The Aidan O'Brien trained Magical currently tops the Cartier Horse Of The Year Standings ahead of the last meaningful meeting of the season at Keeneland with the Breeders Cup festival set to start on Friday.
The race to be crowned Horse of the Year reaches its climax this weekend with the seven time Group One winner looking to finish on top with a strong performance in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, a race she finished second in behind Enable back in 2018.
The five year old has had an outstanding season making a stellar return to racing having been thought to be heading for retirement, Coolmore operations gave her one more season on the track and it has looked to have paid dividends after she romped home on seasonal debut in the Group One Pretty Polly Stakes.
She backed that up in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at The Curragh and although it was not the strongest race it saw her land a hat-trick of black type events.
She took on Ghaiyyath in the Juddmonte International and was no match for the Godolphin, but reversed the form when landing consecutive Irish Champion Stakes.
WOW! Magical - a superstar for Ballydoyle.
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) September 12, 2020
🏇 25 races🥇 12 wins
✅ 7 G1 victories🏆🏆 Irish Champion Stakes
🏆🏆 Tattersalls Gold Cup 🏆 Champion Stakes
🏆 Champion Fillies & Mares Stakes 🏆 Pretty Polly Stakes
😍 Over £4million
Magical takes out the Irish Champion Stakes again! pic.twitter.com/Wt1u7ucWqB
She looked to do the same in the British Champion Stakes but with the heavy conditions she could only come home in third, but that run was good enough to still see her at the top of the Cartier awards, beating Ghaiyyath by two points.
In other categories of the awards, the Three-Year-Old Colt division is currently being lead by Palace Pier, but after his third in the QEII on British Champions Day he has let the door open for the likes of Kameko and Siskin who will contest the Breeders' Cup Mile on Saturday.
The three year old filly category could see Peaceful and Cayenne Pepper make big strides this weekend if doing well in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, whilst Glass Slippers will be hoping to replicate her Flying Five win in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint and close the gap to superstar Battaash in the sprinting division.
Twilight Payment jumped to second in the Stayer category behind Stradivarius after a superb win in the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday which saw Joseph O'Brien land the race for the second time in four years.
The juvenile division is very much up in the air with Battleground, Campanelle and The Lir Jet all looking to lay down a big claim on Friday at Keeneland.