David Ord talks to Joseph O'Brien

Joseph O'Brien on his team for the Cheltenham Festival

By David Ord

Horse Racing

Sat February 14, 2026 · 5h ago

I sense Joseph O’Brien is the sort of person to take most things in his stride. Even a youngster running laps of a table in the foyer of the Lord Bagenal as he speaks to the assembled press at the Jockey Club media event this week doesn’t distract him.

Eyes down, he never looks up. The prospective athlete has given up preparing for Chester himself, and is now tearing up and down the staircase.

Having scaled the heights as a jockey riding for his father, O’Brien has made a seamless transition to the training game.

He’s grown to be one of the biggest challengers to the Ballydoyle dominance both domestically and internationally.

He has a CV that can boast success in Irish Classics, two Melbourne Cups, a Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mares’ Turf .There are a host of big races in Britain too ranging from a Prince Of Wales’s at Royal Ascot to Banbridge’s 2024 Boxing Day triumph in the King George.

And despite the increased focus on the Flat, there have been five successes at the Cheltenham Festival and counting.

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That tally includes back-to-back wins in the Fred Winter with Lark In The Morning and Puturhandstogether.

So you have to ask who’s going to bring up the hat-trick? He smiles and courteous as ever, answers.

“We’ll probably have three in it. Glen To Glen – he won in Cork, I think he might have won the same race as Puturhandstogether won. Then we have Dignam – he won a few juveniles in the UK the summer – and then we’ll have a horse called Kizlyar who hasn’t won yet.

“Probably the three of them will run. It looks a good race and it’s hard to win. You need luck in running and the three of them are experienced horses who have had plenty of the runs on the Flat which is usually a big help in that kind of race. They’ll all have an each-way chance. I’d be surprised if any of them started favourite, but they’d all have an each-way chance.”

Supreme test right choice for Talk The Talk

Talk The Talk might not be the market leader for the Sky Bet Supreme either but there are plenty who think he should be.

Amid plenty of speculation over whose colours he might carry in the Festival opener, the trainer admits he goes there full of hope for his DRF Grade One winner.

“He’s really exciting. He’s done nothing wrong this year, he’s unlucky not to be four (from four and he goes to Cheltenham as a real obvious contender as one of the top novices around at the moment,” he says.

“I think it would be fair to say we’re leaning towards the Supreme (Novices’ Hurdle) and that’s the race I’ve had in mind and it’s probably the right race for his progression and for him at this stage.

“I think it might be fair to say that the Turners (Novices’ Hurdle) might end up a little bit softer on paper but we’re paid to put him in the right spot and we think that’s probably the Supreme. The final call will be made late, but I’d say that’s the best spot for him.”

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Asked what impressed him most about Talk The Talk’s victory at the Dublin Racing Festival, O’Brien said: “I suppose at the DRF he probably shouldn’t have been able to win from where he did off a really slow pace, running down two really good horses. I think Ballyfad and King Rasko Grey are high class horses and albeit we just got up on the line. I think it was a performance that you couldn’t mark up given the set-up of the race.”

And patience will again be shown as he heads to England for the first time next month.

“We’ll probably take our time at Cheltenham yes. He’s a horse that, at this stage of his life, that’s the right way to ride him,” O’Brien said.

“I’ve got no problem with him going further. I actually probably see him as a stayer in the long-term but I think we always keep our options open and we could have a change of heart late on, but I think the Supreme is the race we have in mind for him.

“He has kind of an aggressive nature and we feel that the tempo of the Supreme would suit him better. I know he’s won off a very slow pace at Leopardstown the last day but it’s fair to say that I was surprised that he was able to do that and I think the tempo of a Supreme, generally speaking might be run at a faster pace, would probably be more suitable for him.”

Fifth time lucky in the Stayers?

Elsewhere Home For The Lee goes for gold in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle and will run his race, win, lose or draw.

“Yeah, it was a good win the last time and gave weight to the horse that won at the weekend Staffordshire Knot too,” O’Brien continued.

“On paper it was as good as he’s ever been. Whether he can win the Stayers’ Hurdle at the fifth attempt, that might a stretch, but there’s no reason why he couldn’t run well again. He’s a great horse, he’s been a great horse for the owners and the yard, and he can run his race again hopefully.”

It’s not as clear-cut for his rattlingly-good two-mile chaser Solness and the aforementioned Banbridge who went down all guns blazing in the defence of his King George crown.

“Solness has come out of the Dublin Chase well. I guess we could wait for Aintree and go slightly up in trip. He still has the option of Cheltenham and maybe Barry Connell might run scared of us! I’m only joking, but we’ll see how he is and see what the ground’s like. Then we’ll see if he goes to Cheltenham or wait for Aintree.

“He likes to dominate his races but it’s hard to do that at Cheltenham and I don’t think Majborough is going to let us do that any time soon so we might look to avoid him.

“You’d have to say that Marine Nationale has been regularly good at Cheltenham hasn’t he, and we’ve been generally pretty good at Leopardstown, so it’s horses for courses.

Banbridge (right) at the last in this year's King George

It’s a similar story with Banbridge too.

“As well as the Gold Cup and the Ryanair he’s in at Aintree too. We’ve discussed it with Ronnie (Bartlett, owner) and he’ll be left in all the races. It would be fair to say he’ll probably end up at Aintree. We will have a good look at the Ryanair and the Gold Cup but I’d say the ground would need to be particularly dry for him to run there.

“The King George was a great race wasn’t it? One of the best King Georges I can remember in a good while. It was great to be competing in it. You get beaten in a head bob but that’s racing. He turned up and ran right to his best, if not maybe even a clear best to be honest.

“He won the Martin Pipe and he won a Novice Chase there (at Cheltenham) as well. I think the track is fine but he does want that better ground.”

And make no mistake, despite all the success around the world on the Flat, Cheltenham week is one that really matters to Joseph O’Brien.

“Cheltenham is undoubtedly one of the biggest racing festivals anywhere in the world, Flat or National Hunt. You have people who come from all over the world to enjoy the racing and enjoy the best National Hunt horses taking each other on, on the world stage, and it’s a real privilege for us to be in the position to be able to go there every year,” he says.

“I love the challenge and I love the variety of it. We’re privileged that we have the support of people. Really the fundamentals of training a racehorse is the same whatever their discipline is. Fitness, health and having the willingness to compete. At the end of the day you then get a feel for what their best conditions are and you place them in the races accordingly.

“Both of my parents came up through National Hunt racing before converting to the Flat, so I love Jump racing and try to keep a level of National Hunt horses, albeit it’s fair to say Flat is our main focus, numerically anyhow as we have a lot more Flat horses. But there’s nothing like being able to go Leopardstown or Cheltenham or Punchestown or Aintree – it’s special going to those festivals and that’s what racing is all about.”

And with that he’s whisked away for radio and TV duties. I wonder if they remember to ask him if he could choose only one of the Fred Winter trio…which one would it be?

Joseph O'Brien on his team for the Cheltenham Festival

Supreme test right choice for Talk The Talk

Fifth time lucky in the Stayers?

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