Joseph O’Brien

Joseph O’Brien is walking among the horses as they circle, as they stretch their legs before work.

“Thirty-five to 40,” he says to one of the riders.  “Thirty-five to 40,” he says to another. 

It’s cold, but it’s clear and it’s fresh and it’s bright, getting brighter these days, no need to turn on the lights on the gallop.  And there is a sense of cover, blanket-like, from the trees that flank the famous uphill gallop at Carriganóg as you watch the horses come up towards you, growing in stature and in clarity as they do.  Joseph O’Brien watches intently, Home By The Lee, Banbridge, Solness, their breathing and their respective gaits in an easy Doppler effect rhythm.  

The speedometer to your right tells you that the riders have hit their respective marks: 36, 37, 38, all well within the 35 to 40 range, and the horses are at ease with that.  They slow to a trot, then a walk, and they turn and amble easily back down past you.  As they do, Joseph addresses each rider by name.

All good Tom?  All good Emma?  

All good Joseph.  All good boss.

Inside, there are two trophy cabinets, and each one is full.  The Melbourne Cup is the dominant feature of the cabinet on the right, the gold 2020 Melbourne Cup, surrounded by silver.  Look to the left cabinet though, and there’s another Melbourne Cup, the 2017 version.  They used to say that no Northern Hemisphere trainer could ever with the Melbourne Cup, and Joseph O’Brien has now won it twice.

Dual champion and multiple Classic-winning jockey, there are speckles of Joseph O’Brien’s versatility as a racehorse trainer all over the place.  There is the evidence of those trophy cabinets for starters, the Pretty Polly Stakes, the Irish Derby, the Cox Plate, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf.  Trophies that have come from Flemington and Moonee Valley, from Royal Ascot and Longchamp and Santa Anita and Saratoga and Hoppegarten.  But there are the National Hunt trophies too, from Cheltenham and Aintree and Ascot and Punchestown and Leopardstown.

Last year on the flat, Joseph O’Brien trained Group 1 winners in Ireland and France and Germany.  He won the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Berlin with Al Riffa 10 days after he had won the Galway Hurdle with Nurburgring, and that was two days after he had won the Colm Quinn BMW Mile with Mexicali Rose.  

He is just back from Saudi Arabia, where Al Riffa ran a big race to finish a close-up third in the Howden Neom Turf Cup, and he has six runners on the all-weather at Dundalk this evening.  And here he is at home now, in the thick of Cheltenham preparations.

Cheltenham and Joseph O’Brien go way back.  Ivanovich Gorbatov was trained by Joseph’s father Aidan to win the Triumph Hurdle in 2016, but Joseph was deeply involved in the horse’s preparation.

“We were quietly hopeful that he would run a big race,” says Joseph.  “He had a very good preparation, we learned from his run in the Spring Juvenile Hurdle.  He was a very tough horse, and it was very special to have a winner in Cheltenham.”

He won the Fred Winter Hurdle in 2019 with Band Of Outlaws, and he won the Martin Pipe Hurdle two days later with Early Doors.  He added another Fred Winter Hurdle last year with Lark In The Mornin, and he added another Martin Pipe Hurdle in 2022 with Banbridge.

“Banbridge was always a very nice horse to deal with.  His first run for us was a bit disappointing, but then he gradually started to progress.  I remember Ronnie (Bartlett, owner) saying to me, whatever he did hurdling, they were sure that he was going to be better when he jumped fences.  He ended up being a very good novice hurdler, winning the Martin Pipe.  Then he came back chasing the following season, and he took his form to a new level.”

Winner of the Arkle Trial and of the Manifesto Chase as a novice, Banbridge won the Punchestown Champion Chase over two miles on his final run last season.  On his latest run, he won the King George at Kempton over three.  There’s that versatility again.

“In the parade ring after the Punchestown race, Ronnie suggested that we aim him at the King George.  I was more than happy to make a plan that would culminate in the King George.  We felt going to Kempton that he was in the form of his life.  The King George is one of the most special races in the National Hunt season.  I had never been to Kempton, but I had watched the King George every year for as long as I can remember.  I was terribly excited just to be getting on the plane, to go to Kempton to even have a runner in the race.  It was a very special race to win.”

After that, Cheltenham was the plan.  Straight to Cheltenham.  Avoid the deepest ground of the season through January and February and get ready for the spring.  

“We didn’t feel that we needed to run him fitness-wise,” says Joseph.  “We feel like he has prepared well since Kempton, his weight is good, he has done everything nicely.  We’ll monitor the going, if things happened to turn up heavy, we could look at Aintree.  But if conditions could be right on the Friday, everyone would love to have a shot at the Gold Cup.”

Solness will have a shot at the Champion Chase, Home By The Lee will have a shot at the Stayers’ Hurdle.  Their trainer says that he is concentrating more on the flat these days, but the evidence tells you that his National Hunt team remains strong.  Four Grade 1 wins this National Hunt season so far, and probably the strongest team for the Cheltenham Festival that he has ever assembled.

He will have at least one runner on each of the four days at Cheltenham next week, all going well.  Galileo Dame for the Triumph Hurdle or the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, Nurburgring and Jordans and San Salvador potentially for the Jack Richards Novices’ Handicap Chase.  Puturhandstogether and Beyond Your Dreams and Comfort Zone and Lark In The Mornin.  

Busselton for the Cross-Country Chase.  More speckles of versatility.