Historic double for Joseph
Brilliant O’Brien Jnr adds royal winner as trainer to his Ascot glory in saddle
JOSEPH O’BRIEN is living life at a gallop and before reaching his 30th birthday he can be hailed as the first man to both ride and train a Group One winner at Royal Ascot after State Of Rest swept to victory in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes.
Dual Derby winner O’Brien won six races as a jockey at Royal Ascot, three of them Group Ones, including So You Think in the 2012 Prince of Wales’s Stakes.
Given his global exploits since he began training in 2016, with wins in the Irish Derby, St Leger and Melbourne Cup (twice), it was perhaps surprising that it took Joseph until his 44th runner to break his Royal Ascot duck. But after State Of Rest’s length win under Shane Crosse from 10-11 favourite Bay Bridge, on hand to pat O’Brien on the back were mum Annemarie and dad Aidan, the trainer of 77 royal meeting winners.
O’Brien said: ‘It is a very special to win a big race this week. I feel more pressure coming here as a trainer. I have been very lucky. I have had support from some big owners.
‘We’ve had plenty of horses placed here and run well. You have to re-group and learn from it. We knew a winner would come.’
The chances are that O’Brien will be celebrating more success around the globe with State Of Rest. The trainer conceded that he felt his 5-1 shot had been a little underestimated given he went into the race as a three-time Group One winner, having won the Saratoga Invitational Derby in the US, the Cox Plate in Australia last year and the Prix Ganay at Longchamp.
Joseph, who has given State Of Rest entries in the Eclipse and Irish Champion Stakes as well as the Arc, added: ‘He missed the first half of his three-year- old year and then went on international missions. It is only now he is turning up in the big European races. He is a tough horse who loves a fight.’
For 20-year-old Crosse, who missed out on riding O’Brien’s 2020 St Leger winner Galileo Chrome after testing positive for Covid-19, it was also a first Royal Ascot winner.
Behind Crosse, high hopes for Japanese raider Shahryar were dashed as he was outpaced.
Dramatised more than justified the bullish pre-race comments of trainer Karl Burke when she sprinted clear in the Queen Mary Stakes to give jockey Danny Tudhope his third win of the meeting.
Burke said: ‘I have probably said too much. She is a bit of a diva but a Group One horse ability-wise.’
A shot at the Group One Prix Morny in France is probably next for Dramatised, while a Classic is in the sights of Roger Varian-trained Eldar Eldarov after he cut down Zechariah in the final stride to win the Queen’s Vase by a nose under David Egan. Eldar Eldarov is now 6-1 for the St Leger.