Aidan O’Brien recently sent out his 4,000th winner. Yes, that figure includes both Flat and National Hunt. We know, too, that he has seemingly endless resources of the Coolmore ‘syndicate’ backing, no need to labour on the point. Simply because, no matter how impeccably bred a steed may be, their pedigree will count for damn all if it’s not put to best use. Only a select few can do it. But to quote Carly Simon, nobody does it better, than the master of Ballydoyle.
4,000 winners, just think about that. Now factor in all the runners that didn’t win. Plus, perhaps most significantly, at 53, he could at the very least have another two decades ahead of him if he should want them. That’s without using the great Kevin Prendergast – 38 years O’Brien’s senior and still going – as a barometer.
As if to emphasise the point, since construction of this piece commenced, the bespeckled bastion of the bloodstock world has added a seventh English St Leger courtesy of the Ryan Moore-ridden Continuous this afternoon (Saturday). Thus taking his career total to 175 British Classics (alone) and counting.
Strip away the glitz and glamour of the A-List conquests for a moment and consider the O’Brien backstory for a moment. A fine amateur jockey in his own right, the Wexford native married into racing royalty when taking the hand of Ann Marie Crowley. Not only the daughter of a successful trainer, the late Joe, but champion National Hunt trainer in her own right. As was her sister Frances, widow of the late, great Pat Smullen.
Talk about children being born with strong racing pedigrees. Behind all of what can only be described as genius lies a humility and ordinary decency outweighing anything he and his family have contributed to or gained from the sport.
If you’ve never seen the episode of Hanging With Hector filmed over the course of a week wherein (one of) Colm O’Rourke’s star past pupil(s) spends a week with Aidan and his family, both at home in Ballydoyle and at the Breeders Cup fixture in California, have a look for it on YouTube. It’s truly eye opening.
Not only to the humble nature and generosity of the man, but also how appreciative he and his family are of the opportunities bestowed upon them.
Now consider the scale of the operation. The number of horses, the commensurate quantity of staff. Yet each animal is individually checked by the boss, every staff member personally greeted, every day of the week.
As simple, yet remarkable as that might seem, in another clip, while driving alongside the gallop chatting to the work riders, Aidan picks up the two-way radio and gives the housekeeper the heads up “Mrs Almond, give those people (named, even though he’d only met them for five minutes) tea and whatever’s there for breakfast”.
It’s surely no wonder that his offspring are not only impeccable ladies and gentlemen, they are exceptionally gifted at what they do in their own right also.
The latter point being – in a roundabout sort of way – catalyst for this contribution being keyboarded. No secret will ever be made of the fact that the jumps are my favourite facet of racing.
Reason being that the flat has always appeared to be an elitist closed shop. Dominated by Coolmore and the other yards fortunate enough to have stock belonging to some of the Arab operations in their care.
Now though, the feeling that racing has gone full circle is unavoidable. Owing primarily to the stranglehold Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott currently wield in National Hunt. Not the fault of either man, of course, but hardly healthy for the sport either.
Mind you, in any other era, the number of winners chalked up by Henry De Bromhead and Joseph O’Brien would be enough for either to have a decent lead in the NH Trainers Championship.
But this is no ordinary era in jump racing. Which is why the sphere needs every top trainer it can get to maintain its competitiveness and attractiveness.
To that end, change isn’t always a good thing. On Saturday last, while Aidan O’Brien was completing yet another historic chapter over in Doncaster, the first jumps card of the current season unfolded in Navan.
However, for the first time in all the years I have been properly attuned to goings on in racing, Noel Meade didn’t have a single runner on the card. Nor, does it appear, will he have many representatives in the jumps races at the Listowel Harvest Festival. Most notably, the affable Castletown handler hasn’t a single entry in the Guinness Kerry National.
Not all change is good. That’s not to say I can’t understand why the multiple times Champion NH trainer is leaning towards the Flat. From a business perspective it makes perfect sense. You’ll purchase foals/yearlings considerably cheaper than a store horse or a Point-to-Pointer.
Just by way of explanation, a ‘store’ horse is meant exactly as it sounds, stock bought well in advance of them being required or ready for active service.
Then, and this nis most likely the root cause of the master of Tu Va throwing the majority of his lot in on the level, the prize money available on the flat dwarfs that up for grabs in races over obstacles. Plus, with the exception of (valuable) handicaps, there’s generally nowhere near the field sizes to contend with.
What some mightn’t realise, though, is that Noel’s switch of emphasis to the world of starting stalls actually represents things going full circle for him as, when he began with his winner – after whom the yard in Castletown is named – he was predominantly focussed on the Flat until, as he put it himself once, the proliferation of the Coolmore operation and Arab owners left it difficult for ‘ordinary operators’ to survive, never mind prosper.
Of course, the above entities are still very much in the picture. Indeed, it could be reasonably argued their collective influence is now greater than ever given that they are now backing Donnacha and Joseph O’Brien and, to a perhaps lesser extent, Johnny Murtagh.
However, the bigger picture has changed significantly in the last four-plus decades. Yes the elite still hold a considerable advantage, but, getting a foot (or wheel) in the door to the sport isn’t the unattainable dream it once was. This can be personally vouched for. And what is also certain is that people like Noel don’t just lose their nous at a job they have excelled at for decades all of a sudden.
So in one sense it should be no surprise see he who has – or at least had – paintings of Colm O’Rourke and Graham Geraghty on his two horse lorries sitting on €500,000 in prize money for the current Flat season at the time of typing.
Mind you, he had proven the merit of his concentration on matters on the level when deservedly adding a Group One success to his illustrious list of successes courtesy of Helvic Dream. That one being part-owned by former Connacht rugby captain Johnny Muldoon.
It is beyond question that further top honours can and hopefully will make their way to Castletown in the months and, please God, years ahead. If they come after negotiating a few obstacles, all the better!