Jan Brueghel powers to Ormonde Stakes win, extends O'Brien-Moore Chester streak

Jan Brueghel made Chester look like a Ballydoyle private track again, and the way he did it mattered as much as the result. The 4-7 favourite had not run since finishing fourth in the 2025 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, yet he settled behind a strong pace, moved when the gaps appeared and powered away to win the Ladbrokes Ormonde Stakes by 2 1/2 lengths from Mount Atlas.

The winning time was 2:48.26 for the 1m 5f 84y on good ground, a tidy return for a seven-runner race with a first-prize purse of £85,065. Illinois, last year’s winner, tried to control the tempo from the front but could only finish third as Jan Brueghel quickened through the field and put the race to bed in the final half-mile. It was a reminder that when Aidan O’Brien places one of his top stayers properly, Chester can become a chessboard, not a scramble.

That was the real story here. Jan Brueghel is already a St Leger and Coronation Cup winner, and this was not a case of proving he belonged with the division. It was a case of proving he still belongs at the top of it after a layoff. He had shown his ceiling when beating Calandagan in the 2025 Coronation Cup at Epsom, and the plan now points back there again. O’Brien said the horse was being aimed at Epsom after Chester, while Coolmore’s Paul Smith said the colt had “grabbed the bridle” and quickened through the horses, adding that the Coronation Cup would be next.

For Ballydoyle, the performance also fed a larger Chester pattern that has become almost absurd in its consistency. O’Brien and Ryan Moore have now won their last 11 rides together at Chester, a sequence that began in 2024 and has included the Dee Stakes and Ormonde Stakes at the same May meeting. On this card alone, they also teamed with Constitution River in the Dee Stakes, another sign that O’Brien’s middle-day handling at the Roodee is built on depth, not luck.

The pedigree fits the profile too. Jan Brueghel is by Galileo out of Devoted To You, a mare from the Danehill Dancer and Alleged Devotion family, and the stamina is right there in the bloodline. Bigger summer targets now look like the natural next step, because Chester suggested the horse has lost none of his edge. He simply needed the right race, the right rider and the right track to remind everyone.