Cartier Racing Awards: Calandagan crowned Horse of the Year and Older Horse while Trawlerman named Best Stayer | Racing News
Calandagan was crowned Cartier Horse of the Year at the 35th annual Cartier Racing Awards, also winning the Older Horse award.
The four-year-old son of Francis-Henri Graffard was not out of the top two in five starts in 2025, landing three Group 1 titles including the King George and QIPCO Champion Stakes at Ascot.
He won the prize ahead of QIPCO Champion Stakes runner-up Ombudsman, who won the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes and Juddmonte International, and Delacroix and Minnie Hauk, multiple Group 1 winners.
Calandagan is the fourth horse bred by the Aga Khan Stud to be crowned Cartier Horse of the Year after Daylami (1999), Dalakhani (2003) and Zarkava (2008), and the first since the death of His Highness the Aga Khan IV in February.
Aidan O’Brien Delacroix And Minnie Hauk winning the Cartier Colt three-year-old and Filiche three-year-old prizes respectively, while his stablemates Accurate (Two-year policy) and Gstaad (two-year-old Colt) were also among the winners.
Best stay Trawler remained undefeated during his domestic campaign this year, winning the Gold Cup and Long Distance Cup, while Asphorus becomes the third Australian-bred horse to receive the Sprinter Prize after Black Caviar (2012) and Starspangledbanner (2010) thanks to his victories at the Nunthorpe and the Prix de l’Abbaye.
