AIDAN IS THE SPECIAL ONE
26-win record work of a genius
SO now we know who Aidan O’Brien speaks to immediately after he has secured yet another bigrace win. His mum.
Stella O’Brien phoned her boy with congratulations seconds after Saxon Warrior had won Saturday’s Racing Post Trophy to land Aidan’s 26th Group One win, breaking the record previously held by late US trainer Bobby Frankel.
Amid the congratulations in the Doncaster paddock, O’Brien clasped his mobile to his ear and replied: ‘Thanks very much Ma. We’ll talk to you later. Thank you. Bye, bye, bye, bye.’
Stella was denied the chance to congratulate her son again yesterday when protesters representing French trainers and owners blocked the parade ring, causing the prestigious meeting at SaintCloud to be abandoned.
Stella’s phone bill may only have enjoyed a temporary reprieve as O’Brien plans to run 13 horses at the Breeders’ Cup in California on Friday and Saturday, part of a record European challenge of 36 horses for the $ 28million meeting dubbed racing’s world championships.
Family is imperative to teetotal O’Brien, 48. Alongside him in the Doncaster paddock were wife AnneMarie and daughter Sarah.
Younger siblings Donnacha and Ana, who is recovering from serious injuries that robbed her of the Irish apprentice jockeys’ title, are very much part of O’Brien’s jockey team at his Ballydoyle stable in Co Tipperary. Eldest son Joseph was entrusted with some of his most important rides, including twice winning the Derby on Camelot (2012) and Australia (2014), until he turned to training.
Ask O’Brien how he relaxes away from racing and he looks puzzled. Racing appears to be his job, his hobby, his life.
He trains some of the bestbred horses in the world thanks to his backing from Ireland’s powerful Coolmore Stud. Even for O’Brien, champion trainer in Ireland every year since 1999 and now champion in Britain for a sixth time, 2017 has been a momentous year.
As well as his 26 Group Ones, he made it 70 European Classics when Churchill won the Irish 2,000 Guineas in May. The win of Highland Reel in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in June was his 300th top-level win in flat and jumps racing.
He was appointed to run Ballydoyle in 1996, a stable previously the base of the great Vincent O’Brien (no relation), by Coolmore Stud supremo John Magnier.
Before taking his first licence in 1993, O’Brien was an amateur jockey, often given the most difficult horses to ride while assistant to Jim Bolger, a trainer with a reputation as a fierce disciplinarian.
Bolger said: ‘ He is a grade one human being himself and he seems to do about everything right and he has always done that all his life.
‘He knows his horses, works hard and pays great attention to detail. He is not about to mess it up soon. He is 10 out of 10 every day of the week.’
O’Brien was working with Bolger when the teenage Anthony McCoy arrived at the stable.
McCoy said: ‘I remember years later Jim Bolger saying he would have done anything other than marry Aidan to keep him. I don’t think I have ever heard or will ever hear Jim Bolger say that about anyone.
‘If there was ever a problem with a horse it was, “Speak to Aidan O’Brien about it’’. That’s as good a compliment as you can give anyone.
‘He is very meticulous. The stats and the winners don’t lie about how good he is. John Magnier is the big boss but in terms of Ballydoyle there is only one boss.’
Ryan Moore, now O’Brien’s No 1 jockey, said: ‘There is no doubt Aidan is an extraordinary talent. From an early stage he sees what a horse could be and he makes them into that. All his horses are so well prepared and behaved.’
There is no sign of a let-up. O’Brien has the ante-post favourites for all the 2018 Classics — Clemmie (1,000 Guineas), US Navy Flag (2,000 Guineas), Saxon Warrior ( Derby & St Leger) and Happily (Oaks).
Racing is his job, his hobby, and his life