Ruby Walsh: What Joseph O'Brien has achieved is simply remarkable

When Vintage Crop won Ireland's first Melbourne Cup in 1993, nobody could have known the man who was going to train the third and fourth ones was only just born

Twilight Payment and Jye McNiel give trainer Joseph O'Brien his second Melbourne Cup winner. Picture: Healy Racing.

What a week! Quilixios, Ballyadam, Sir Gerhard, Farouk D’Alene and Chemical Energy all became new names to follow for the winter. Aspire Tower and Battleoverdoyen re-established their reputations as horses with a chance of becoming stars, and the brightest star of them all, Envoi Allen, shown as brilliantly as ever.

That was only the National Hunt action from last weekend. A couple of days later, Twilight Payment became the fourth and most recent Irish winner of the Melbourne Cup. Dermot Weld trained the first two - Vintage Crop and Media Puzzle - but when Vintage Crop won the first one, in 1993, nobody could have known the man who was going to train the third and fourth ones was only just born.