Paper denies gunning for O'Brien over Brian Boru comments
The Post reported that the Turf Club may ask O'Brien to explain comments regarding Brian Boru's run at Leopardstown on Sunday made at an open day for the press at Ballydoyle on Monday.
It quoted O'Brien as saying: "we were trying to get Brian Boru to do the right thing, rather than winning the race" and that "the last thing we wanted to do was get in a battle with Alamshar".
Chris Smith, the paper's editor, said: "It was a very glaring quote in the climate that seems to exist at the moment, and we couldn't ignore it. It jumped off the page.
"We've reported what Aidan O'Brien said and what the Turf Club said when presented with this quote, which we thought everyone would have jumped on.
"We're not gunning for Aidan O'Brien. We're big fans of Ballydoyle and all they do for racing.
"Aidan did not mean that Brian Boru wasn't trying and he did not mean he was schooling in public. But we thought it was slightly unfortunate phrasing that the Rotweillers of the press would go for and jump on him. We thought we would make it a damage limitation exercise and underplay this story if anything. It was our duty to cover it, but then be ready to follow up and back O'Brien. But for some reason they've either not seen it or chickened away from it, and if I had so little respect for their journalistic abilities that I thought they would have backed away from it, then we certainly wouldn't have done anything.
"This morning I thought we'd be the good guys, not the bad guys. We should have a good working relationship with Ballydoyle, and I wouldn't want to think we have to build a bridge with Aidan at all, but I'd gladly talk to him. I'm disappointed that the situation seems a bit out of hand, but hopefully it will calm down."
The open day was organised for the British press by public relations agency, the GEM Group, which handles promotion of the Vodafone Derby. It's spokesman, Johnno Spence, said: "We're desperately disappointed with the angle the Racing Post has taken. We just feel we have built up such a good relationship with Coolmore and Ballydoyle and they're so kind to entertain the press and have them over. Aidan O'Brien gave us three hours of his time and the Racing Post has taken the angle and just misinterpreted what he was saying. We have had discussion with a number of people at Ballydoyle and Coolmore and they are upset. In fact, Aidan is seething. The whole thing is unbelievable."
* Danehill, the sire of Alex Ferguson's record-breaking Group One winner Rock of Gibraltar, has died aged 17 at Coolmore Stud.
Danehill really came into his own after his modest racing career when he went to stud, becoming the leading sire of Group race winners in Europe last year with 13 winners of 24 races.
