Our Ben Linfoot reflects on a record-equalling Breeders’ Cup for Aidan O’Brien who now sets his sights on his own world record after another stellar season.
‘Do you get the feeling we might have been talking to a genius?’ he said. It was a reasonable question.
That was the sign off from the late, great sports journalist Hugh McIlvanney in a Sunday Times article in the January of 1997 as he recalled a comment from a friend – ‘a hardened racing professional’ – leaving Aidan O’Brien’s kitchen, two months before Istabraq landed the first of his four Cheltenham Festival successes in what was then the Royal Sunalliance Novices’ Hurdle over 2m5f.
At the time O’Brien’s rise in the Irish jumps scene had been meteoric – by his third season in 1995-96 he trained 154 National Hunt winners in Ireland that campaign – but 1997 was a significant year for more than merely the emergence of Istabraq. It was also the year he won 100 races on the Flat for the first time. It was the year he won his first Classic with Desert King.
By the time Istabraq had won his third and final Champion Hurdle in the year 2000 O’Brien had almost fully diverted his attention to racing on the level. As he was preparing Istabraq for his seasonal reappearance at Cork in the October of 2000, a certain stablemate called Galileo was winning a Leopardstown maiden on debut by 14 lengths.
It was the same year he had his first Breeders’ Cup runner with Giant’s Causeway at Churchill Downs in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the year the late and legendary American trainer D. Wayne Lukas taught him everything he needed to know about racing Stateside.
A quarter of a century later O’Brien still hasn’t avenged that neck defeat by Tiznow. But he did surpass Lukas’ record as the most successful trainer in the history of the Breeders’ Cup with 21 victories last Friday night - a number that was equalled by Bob Baffert after his dirt double on Saturday evening.
Still, tied first is still some going and on the night he initially broke the record with Gstaad, O’Brien did what he always does and deflected praise away from himself. But he was happy to discuss at length the influence of Lukas.
“When we found Giant's Causeway very early in our career, he was such a help,” he said. “I can't tell you. We came over here and we didn't know anything about American racing.
“He told us everything we wanted to know from shoeing him, to the right way to take him to the track. He came down with his own horse and took him to the track himself for us to make sure that we got it all right.
“Every year since, he always rings and texts, if we ever had a good day or even a bad day. Very special man. What can I say? We've been always so grateful to him. He never expected anything himself. I think everything he did was for his horses and his owners.
“He dreamed a lot. And I think that's where his longevity and his brilliance came from. An incredibly special man, really.”
Breeders’ Cup victories are what dreams are made of when you’re operating at the highest level in the sport and O’Brien won’t be stopping at 21.
One factor that makes this record so special for O’Brien is that the Breeders’ Cup comes at the end of a long season in Europe. Even accounting for the privilege that he speaks of himself, the investment from the owners, the beautiful pedigrees and his supreme team of workers at Ballydoyle, it’s an incredible achievement.
To keep these horses on the go until November, after busy seasons in England, Ireland and France, and to get them to peak again, in an away match, at tracks like Belmont, Arlington, Churchill Downs, Santa Anita, Keeneland and Del Mar, with the travel and the draws and everything that can go wrong, is remarkable.
Just look at Precise. She could’ve been the record-breaking horse but for developing a cough in the hours before the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. As fate would have it Aidan’s son, Donnacha, landed that race with the outsider Balantina under Oisin Murphy.
As succession plans go, the Joseph/Donnacha line to the Ballydoyle throne is looking pretty strong. They were young boys when Johannesburg won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Belmont Park in 2001, O’Brien’s first win at the meeting. Joseph was eight, Donnacha just three. They’ve grown up at the Breeders' Cup, Joseph getting the best view of all when he won the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Turf aboard St Nicholas Abbey at Churchill Downs.
That will rank highly in Aidan’s favourite Breeders’ Cup memories. But there’s room for more. After City Of Troy’s defeat last year he’s 0/18 in the Classic and scratching that particular itch must headline his own dreams. That and a Triple Crown winner, perhaps.
Such holy grails will be part of what keeps him going.
After all, O'Brien has been reduced to trying to break his own world record this season – he’s now two off equalling his 2017 record of 28 Group/Grade 1 wins in a calendar year after the win of Gstaad at Del Mar – and big dreams help to extend his own career, one that shows no sign of stopping with over 400 Group/Grade 1 wins in the bag.
After the scratching of Precise and the defeat of Minnie Hauk at the Breeders' Cup, matching or beating his own top-level record has become more difficult.
But O'Brien has entered Los Angeles, Minnie Hauk and Queenstown in the Hong Kong Vase, The Lion In Winter in the Hong Kong Mile and Bedtime Story, Los Angeles, Minnie Hauk, Queenstown and The Lion In Winter in the Hong Kong Cup for Sha Tin on December 14, so it could, in theory at least, still be done, for all that it remains to be seen how strong his HKIR team will be.
O'Brien's talent was obvious early, whether you were in his kitchen 30 years ago or not. In the same 1997 article McIlvanney observed of O’Brien that ‘what he has done at the age of 27 surely testifies to a magical gift for extracting the best from thoroughbreds’. At the age of 56, nothing has changed.
But a genius? It was indeed a reasonable question. Little did they know it was an understatement.
Aidan O’Brien’s Breeders’ Cup Winners (21 - record, tied with Baffert)
- Gstaad, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (2025, Del Mar)
- Henri Matisse, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (2024, Del Mar)
- Lake Victoria, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (2024, Del Mar)
- Auguste Rodin, Breeders’ Cup Turf (2023, Santa Anita)
- Unquestionable, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (2023, Santa Anita)
- Tuesday, Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (2022, Keeneland)
- Victoria Road, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (2022, Keeneland)
- Meditate, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (2022, Keeneland)
- Order Of Australia, Breeders’ Cup Mile (2020, Keeneland)
- Mendelssohn, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (2017, Del Mar)
- Highland Reel, Breeders’ Cup Turf (2016, Santa Anita)
- Found, Breeders’ Cup Turf (2015, Keeneland)
- Hit It A Bomb, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (2015, Keeneland)
- Magician, Breeders’ Cup Turf (2013, Santa Anita)
- George Vancouver, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (2012, Santa Anita)
- St Nicholas Abbey, Breeders’ Cup Turf (2011, Churchill Downs)
- Wrote, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (2011, Churchill Downs)
- Man Of Iron, Breeders’ Cup Marathon (2009, Santa Anita)
- High Chaparral, Breeders’ Cup Turf (DH 2003, Santa Anita)
- High Chaparral, Breeders’ Cup Turf (2002, Arlington)
- Johannesburg, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (2001, Belmont Park)
Aidan O’Brien’s Group/Grade 1 Winners 2025 (26)
- Gstaad October 31 - Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf
- Pierre Bonnard October 26 – Criterium de Saint-Cloud
- Puerto Rico October 26 – Criterium International
- Hawk Mountain October 25 – William Hill Futurity Stakes
- Precise October 10 – bet365 Fillies’ Mile
- Puerto Rico October 5 – Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere
- Diamond Necklace October 5 – Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac
- True Love September 27 – Tattersalls Sceptre Sessions Cheveley Park Stakes
- Precise September 14 – Moygalre Stud Stakes
- Delacroix September 13 – Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes
- Scandinavia September 13 – Betfred St Leger Stakes
- Minnie Hauk August 21 – Pertemps Network Yorkshire Oaks
- Diego Velazquez August 17 – The Aga Khan Studs Prix Jacques Le Marois
- Whirl July 31 – Qatar Nassau Stakes
- Scandinavia July 29 – Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup
- Minnie Hauk July 19 – Juddmonte Irish Oaks
- Delacroix July 5 – Coral-Eclipse
- Lambourn June 29 – Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby
- Whirl June 28 – Paddy Power Pretty Polly Stakes
- Lambourn June 7 – Betfred Derby
- Minnie Hauk June 6 – Betfred Oaks
- Jan Brueghel June 6 – Betfred Coronation Cup
- Camille Pissarro June 1 – Qatar Prix du Jockey Club
- Lake Victoria May 25 – Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas
- Los Angeles May 25 – Tattersalls Gold Cup
- Henri Matisse May 11 – Poule d’Essai des Poulains
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