Son of a gun has two shots to get one up on father

IRISH trainer Joseph O’Brien has made a seamless transition from champion jockey to trainer and saddles his first Melbourne Cup runners at Flemington.

The son of Aidan O’Brien, Joseph, 24, saddles Rekindling and US Army Ranger for Lloyd and Nick Williams today in an attempt to beat his father to Melbourne Cup glory.

O’Brien Sr will be represented by Johannes Vermeer and the closest he has come to claiming the Cup was in 2007 with Mahler, third in 2007.

After attending the Breeders’ Cup meeting, Joseph O’Brien flew in from Los Angeles yesterday for his first official involvement in the race although he was in Melbourne two years ago watching his father’s runners.

“It’s good to be back here and I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “To be here is a privilege so to win the race would be unbelievable.

“I’ve got two nice horses that I hope to get a good trip around and that’s all we can ask for.”

He trains from Owning Hill in County Kilkenny, the prop- erty where his grandfather, his mother, Anne-Marie, and his father all trained before Aidan moved to Ballydoyle.

But Joseph says his father is only a phone call away, always handy for a young trainer starting out on a new crusade.

He prepares a team of 50 or 60 flat horses and has the same number of National Hunt horses in his care.

US Army Ranger, a $61 chance, is having his first start for the trainer after starting his career with Aidan and running second in the 2016 Epsom Derby. Like Mahler, Rekindling ($14) is a three-year-old in northern hemisphere time and O’Brien says he has endured a busy year.

“I know his form hasn’t tailed off but he’s had a busy year, so that’s a little bit of a worry,” O’Brien said.