By Tom Frary
Friday's G1 Betfred Coronation Cup turned out to be as pure a mile-and-a-half test as it gets and in the moment of truth it was Jan Brueghel who shed his playboy image to tough it out in an Epsom battle royal with Calandagan. Raw and green despite winning a St Leger during his unbeaten 3-year-old campaign, what could be Galileo's final Classic winner had to show his true mettle here with stablemate and fellow Doncaster Classic winner Continuous and Wayne Lordan putting everything into the red.
Getting first run on the heavily-favoured son of Gleneagles from three out, Jan Brueghel finally got to show the lethal middle-distance pace he had been keeping in reserve to get to the furlong pole marginally ahead. For maybe a stride, Mickael Barzalona got ahead of Ryan Moore soon after but there is a sizeable depth to the winner and he was able to stretch out a half-length advantage by the line. There was a yawning seven-length gap back to Mastercraftsman's class act Giavellotto in third, underlining the quality of this renewal.
Aidan O'Brien, who was making it 10 Coronation Cups just before greeting his 11th Oaks winner, revealed the not-so-subtle plot Team Ballydoyle had hatched beforehand. “Wayne got the fractions perfect. Everybody knew the pace was going to be honest and even and everybody was going to get a clear shot at it, but in that ground you were going to have to get the mile and a half very well,” he said. “We knew that if we were going to expose His Highness's horse it was going to be over this trip if the pace was strong and solid.”
Direct comparison can be made with the Oaks, where the front-running Whirl covered the first mile in 110.73 and Continuous in 109.26 and while Minnie Hauk closed off the last four furlongs in :48.11, Jan Brueghel who was also faster than Whirl for the first mile stormed home in :46.93. This was the performance of a standout mile-and-a-half performer belonging in the top bracket. His stunning :11.10 sectional between the three and the two was the fastest individual split in the race and a surprising one from a Leger winner, confirming that he has become a faster, slicker model from three to four.
Calandagan closed out the last half a mile in 46.68 and was faster than the winner in each of the last three furlongs, but was a touch below his form from last year's Juddmonte International with the camber of the track taking something crucial away from his potency. Aidan O'Brien described the moment that Calandagan came to Jan Brueghel as “slow motion”, but there was nothing tardy about the way these two middle-distance giants forged a finale to remember.
“He came to him, but he didn't go by him quick and Jan Brueghel doesn't lie down,” O'Brien said of the 10-3 second favourite. “He is very straightforward and genuine and brave and Ryan gave him a class ride. It was incredible in the straight how he carried on.”
Jan Brueghel's immediate target is not set in stone, with his involvement here only due to the retirement of Kyprios meaning that Illinois was diverted to the Gold Cup. Where the “stand-in” goes next is uncertain, with Los Angeles top dog as far as the King George is concerned. “At Group 1 level, he is a mile-and-a-half-plus horse who would still be unbeaten if I hadn't run him at the Curragh last time,” he said.
“Everyone was standing in line behind Kyprios and when he was retired Illinois was put in the Gold Cup and this fella came into Illinois's position. He could go to the King George, but Los Angeles is the boss at the minute and they will all have to go where Los Angeles doesn't go, I'd imagine.”
Francis-Henri Graffard said of Calandagan, “I don't have any excuses. The horse had the perfect run and Mickael gave him a ride with plenty of thought. He's a very talented horse who needs to win a Group 1 and I'm sure he will. He's in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.”
Barzalona added, “He's always slowly away, but once he found his rhythm I was behind Ryan at Tattenham Corner and I was pretty happy to be there. I think I hit the front 100 yards before the line and he kind of just stayed on and got a bit tired going uphill. The O'Brien horse was just a little bit stronger today. I hope one day we will be able to break a little bit faster and be able to get a better position earlier, but he has his own rhythm and we'll have to deal with that for the moment.”
Marco Botti was happy with the effort of the Hong Kong Vase hero Giavellotto and could only marvel at the front two. “It was a good run, but they were a couple of proper horses in front of us,” he said. “My horse has run with credit, but Aidan said they would go hard and that's the way it turned out.”
Pedigree Notes
One of Galileo's last TDN Rising Stars, Jan Brueghel is also one of two Classic winners out of Danehill Dancer's smart Devoted To You who was runner-up in the G2 Debutante Stakes as a juvenile. The other is his Irish Derby-winning full-brother Sovereign, who caught everyone unawares with a front-running powerhouse performance in the 2019 renewal of that Curragh feature, while her other Galileo to make a mark is the Group 3-winning stayer Dawn Rising who was third in the Irish St Leger.
Devoted To You, a half-sister to four Stakes winners headed by the GIII Honeybee Stakes scorer Humble Eight, is a daughter of the Fillies' Mile third Morning Devotion responsible for another Irish Derby winner in the Oaks heroine Balanchine as well as the Group 2 winners Romanov and Red Slippers. The latter produced the G1 Prix de Diane heroine West Wind and is the ancestress of Thunder Snow and Dubawi's ill-fated star Coroebus, among several others. Devoted To You's 2-year-old filly by St Mark's Basilica was a €460,000 purchase by Richard Knight for Salhia Stud at Goffs Orby Book 1, while she also has a yearling filly by Wootton Bassett.
St Leger hero Jan Brueghel bounces back and holds off Calandagan in a thrilling @Betfred Coronation Cup for Ryan Moore and Aidan O'Brien! pic.twitter.com/Q2b4RDfisS
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) June 6, 2025
Friday, Epsom, Britain
BETFRED CORONATION CUP-G1, £450,000, Epsom, 6-6, 4yo/up, 12f 6yT, 2:36.13, g/s.
1–JAN BRUEGHEL (IRE), 128, c, 4, by Galileo (Ire)
1st Dam: Devoted To You (Ire) (MGSP-Ire), by Danehill Dancer (Ire)
2nd Dam: Alleged Devotion, by Alleged
3rd Dam: Morning Devotion, by Affirmed
TDN Rising Star. O-Westerberg, Mrs John Magnier, Michael Tabor & Derrick Smith; B-Barronstown Stud (IRE); T-Aidan O'Brien; J-Ryan Moore. £255,195. Lifetime Record: GSW-Ire, 6-5-1-0, $1,120,154. *Full to Sovereign (Ire), G1SW-Ire, G1SP-Eng, $1,173,919; and Dawn Rising (Ire), GSW & G1SP-Ire, GSP-Eng, $330,414. Werk Nick Rating: A+++ *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Calandagan (Ire), 128, g, 4, Gleneagles (Ire)–Calayana (Fr), by Sinndar (Ire). O/B-Aga Khan Studs; T-Francis-Henri Graffard. £96,750.
3–Giavellotto (Ire), 128, h, 6, Mastercraftsman (Ire)–Gerika (Fr), by Galileo (Ire). O-Scuderia La Tesa Ltd & Vaibhav Shah; B-Societa Agricola La Tesa SRL; T-Marco Botti. £48,420.
Margins: HF, 7, 5HF. Odds: 3.33, 0.62, 5.50.
Also Ran: Continuous (Jpn), Ancient Wisdom (Fr), Bellum Justum (Ire), You Got To Me (GB).
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