Training was always what I wanted to do from very small
THE apple never falls far from the tree.
Just as Galileo handed down his supreme genes on the racecourse, Joseph O’Brien, studious of manner and soft of tone, shares many of his father Aidan’s traits.
But the 24-year-old is his own man and, if Rekindling wins today’s Derby, Joseph will break ground unknown even to the man who has re-written nearly every record in Flat racing.
Victory for Wayne Lordan’s mount would make Joseph the youngest trainer to seize the glory in the world’s premier Classic – David O’Brien (no relation) was 27 when Secreto upset his father Vincent’s El Gran Senor in 1984, and Aidan a positively long-toothed 31 when Galileo triumphed in 2001.
Success would also mean Joseph is the first to ride and then train a Derby winner since Harry Wragg, who took the race three times as a jockey, saddled Epsom hero Psidium in 1961.
But O’Brien jnr doesn’t sense any hand of history. Like his old man, selfregard isn’t Joseph’s thing.
“You don’t really think about creating history,” he says. “When you train racehorses it’s a full-time job, so you don’t get time to think about things like that.”
Joseph’s career in the saddle flared brimstone bright.
He was just 17 when Johnny Murtagh split from Aidan in 2010, but filled the void to land the Derby on Camelot two years later – the first time a father and son combined to win it – doubling up on Australia in 2014.
But the flame couldn’t last and Joseph, at 6ft towering above every Flat rider, quit the weighing room in 2015 with 30 Group 1s to his credit.
“I hadn’t intended on riding for very long,” he recalls. “Initially, I was going to ride 20 winners. I reached that mark quicker than expected and I stayed at it.
“But being a jockey wasn’t going to be feasible in the long term – training was always what I wanted to do from when I was very small.
“I’ve never known anything else. I’ve always been in this kind of environment.”
Joseph developed the Piltown stable once home to his parents – mother Anne-Marie trained there, as did her father Joe, before Aidan’s fledgling feats caught the eye of Ballydoyle boss John Magnier in the mid-1990s – principally to tutor jumpers for JP McManus.
Ivanovich Gorbatov gave the yard – where a three-year-old Joseph had learned literally at the feet of his father – a marquee victory in the Triumph Hurdle at the 2016 Cheltenham Festival.
Six months later, Intricately and Joseph’s brother Donnacha denied Aidan’s Hydrangea in the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh.
The short-head margin persuaded five-time Melbourne Cup winner Lloyd Williams to send Rekindling to Joseph when David Wachman left the training ranks at the end of last season.
Rekindling beat today’s opponents Douglas Macarthur and Capri at Leopardstown on his first outing for his new handler, but failed to match that form when fourth to Permian, also in today’s line-up, in York’s Dante.
“I was hoping we would get nice ground at York, and we didn’t,” adds Joseph. “He did well to finish as close to the leaders as he did.” The bookies rate Rekindling a 25-1 shot, but this is the most open Derby for years. “Something will come out of the woodwork. This could be the year for a surprise,” he says.