O’Brien revels in glory of Academy’s master class

IT MIGHT have been the final great story in a career littered with them, but Vincent O’Brien’s ability to train big race winners was never more evident than in New York in 1990 when he sent Royal Academy to the Breeders’ Cup meeting at Belmont and shocked the locals to the core by winning the $1 million prize.

O’Brien, then 73 and in the twilight of his career, inveigled Lester Piggott, a 54-year-old grandfather, out of retirement to partner Royal Academy, a horse he had captured for $3.5m in one sensational bidding bout at Keeneland two years previously and who had never particularly shone over a mile.

“It is,” according to Vincent’s wife Jacqueline, “probably my most abiding memory of all. Vincent only had a few horses in training by then. He had flu and couldn’t go himself. So I went, with my son Charles (O’Brien’s then assistant trainer). Vincent had got Lester to ride, which everyone said was crazy. It was like a miracle.”