BROTHERS IN A RMS
Joseph turns Latrobe into a Derby contender for Donnacha
ALITTLE after 5pm today, Joseph O’Brien, 25, will give the leg up to his younger brother Donnacha, 19, on Latrobe in the parade ring at the Curragh.
Trainer-jockey siblings are not unique in racing as the Skeltons, Dan and Harry, have shown in the jumps game in England.
But today’s race is that bit different.
For this is the €1.5 million Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby, the most historic and prestigious Flat race on the island, whose roll of honour is gilded by such equine greats as Ballymoss (1957), Nijinsky (1970), Shergar (1981), Montjeu (1999), Sindaar (2000) and Dylan Thomas (2006).
In that time, there have been father-son successes, such as Joseph O’Brien for his father Aidan with Camelot (2012) and Australia (2014), but no siblings have swept all before them on the Curragh.
Could it happen today? For many racegoers, a Latrobe victory would be an even bigger surprise than Kildare scalping Mayo in the All-Ireland football qualifiers next door in Newbridge later this evening.
For Latrobe is not only a first Derby runner for Joseph O’Brien, he has won once in four races, a modest €13,000 maiden at the Curragh earlier this month.
In the grade three Gallinule Stakes last month, he was a twolength second to Platinum Warrior, one of his rivals today.
Against the might of English 2,000 Guineas winner Saxon Warrior, which seeks to deliver a 13th Irish Derby win for O’Brien’s father, Aidan, and Epsom Derby runner-up, Dee Ex Bee, lightlyraced Latrobe shouldn’t stand a chance.
On ratings alone, he is on 103, compared to Saxon Warrior’s 121 and Dee Ex Bee’s 118. But to ignore Latrobe would be to underestimate how far Joseph O’Brien has come since he hung up his whip in March 2016, to concentrate his energies on training.
In that time, what he has achieved is nothing sort of startling. Rather than focus on one discipline, he has juggled the jumps and the Flat, and enjoyed a success rate beyond most trainers.
Over jumps, he galloped on from 38 winners in 2016-17 to 67 last season, including the Irish Gold Cup with Edwulf as he finished third in the trainer’s table behind Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott with winnings of €1.4m.
On the Flat, he sent out 18 winners in 2016, 40 winners in 2017 worth €826,753 for sixth place, and was fourth on the 29-winner mark with more than €500,000 in winning heading into the Derby weekend.
Along the way, he also saddled Rekindling to win the iconic Melbourne Cup last November, banking €2.16m for connections, the bulk of which went to owner Lloyd Williams, the Australian business magnate, whose colours will be carried by Latrobe today.
That Rekindling saw off horses trained by his father and Willie Mullins was evidence of young O’Brien’s fearlessness to aim high.
For him, there is no apprenticeship to be served as a trainer. If he has a horse he thinks is good enough, no matter the race, he’ll get him spot on, and take his chances.
He is too humble to talk himself up, a trait he inherited from his father, but others are watching in admiration.
‘Joseph has the pedigree on both sides. He’s come into training with a great knowledge of the game. All his life, he’s lived horses,’ observed Jessica Harrington. As the most established dual-purpose trainer in Ireland, Harrington has hit the heights in the past 15 months with the Gold Cup and Irish Grand National over fences, and the Irish 1,000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes on the Flat.
Apart from having good horses, what’s the key to success for a 24/7 all-year stable? ‘A lot of hard work,’ she says. ‘That and a damned good back-room team behind you. When you’re on the go all the time, you need a lot of back-up, in the yard, the office, the family, because you’ve to switch your focus from one type of racing to the other.’
Harrington doesn’t have a runner in the Irish Derby today (5.15) but she won’t stop searching. As for the chances of Latrobe upsetting the apple-cart carefully loaded by Joseph’s father Aidan, she is wary about drawing a line through his chances.
‘If Joseph thinks it’s good enough to run, then it’s in the race on merit and has a chance. What he has done so far shows you he knows what he’s doing.
Earlier in the week, Latrobe was a general 33/1 shot, but that price has been gobbled up by punters and he was trading at 18/1 last night.
Latrobe, the place, is a workingclass town in western Pennsylvania, famous for Rolling Rock beer and Arnold Palmer.
‘The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done,’ the seven-time major winner once said. So far, Joseph O’Brien is living up to Palmer’s perspective – and he’s only getting started.