Vincent O’Brien, widely regarded as the greatest racehorse trainer of all time, died aged 92 on Monday.
O’Brien secured 16 English and 27 Irish Classic victories, 25 Royal Ascot wins and 23 Cheltenham Festival successes during his 51-year career.
O’Brien — son of a farmer and one of whose brothers, Phonsie, also trained — achieved greatness on both the national hunt and flat stages, which is a rare feat and almost unimaginable now.
PHOTO: AP
He trained three Grand National winners, and Cottage Rake won the Cheltenham Gold Cup three times between 1948 and 1950. He then switched his attention to the flat and trained an extraordinary six Epsom Derby winners between 1962 and 1982. He trained the likes of Nijinsky, Sir Ivor, Sadler’s Wells, Golden Fleece, The Minstrel, El Gran Senor and Ballymoss during his stellar career before retiring from training in October 1994 and spending time in Perth, Australia.
During the 1970s, he and owner Robert Sangster, along with O’Brien’s son-in-law John Magnier, established the Coolmore syndicate in County Tipperary which is presently the most influential breeding operation in the world.
The Canadian-bred horse Northern Dancer proved to be a particularly profitable sire. One son of Northern Dancer was Nijinsky, who some commentators have described as the best horse O’Brien ever trained. He was ridden to victory at Epsom by Lester Piggott, who was associated with the Ballydoyle stable during the most successful years of the late 1960s and 1970s.
Piggott paid a glowing tribute to his former boss.
“There’s really no argument he was the greatest,” Piggott said.
“Vincent’s attention to detail was to be seen everywhere at Ballydoyle [his stables], and he wanted to operate at the level where he could get to know each individual animal as closely as was humanly possible,” Piggott added. “Everything he did was geared to keeping his horses happy and relaxed at home so that they would perform to their full potential on the racecourse, and the results speak for themselves.”
O’Brien was voted both greatest National Hunt trainer and greatest Flat trainer of the 20th century.
O’Brien is survived by his wife, Jacqueline, and five children, including David, who trained the 1984 Derby winner Secreto edging out his father’s heavily fancied El Gran Senor — and now lives in Perth, and Charles, who trains in Ireland.
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