Irish Racing Yearbook 2017 launched

THE way Joseph O’Brien tells it, there was no grand plan, no scorching blueprint for grabbing Irish racing by the lapels and shaking it to the core afresh. It was a perfect storm of circumstances: a jockey whose resolve for the tortuous daily grind of wasting was waning and a grand old yard in Co Kilkenny whose potential wasn’t being realised. In terms of pedigree, it was a natural and obvious mating.

His licence states he has been a trainer since June 3 but he has been grafting and plotting, doing the O’Brien thing, for longer than that. He has been coming here off and on - mostly on - since the latter part of 2014. He would ride work at Ballydoyle in the morning and negotiate the 80-minute round trip to Owning, just outside Piltown, in the afternoon. If there was racing, he’d stop by in the evening instead.

At first there were around 15 horses, mostly older types, ostensibly acquired for his siblings to ride in bumpers. Then more came. He bought yearlings and stores at the sales. A batch of homebreds arrived from his parent’s nearby stud farm. Fifteen soon became 30. Thirty became 50.

Now there are upwards of 150 housed in four separate yards - two more than in his father’s day - gathered like the beating chambers of a heart around the main artery of the gallop that dissects them.

Former record-breaking jockey Joseph O’Brien talks to his namesake John O’Brien in Irish Racing Yearbook 2017 about how much he is enjoying training and the wonderful successes he has already enjoyed.

His name wasn’t on the licence when Ivanovich Gorbatov won the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham last March but everyone knew he was the man responsible.

There could be no quibbles when the 23-year-old prepared Intricately – bred by his mother Annemarie – to chin his father’s Hyndrangea in the Moyglare Stud Stakes thanks to an inspired ride by 18-year-old brother Donnacha, giving the siblings their first Group 1 success.

Joseph talks about those days but also about the future, how he’d like to challenge in both codes, and how he doesn’t miss race-riding. He certainly doesn’t miss the struggle to make weight but it is the sense of total responsibility he gets as trainer that appeals to him most.

If that makes him sound like a chip off the old block, it is because he is. And where he is training from, Owning Hill, is steeped in family history. It is where his grandfather Joe had champion chasers and sprinters, where his mother became the first woman to be champion trainer, and where his father claimed a couple of titles too. And now the story continues.

Irish Racing Yearbook 2017offers readers €625 worth of FREE admission tickets to racing tracks around Ireland, as well as the chance to WIN A SHARE IN THE IRISH RACING YEARBOOK RACING CLUB, which includes horses from the yards of leading trainers Tony Martin, Michael O’Callaghan and Joseph Murphy.

A further taste…

“There’s never a good time to say goodbye to Paul Nicholls. Just like there’ll never be a good time to say goodbye to Willie Mullins” - Ruby Walsh

“I can't afford to retire and that's genuinely it. That's Ireland for you. I hear them worrying about other people's business in other countries and they can't look after their own” - Kevin Prendergast

“The back of the couch at home got more finishes in the Gold Cup than anything else. It was always the one race I wanted to win. To win it at 23 was unbelievable.” - Bryan Cooper

“I think you have to be obsessed to be successful, almost on the edge” - Pat Smullen

“He loved that four mile chase in Cheltenham because it was four miles and 32 fences. So long as there was an obstacle in front of him he was happy.” - Enda Bolger on John Thomas McNamara

“The best thing I ever did was speak out. I did it for myself but it has become something bigger than me” - Mark Enright

 

Irish Racing Yearbook 2017 is the definitive Irish racing annual, covering the entire breadth of the thoroughbred industry, including point-to-points and breeding, with in-depth analysis of the sales and stallion figures. Others featured include Aidan O’Brien, Adrian Keatley, Colin Keane, Richard Fahey, Dan Skelton, Paddy Brennan, Gavin Cromwell, Ronan Whelan, Andy Slattery and Barry O’Neill. There are many more interviews as well as stats, race records and fixtures, making it essential reading for the racing enthusiast.

Irish Racing Yearbook 2017 (€21.95/£19) is on sale now in all good newsagents and bookshops, and can be ordered by phone (056 7761504) or online (www.irishracingyearbook.com).

For further information, contact John Fleming (publisher) on 087 4170111 or Daragh Ó Conchúir (editor) on 083 3338836.