By Chris McGrath
Fathers and sons, stallions and foals: the cycles as perennial as the mystery. “People or horses, it's the same,” says Aidan O'Brien. “All those little things that go into it. Is it nature or nurture? The whole thing's mad, really, if you think about it long enough.”
But that's just what he is doing, sipping a coffee as the quiet of afternoon settles with the drizzle upon the yard outside. The horses are at rest, absorbing those increased mental and physical challenges by which–with the onset of another spring, however sluggish this year–O'Brien annually begins to unravel their innate potential.
Think about it he does, deeply. Every day, after all, he controls the environment for some the most precious pedigrees on the planet. Every day, above all with the young horses, he asks questions that can change the amber lights of their internal, genetic traffic either red or green.
“And you're right in the middle of that, at the moment,” he explains. “You have to be very careful. You can lose a horse very quick–by not pushing enough, or pushing too much. Some of them, mentally, need to be pushed. Because if you don't push them, they'll get bold; and if they get bold, they become ungenuine. So some of them you have to push a little bit, to keep on top of them; and some of them, you have to back off.”
Almost invariably, of course, the lights turn green: one crossroads cleared after another, his charges thriving and thriving, passing landmarks in such a blur that nowadays people barely stop to think about what they represent.
It took something beyond even the giddy standards he has made routine during his tenure at Ballydoyle, now into its third decade, to renew a due sense of wonder in 2017: 28 Group or Grade 1 winners, surpassing the world record of 25 set by the late Bobby Frankel. Yet if many of these winners extended the hegemony of his employers' champion stallion, Galileo, the real sire of the year at Ballydoyle was perhaps O'Brien himself.
His son Joseph never received due credit during his time as stable jockey. If he won a Derby, or a riding title, then it was because he had access to the conveyor belt of stars trained by his father for Coolmore. Yet to those who could bring both detachment and expertise to their judgement, Joseph was arguably as good a horseman as they had seen since his father's namesake and predecessor at Ballydoyle, Vincent O'Brien, was legging up Lester Piggott.
As a still “longer” fellow, Joseph's physique meant he burned as briefly as he did brightly in the saddle. As a fledgling trainer, however, he has maintained a seamless excellence. His Melbourne Cup success last November with Rekindling (GB) (High Chaparral {Ire}) was a seismic moment. Here was a 3-year-old colt who had won the Ballysax S. on Apr. 8, and had since soaked up a series of gruelling races, cutting down the Ballydoyle runner in the final strides. Still only 24, Joseph now finds himself coolly presiding over one of the biggest operations in the country.
“He's very busy and has a great team with him,” O'Brien says. “He lives and breathes it, and every year that goes by will be good for him. He will never be afraid to ask, about the smallest thing, and will always take what you say very strong–but he'll make his own mind up then. When we went to Melbourne, for instance, he didn't think what we were doing would suit his horse and did something totally different. He's very natural; never did anything else, or thought about anything else. From when he was very small he'd be looking in the face of horses more than he was a human being.”
So who, again, can say where nature ends and nurture starts? In whatever ratio, their upbringing is equally evident in Joseph's siblings. Unfortunately Donnacha, not yet 20 himself, faces a still tougher battle with weight than Joseph. As such, it would be gratifying to see his own talent rewarded on the big stage for such time as he can maintain a role riding at 9st.
But the dynasty founded by O'Brien and his wife, Annemarie, herself a champion horsewoman, is incidental to those he is cultivating professionally. And that, entering a new turf season, is the top item on the Ballydoyle agenda.
For with Montjeu long dead and Galileo entering the evening of his career, O'Brien is gaining new stimulation from twin imperatives tracing to their sire Sadler's Wells. One is to help his grandsons establish their own eligibility, as heirs, now that they are at stud themselves; and the other is to help John Magnier and his partners identify the most fertile outcross for all the outstanding mares they have assembled at Coolmore from the same bloodline.
In that context, perhaps the two most significant members of the Classic crop at Ballydoyle are Saxon Warrior (Jpn) and September (Ire), both by the Japanese phenomenon Deep Impact (Jpn) out of Group 1 winners trained by O'Brien. Saxon Warrior is out of the Galileo mare Maybe (Ire), who was a top-class juvenile; while September is out of Peeping Fawn, who did not run at two but won four Group 1 prizes in eight weeks during her only summer on the track. And she is also by the stallion whose own success gave the farm a contemporary foil to Sadler's Wells, in Danehill.
“The sample has been very small,” O'Brien says of the few Deep Impacts he has handled to date. “And this year we have a big horse and a small filly. It's going to be very interesting. We love it when the lads do all those strange things and bring in different stock, because you get a feel very quick for character and physique, the way they take their work, the way they move.”
“Deep Impact is a horse that came from this part of the world, in that the Nagles bred his dam [Wind In Her Hair (Ire) (Alzao)]. They're natural horses; I suppose what makes them a little bit different is that Deep Impact won over a mile and seven. 'JM' is very pro, at the moment anyway, and nobody thinks about it more than he does. The broodmare band is getting bigger and stronger all the time, and it's very interesting listening to him about all that [i.e. outcross options].”
“Nobody understands it like he does, because he's brought it all along; and nobody has the knowledge of pedigrees he has. And he's trying stuff all the time: looking at stuff, pulling back from stuff, going into stuff. I'd presume it's like feeling your way through a fog, touching here and touching there, feeling this and feeling that, tweaking this and tweaking that; listening to me and listening to you. He gets all the information and it's very interesting what he picks up on, what he decides the horses need.”
Saxon Warrior, favourite for the G1 Qipco 2000 Guineas after narrowly preserving his unbeaten record in the G1 Racing Post Trophy, has evidently developed into a formidable physical specimen; whereas September has the kind of nimble build that would compound her appeal as an Epsom filly. After winning at Royal Ascot, she resumed her progress when restored to a faster surface in the G1 Fillies' Mile at Newmarket and the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies' Turf at Del Mar, flying late on both occasions.
“September is an unusual one, really,” O'Brien says. “Her dam was a big powerful mare, but she's not very big. What she does have is a big attitude, a big personality, and she's a good mover. We're just dawdling with her really, at the moment, but we're obviously thinking of the [Qipco 1000] Guineas to kick her off.”
The outcross that was really beginning to hum for Coolmore, of course, was Scat Daddy (Johannesburg)–rendering his abrupt loss at just 11 all the more tragic. The quest for an heir to the Ashford stallion has a corresponding urgency. No Nay Never (Scat Daddy), who is about to have his first runners, has now been joined at Coolmore by Caravaggio (Scat Daddy), while O'Brien will be hoping that he could yet find another star among their sire's final crop.
“We have four of them going very nice at the moment,” he says. “They look like they could be group horses but, listen, they're half-speeding. Scat Daddy has been a massive influence for speed, and we think the No Nay Nevers are very like Scats. They probably might be lower movers. Scats can bend their knee a little bit but these are lower-actioned. Which is a good thing. And they're showing plenty of pace.”
O'Brien is also now savouring the chance to work with sons of Declaration Of War (War Front), who so nearly crowned Coolmore's commitment to his sire, as another outcross, when beaten a nose and a head in the 2013 GI Breeders' Cup Classic on his dirt debut.
“War Fronts are naturally very quick horses, very like the Danzigs we had early on,” he says. “Declaration Of War is getting hardy horses, I think they'll stay better than some War Fronts and they'll do very well from two to three.”
The second half of this interview will appear in Tuesday's TDN.
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