“Darkness Falls could be our first Triple Crown horse since Camelot. He looks to have the capacity to stay, he has that speed. The next place to go with him is the thing... do we go to the Dewhurst or the Futurity Trophy? It’s possible he could go to the Dewhurst, he could have the pace for it.
“He is unusual, he has a super mind, he’s a great traveller and he quickens so we’ll see how he is, but he’s obviously really exciting."
And it is the Dewhurst – where we’ll find out if Aidan O’Brien’s comments in an Irish Champions Festival fall-out video on Coolmore’s social media channels were throwaway or a genuine pointer to the Flat racing story of 2027.
He might yet have his own chapter when the final story of the racing year of 2026 is written in front of a roaring fire in a few weeks’ time too.
It’s known as the Future Champions Festival but there is an element of the here-and-now about Newmarket on Saturday as well. Because the champion two-year-old crown is still up for grabs.
O’Brien already has one hand on it with Sun Goddess, a brilliant filly who has won six of her eight races this term and produced performances in the Moyglare Stud and Cheveley Park Stakes to suggest she’s right out of the top drawer. A Timeform rating of 120 is meaty and she’s not finished yet.
America is calling.
