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One of the most thrilling moments of the 2025 Breeders' Cup World Championships was Ethical Diamond’s stunning upset in the Breeders' Cup Turf. Delivering a shocking 27-1 victory, the triumph was made all the more historic given that the horse was winning over hurdles earlier that year. In this episode of Breeders' Cup Breakthrough, trainer Willie Mullins reflects on the monumental achievement and looks back at his first Breeders' Cup experience.

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00:18We saw Ethical Diamond running on the flat and he was running in a mile and a quarter maidens, maybe
00:24a mile and a half and I thought he could make a real dual purpose horse.
00:28Good enough to compete well on the flat but good enough for our jumping game and this fellow just wasn't
00:33able to jump, it wasn't his forte.
00:36And so then we said, right, we better go back to the flat and he started to improve and eventually
00:40won the Ebor and Breeders Cup was in Delmar and Delmar was a sort of a place I always wanted
00:46to have an excuse to go to.
00:47We made our plans to go and the HOS Syndicate, they were gamey enough because I rang Margaret Heffernan and
00:55I told her we're not going to finish first, second and third.
00:58We probably won't finish fourth or fifth. I said, if the favourite gets a bad draw and we get a
01:02good one, we might finish sixth.
01:04So the rest is history, isn't it?
01:11For most of the race I was wondering what was happening and I thought, oh jeez, he's going to make
01:15a show of us now, he's going to be tailed off.
01:17And then I could just see Dylan winding him up, coming into the far bend and the further he went,
01:24the better he was going and I thought to myself, wow, at least we're going to have a top six
01:27finish.
01:28Then a top four finish, then a top three finish and then, wow, he just exploded and went by.
01:47What can I say, if it was one of the biggest win, I'd say, in Clos Sutton's history, to win
01:53a Breeders' Cup flat race, you can't get better than that.
01:57I mean, there's no way we would have dreamt of seriously taking on those horses at home.
02:03But when you look at what he was lined up beside in Delmar and what a lot of them cost
02:07and what their owners have put into racing over the years, it's beyond belief.
02:13And we'll enjoy it while it lasts.
02:17My target will be the Breeders' Cup again.
02:20Yeah, and maybe some other race in America if we can, but we'll have a look at that.
02:23Royal Ascot is our next option and that's where we're aiming for at the minute.
02:28I started training about 87.
02:30We live in the Barrow Valley.
02:32It's a very unspoiled part of Ireland.
02:34Jim Bulger is right up the hill looking down at me.
02:37When I have a difficulty at home here, I always think, what would my father have done?
02:42And normally that sorts it out.
02:44I'm very proud of what we've done here in Clos Sutton.
02:46We had a photo shoot there the other day with Grand National, Champion Hurdle, Gold Cup, Champion Chase and the
02:54Breeders' Cup.
02:55I'm not sure any yard will ever do that ever again, you know.
02:58Myself and Jackie are very proud of what's happened here.
03:01I always say the win I enjoyed most was my son riding the Grand National winner in Aintree.
03:09And for a stable like us to have a Breeders' Cup winner absolutely blew me out of the water.
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