hard to replace, but while the three-year-old colt Iron Lily is a lot less talented she could be good enough to improve on his current rating of ninety-seven. A winner in one of two starts last year she ran reasonably well when stepped up to group three level on her return at Leopardstown in April but disappointed subsequently in the Tetrarch at the Curragh. One to keep faith in when dropped in class on softer ground.
Whatever Narissa achieves is likely to fade beneath the bright lights of Graffard’s brilliant colt, Daryz. Last year’s Arc hero has done something unprecedented already this year by winning two group ones in France (Ganay and D’Ispahan) over 10 and nine furlongs respectively, a rare indication that such a stoutly bred middle distance champion could dominate at any distance down to a mile. His trainer said after his latest win that “The Prince of Wales’s will be next and I’m not in a rush to go up to a mile and a half before the Arc.” He is likely to meet Ombudsman, Minnie Hauk and Almaqam at Ascot in what should be a race to savour.
By Mehemas, Wise Approach cost a tasty one million guineas as a yearling and won three of his six starts as a juvenile. His performance in the Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket was extraordinary. Hampered coming out of the stalls he then stumbled badly and by the end of the first of the first of six furlongs was ten lengths behind the pacesetters. Still trapped behind a wall of horses two out, William Buick needed a sharp right-turn to find racing room, but he still had enough boot to win going away by three quarters of a length from a decent field of juveniles. Despite a couple of underwhelming starts this year he could still be a major presence in the bigger sprints this summer and holds an entry in the Commonwealth Cup at Ascot.
Lawyer turned racehorse trainer, Francis Graffard, won 14 Group One contests last season a record total for a French based trainer and as he has the three best middle-distance horses on the planet in Caldagon, Goliath and Daryz, he could go even deeper this time around. Narissa, seems to be a hardy unit, with already five starts under her belt already, including a two-length third to Diamond Necklace in the Prix Marcel Boussec last autumn at Longchamp. She made an encouraging return to action in April in the Group 3 Prix de la Grotte, when she was second to the Karl Burke-trained Evolutionist and ran well when fourth to Diamond Necklace again in the French 1000 Guineas last week. Should improve for a longer trip.
