Nine Years, One Race, One Glorious Night

How Magnitude And Ron Winchell Finally Conquered The World

He never went to sleep. When the last congratulations were offered, Ron Winchell was still moving through the Meydan night, too wired and too grateful to contemplate rest. "We just kept going," he would later say. "It was very special for us, and a lot of gratitude to Dubai for continuing to carry these races, even with everything going on in the world. We are very thankful for how racing has continued."

Nine years earlier, in this same desert city, Winchell had watched Gun Runner, his Horse of the Year, pulled wide by Arrogate in the final furlong and beaten into second place. He went home, carrying something that never quite went away. "Ever since we ran second, there has always been a feeling that we want to come back and win it, because you always want to do better than you previously have done," he says. "It took nine years to improve on it."

Those nine years included another trip to Dubai with Midnight Bourbon in 2022, which ended without reward. And then came Magnitude, a 4YO bay colt with a pedigree pointing emphatically towards classic stamina and a career already marked by dramatic interruption. On a Saturday evening washed clean by a week of rain, under the Meydan floodlights, with the best dirt horse on the planet bearing down on him through the final 200 metres, Magnitude answered every question and gave Winchell the night he had been waiting for since 2017.

Blood, Dollars And A Breeder's Instinct

The story of Magnitude begins with someone taking a chance. Ron Stolich, a Kentucky breeder, purchased an unraced Bernardini mare named Rockadelic for US$140,000 at the 2021 Keeneland November sale. Rockadelic was already carrying a foal by Not This Time, and Stolich had visited the stallion at Taylor Made and came away convinced. "The first time I went to see Not This Time at Taylor Made, I was really impressed," he later said. "He stamps his foals, and they are quality individuals with enough leg and body to make racehorses. Magnitude was really nice as a foal."

That weanling was sold to FMQ Stables for US$310,000 at the Keeneland November 2022 sale. Nine months later, now stronger and more imposing, he reappeared at Keeneland in September 2023 and changed hands again. Winchell Thoroughbreds acquired him for US$450,000 and placed him in the care of his trusted friend and trainer, Steve Asmussen. The pedigree is formidable: Not This Time, by the sire-of-sires Giant's Causeway, is one of the most potent sources of dirt talent in North America. The dam Rockadelic traces through Bernardini to Octave, a Gr.1 Coaching Club American Oaks and Gr.1 Mother Goose Stakes winner by Unbridled's Song, a family whose stamina credentials the racecourse has now emphatically confirmed.

A Career Built On Interruption And Recovery

Magnitude broke his maiden at Ellis Park in July 2024, followed up with an allowance win at Churchill Downs, and closed his juvenile season with a runner-up effort in the Gun Runner Stakes at Fair Grounds. His 3YO campaign opened in unforgettable fashion: despatched at 43-1 for the Gr.2 Risen Star Stakes on February 15, 2025, he cleared to the front and simply refused to be caught, winning by nine and three-quarter lengths and collecting 50 Kentucky Derby qualifying points.

Then came the interruption. A bone chip in his left front ankle removed Magnitude from the Triple Crown trail entirely, forcing surgery and a recovery period that tested patience across the stable. "All the healing went well, and all the rehabs went well; he has not missed a beat," says David Fiske, the Winchell racing manager. Back in action in the US$250,000 (AED918,000) Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows in July 2026, Magnitude responded with nine and one-quarter lengths of controlled dominance.
He finishes a distant third in the Gr.1 Travers Stakes behind dual Classic winner Sovereignty before running second in the Gr.1 Pennsylvania Derby.

Then, beating 2025 Dubai World Cup winner Hit Show in the Gr.2 Clark Stakes at Churchill Downs, he became the first 3YO to win that race in a decade, echoing the arc of Gun Runner, who had taken the same race in 2016 before becoming Horse of the Year. A prep win in the Gr.3 Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn in February 2026 confirmed the target. The stage was set — the Not This Time colt was headed to Dubai.

The Rain, The Bias And The Decision Made In A Heartbeat

Torrential rain falls on Meydan the night before the race. By morning the dirt surface is playing one to two seconds slower than in previous years. A slow, deep track typically penalises horses exerting themselves hard from the front early, and most jockeys and trainers are avoiding the lead for precisely that reason.

The strategy around Magnitude evolves through the day. "The initial thought was to get out there and be first or second," Winchell recalls. "As the day went on and we talked about the rain, the track was initially supposed to be pretty fast because of the wind. But as the dirt races went on, it was pretty obvious they were running about one to two seconds slower than previous years. So it appeared there was a disadvantage to being on the front. The strategy started to change."

When the stalls open, Magnitude breaks cleanly and no rival presses for the lead. Jose Ortiz, feeling the horse travel effortlessly beneath him, makes his decision in real time. "The thinking was that if Jose got out there and they let him on the front, and the horse was going easy with no one pressing him, then just keep going," Winchell says. "That kind of played out."

What follows is a masterclass in front-running restraint. Magnitude covers 2000 metres without panic, Ortiz preserving reserves for the straight, the horse always doing less than he is capable of. Entering the home stretch, Forever Young, the dual Saudi Cup winner, looms on his outside. Magnitude digs in. He does not flinch. "He went against the bias," Winchell says, "because the bias was disadvantaging for front runners, he was going easy. I think everyone else thought they didn’t want to go too fast on a deeper track. We found ourselves on the front, Jose was going very smoothly, the horse looked extremely comfortable, and we just carried on."

Winning by a length in a time of two minutes 4.38 seconds, Magnitude secured US$6.96 million (AED25.6 million) from the total US$12 million purse. "It’s just indescribable," Winchell says.

"Especially after Gun Runner coming in second, coming back here. We knew coming here that we had a tough job to do against the world’s best racehorse, so getting that done today was unbelievable." Asked about beating Forever Young, he is measured. "That was something special. I have a ton of respect for Forever Young. He is obviously an unbelievable racehorse, and it takes a lot to beat him.”

A Partnership Forged Long Before Fame

The story of Magnitude winning the Dubai World Cup is also the story of two men whose relationship began decades before either had risen anywhere near the heights they would ultimately reach. Steve Asmussen was a teenager in Laredo, Texas, breaking yearlings on the Winchell family farm for Ron’s father Verne Winchell when horse racing was still a distant ambition. Verne Winchell founded Winchell’s Donuts in 1948 and later served as chairman of the Denny’s restaurant chain. After his father died, Ron made Asmussen his exclusive trainer.

"He trains every horse I have, and that goes back a long way," Winchell says. "Steve used to break our horses with his dad in Laredo. Steve was in high school when he was breaking our horses. Our relationship is far deeper than trainer-and-owner going international. It is a very top-to-bottom organisation where his input and our input come from the very beginning, horses we breed, horses we buy, all the way through to him training them and us running them."

By October 2025, Asmussen had reached 11,000 North American victories, the first trainer ever to do so. A Hall of Fame inductee and two-time Eclipse Award winner, he has trained three consecutive American Horses of the Year in Curlin, Rachel Alexandra and Gun Runner, saddled eight Breeders’ Cup winners and won three Triple Crown races. His 2008 Dubai World Cup success with Curlin at the old Nad Al Sheba track makes Magnitude’s victory his second in one of the world’s richest races alongside Winchell, whose operation still retains a 50 per cent share in leading stallions Tapit and Gun Runner.

What Comes Next For An Unlikely Champion

Standing in the Meydan winner's enclosure, Winchell is already thinking forward. "Gun Runner, once he had run second in Dubai, never lost again," he says. "We are trying to mimic that. If you look at Gun Runner's race record, that is probably the same path we are going to follow. As soon as we know he is in good order, that will be the path from here."

The Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland on Halloween is the headline target, Magnitude's victory enrolling him automatically through the Breeders' Cup Win and the Win And You're In Challenge programme.
"He's tactical. We can do whatever with him. He doesn’t have a running style, but he broke, he jumped well, and he put me on the lead," Jose Ortiz says, and there is something revealing in that simplicity: a horse making the running against the bias on a rain-altered surface and resisting the best in the world is a horse with genuine options.

Winchell, asked about a possible return to Dubai or the Saudi Cup next year, is refreshingly honest. "It is hard to tell sitting in March what is going to happen, it depends on how he finishes out the season, how he is doing physically and where we go from there. It is too far ahead right now, honestly." What is not too far ahead is the feeling of finally closing a loop nine years in the making. "It still feels unreal," he says. "I've watched the race probably a dozen times since then."

In horse racing, few gifts are more valuable than the night that finally goes right — and Magnitude delivered that promise, and so much more.