Aidan O'Brien

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Aidan O'Brien is an Irish horse racing trainer. He is the private trainer for John Magnier and his associates at Coolmore Stud and heads up the training operation at Ballydoyle Stables in County Tipperary. Despite his relatively young age (early 30s), Aidan O'Brien has already rewritten the trainers' record books. He initially enjoyed a successful riding career, becoming Ireland's amateur champion for the 1993-94 season, which was cut short at the age of 23 when he opted to apply for a licence.

It was in National Hunt racing that he first made his mark as a trainer, sending out two winners on his first day and breaking prize money records as he won the jumps title in his first season. He broke the record number of wins for a year in only his second campaign and then decided to concentrate on the Flat. That opportunity came about when he was asked to take over the famous Ballydoyle stables in County Tipperary, which had previously been the home of his namesake, racing legend Vincent O'Brien (no relation). Vincent O'Brien, voted by the Racing Post as the greatest trainer of all time, left Aidan with one of the most advanced training establishments in the world and huge financial backing which enabled him to compete with the wealthy Arabs at the slaes for the best horses on the planet. In that year, O'Brien, the younger, produced a combined total of 176 winners in Flat and National Hunt - a new Irish record until he broke it himself the following year.

The major successes started to come in the 1997 season when he trained the winners of the Irish 1000 Guineas, Irish 2000 Guineas and the Irish Derby. The following season, he picked up his first English classic when King of Kings won the 2,000 Guineas. He continued to train jumpers - notably Istabraq, whom he saddled to three Champion Hurdle crowns. After Istabraq retired in 2002, O'Brien gave up the jumping game but his grip on the Flat was strengthening yet further. In 2001, his domination stretched across the Irish Sea and he became the first overseas-based trainer since O'Brien Sr to become British Champion Trainer. That year he enjoyed unprecedented success, winning 23 Group 1 races. They included an Oaks-Derby double with Imagine and Galileo, the latter going on to add victory in the Irish Derby to his CV. O'Brien also made in-roads in the US, where Johannesburg won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile event.

In 2002, O'Brien retained both his English and Irish champion trainer's crowns despite the fact that his yard was hit by a coughing bug during the summer. That he was top dog in England with just 10 wins - earning £2.8m in prize money - proves the quality of his string. His successes included Derby winner and runner-up High Chaparral (also dual Breeders' Cup Turf winner) and Hawk Wing, who came home 12 lengths ahead of the field. Another of his inmates, Rock of Gibraltar, set a new record of seven consecutive Group 1 successes.

2004 proved to be a disappointing year for O'Brien. It started off with the removal of Michael Kinane as his stable jockey. He was replaced by the young Jamie Spencer who had developed a good reputation riding in the UK. However the year would prove disappointing on the track. Spencer was replaced after a string of self admitted mistakes on Powerscourt in the Arlington Million and on the same horse again in the Breeders' Cup Turf.

After much media hype and speculation long time English champion jockey Kieren Fallon replaced Spencer as Ballydoyle's stable jockey. It was not long before the good times were to return. On the first classic weekend of the 2005 flat season the newly formed partnership of Aidan O'Brien and Kieren Fallon took home both the 2,000 Guineas (Footstepsinthesand) and the 1,000 Guineas (Virginia Waters). More success would come in the year through Oratorio (Eclipse Stakes, Irish Champion Stakes), Scorpion (Grand Prix de Paris, St Leger), and with the exciting juveniles George Washington, Rumplestiltskin and Horatio Nelson.

The start of the 2006 flat season was to see George Washington confirming his promise as a juvenile by easily winning the 2,000 Guineas on Newmarket's Rowley Mile to give O'Brien his 4th win in the race. O'Brien is backed by the Coolmore operation, which undoubtedly gives him a huge advantage. But his skill at getting his horses to peak at the right time and his attention to detail - mean that he currently has no equals in the training game. Aidan O'Brien is married to Anne Marie Crowley, former Champion National Hunt Trainer and daughter of Joe Crowley of Piltown, County Kilkenny, well-known trainer of Chasers and Hurdlers and she is sister of Frances Crowley, Flat Trainer at the Curragh.

[edit] Major wins

Ireland

Irish 1,000 Guineas - (3) - Classic Park (1997), Imagine (2001), Yesterday (2003)
Irish 2,000 Guineas - (4) - Desert King (1997), Saffron Walden (1999), Black Minnaloushe (2001), Rock of Gibraltar (2002)
Irish Champion Stakes - (4) - Giant's Causeway (2000), High Chaparral (2003), Oratorio (2005), Dylan Thomas (2006)
Irish Derby - (4) - Desert King (1997), Galileo (2001), High Chaparral (2002), Dylan Thomas (2006)
Irish Oaks - (1) - Alexandrova (2006)
Moyglare Stud Stakes - (4) - Sequoyah (2000), Quarter Moon (2001), Necklace (2003), Rumplestiltskin (2005)
National Stakes - (6) - Desert King (1996), King of Kings (1997), Beckett (2000), Hawk Wing (2001), One Cool Cat (2003), George Washington (2005)
Phoenix Stakes - (8) - Lavery (1998), Fasliyev (1999), Minardi (2000), Johannesburg (2001), Spartacus (2002), One Cool Cat (2003), George Washington (2005), Holy Roman Emperor (2006)
Tattersalls Gold Cup - (2) - Black Sam Bellamy (2003), Powerscourt (2004)

Canada

Canadian International - (1) - Ballingarry (2002)

France

Poule d'Essai des Poulains - (2) - Landseer (2002), Aussie Rules (2006)
Poule d'Essai des Pouliches - (1) - Rose Gypsy (2001)
Critérium International - (1) - Mount Nelson (2006)
Critérium de Saint-Cloud - (2) - Ballingarry (2001), Alberto Giacometti (2002)
Grand Prix de Paris - (1) - Scorpion (2005)
Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère - (7) - Second Empire (1997), Ciro (1999), Rock of Gibraltar (2001), Hold That Tiger (2002), Oratorio (2004), Horatio Nelson (2005), Holy Roman Emperor (2006)
Prix Lupin - (1) - Ciro (2000)
Prix Marcel Boussac - (1) - Rumplestiltskin (2005)
Prix Maurice de Gheest - (1) - King Charlemagne (2001)
Prix Morny - (3) - Orpen (1998), Fasliyev (1999), Johannesburg (2001)
Prix du Moulin de Longchamp - (1) - Rock of Gibraltar (2002)
Prix de la Salamandre - (1) - Giant's Causeway (1999)

Italy

Gran Criterium - (2) - Sholokhov (2001), Spartacus (2002)
Gran Premio del Jockey Club - (1) - Black Sam Bellamy (2002)

United Kingdom

1,000 Guineas - (1) - Virginia Waters (2005)
2,000 Guineas - (4) - King of Kings (1998), Rock of Gibraltar (2002), Footstepsinthesand (2005), George Washington (2006)
Ascot Gold Cup - (1) - Yeats (2006)
Champion Hurdle - (3) - Istabraq (1998, 1999 & 2000)
Coronation Cup - (1) - Yeats (2005)
Coronation Stakes - (1) - Sophisticat (2002)
Derby Stakes - (2) - Galileo (2001), High Chaparral (2002)
Dewhurst Stakes - (1) - Rock of Gibraltar (2001)
Eclipse Stakes - (3) - Giant's Causeway (2000), Hawk Wing (2002), Oratorio (2005)
Fillies' Mile - (1) - Sunspangled (1998)
International Stakes - (1) - Giant's Causeway (2000)
July Cup - (2) - Stravinsky (1999), Mozart (2001)
King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes - (1) - Galileo (2001)
Lockinge Stakes - (1) - Hawk Wing (2003)
Middle Park Stakes - (3) - Minardi (2000), Johannesburg (2001), Ad Valorem (2004)
Nunthorpe Stakes - (2) - Stravinsky (1999), Mozart (2001)
Oaks - (3) - Shahtoush (1998), Imagine (2001), Alexandrova (2006)
Queen Anne Stakes - (1) - Ad Valorem (2006)
Queen Elizabeth II Stakes - (1) - George Washington (2006)
Racing Post Trophy - (4) - Saratoga Springs (1997), Aristotle (1999), High Chaparral (2001), Brian Boru (2002)
St. James's Palace Stakes - (3) - Giant's Causeway (2000), Black Minnaloushe (2001), Rock of Gibraltar (2002)
St Leger - (3) - Milan (2001), Brian Boru (2003), Scorpion (2005)
Sussex Stakes - (2) - Giant's Causeway (2000), Rock of Gibraltar (2002)
Yorkshire Oaks - (1) - Alexandrova (2006)