Magical, Mogul Top O’Brien’s 2020 Breeders’ Cup Brigade

Magical on the track at Churchill Downs in 2018, prior to her runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Cup Turf

Ballydoyle master Aidan O’Brien has a total of 10 horses under consideration for the trip to Keeneland to compete in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, reports the Thoroughbred Daily News.

Leading the way are his two hopefuls for the Breeders’ Cup Turf, the well-traveled multiple G1 winner Magical and promising 3-year-old Mogul. Each will try to give O’Brien his sixth win in the 1 1/2-mile Turf.

Magical, the 5-year-old daughter of Galileo, has had a strong 2020 campaign. She boasts wins in the G1 Pretty Polly, G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup, and the G1 Irish Champion, the latter by three-quarters of a length over Ghaiyyath. Most recently, the mare finished third over soft ground in the G1 British Champion Stakes on Oct. 17.

In her most recent trip to the United States, Magical ran a very game second to the since-retired superstar Enable in the 2018 edition of the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

“(Magical is) an unbelievable filly,” O’Brien told the TDN. “She has run at the top level from when she was a 2-year-old. She’s danced every dance and traveled everywhere. She is very comfortable from a mile to a mile and a half, which is very unusual. She is very brave, stays well, and has a good mind. She is an incredible mare. She ran very well the last day in very bad ground at Ascot, which wouldn’t have suited her.”

Mogul, meanwhile, won his first top-level race on Sept. 13 in the G1 Grand Prix de Paris. The 3-year-old son of Galileo had to be scratched from the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe due to the feed contamination scandal.

O’Brien’s other Breeders’ Cup hopefuls are as follows: