‘I don’t think we’ve achieved that much at all’
Is it having the humility to listen to others yet accept the buck stops with you? Is it the ability to bounce back and take lessons from disappointment? Is it the refusal to allow yourself be sated by success, to lose the hunger, to stop pushing the boundaries? Is it combination of all those qualities?
Aidan O’Brien ticks these boxes. All of them. His CV glitters. He has won the English 2000 Guineas six times, the Irish equivalent nine, five Ascot Gold Cups, seven Coronation Cups, the Irish Derby 10 times, the Epsom Derby four, the Breeders’ Cup Turf four as well as the Arc de Triomphe.
That’s just a sample.
O’Brien’s hunger remains unsatisfied though.
“I don’t think we’ve achieved that much at all. That’s the truth,” he says with a conviction that suggests he somehow means what he says.
“There’s so many things we haven’t achieved. So many. We’ve so many horses. The lads (owners John Magnier, Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor) are breeding so many good horses here all the time. There’s so many horses coming along all the time and there’s so many races we haven’t won. We’ve a lot to do, hopefully.”
In the short term that means winning the Epsom Derby today when O’Brien will bid to become the first person in history to train the winner three years in succession.
Australia is the hottest of favourites for the Classic but Ballydoyle stablemates Geoffrey Chaucer, Orchestra and Kingfisher warrant respect too.
“No matter what anyone says the Derby is the hardest race on the turf,” O’Brien says of the race he’s mastered four times in total courtesy of Galileo (2001), High Chaparral (2002), Camelot in 2012 and Ruler Of The Ruler 12 months ago.
“ It’s the sternest test. You have to have speed, you have to have stamina, you have to be able to adapt to things — it’s a tough race. It’s the ultimate test of a racehorse.
“Sometimes horses don’t survive it and do anything afterwards but it’s like the Olympics. That’s what the breed is for. They have to do it at two and they have to do it at three. It’s the ultimate.”
The 10-year gap between Derby win two and three weighed heavily on O’Brien’s shoulders.
“Espom was a long journey home for many years. The journeys home are always very long when things don’t go right.
“We’re under no illusions about the Derby. You don’t just go over there and it happens.”
However, while Derby’s importance is huge the bigger picture is the search for thoroughbred perfection.
“Obviously the new horses that are coming, who knows what’s going to come out of them. There’s horses coming to us with different pedigrees and from different backgrounds. The next one can be the next Pegasus. They can be the next one with wings, something the world has never seen before. That’s the excitement about the whole thing really. Everyone is looking for the unique horse.”
The demands of life in Ballydoyle are huge, O’Brien accepts, before giving a fascinating insight into the discipline required to stay at the summit of a hugely competitive industry.
He’s in bed by nine o’clock every night.
“I have to. If you go to bed early, then you won’t be stressed. If you don’t — especially when there’s so much happening — your mind will get tired.
“I go to bed and I just wipe my mind. If I don’t I can’t wake up clear the next day. You just have to wipe everything out of your mind. It’s either that or you don’t survive. That’s why you keep yourself as clear as possible. There’s no point information going in if you can’t get it when you want it.”
Maintaining concentration is key, he insists. “My focus could drift if I allowed it but if it did I’m not being responsible because I’m not giving it my full whack. We’re all in control of our own mind; it’s up to me not to let it drift. The minute if drifts in this game it’s going to get you because you have to be focused. I would be letting everybody else down if I wasn’t.”
Such rigid self-discipline is not compatible to an active social life but O’Brien doesn’t regard that as a sacrifice.
Instead the 44-year-old sees it as a necessary approach to remaining successful.
“I love it, it’s my hobby as well as my work,” he explains. “It’s a serious business and we have to get results. The truth of my life is I’m very grateful for the day gone by and I look forward to the next day but I don’t take it any further than that.
“I feel if I can stay fit and stay healthy and sleep well I should be able to keep doing it. That’s why I cut out a lot of the other stuff because I know I’m in a position I’m probably never going to get into again so I’ll try and stay in it as long as I can.”
However, Ballydoyle is far from a one-man dictatorship.
Aidan’s eldest son Joseph, Ireland’s champion jockey for the past two seasons, is obviously a key figure while daughters Sarah and Ana have already sampled a taste of racecourse action.
Aidan’s other son, Donnacha, will get his riding licence in the near future. Aidan’s wife Anne-Marie is another vital cog.
“The reality with the lads is they’ve never known anything else and we live, obviously, in the middle of the yard so their whole life revolves around this place,” Aidan says.
“They ride out before they go to school and then after school, they’re back and they’re in the middle of everything. Obviously for us it’s a big help and it makes it easier that they are so involved because if they didn’t have the interest I suppose it would be very hard. But I suppose they’ve got the interest from being so involved.”
One of the upsides to this family affair in O’Brien’s eyes is that nobody is backwards in coming forward.
“Your mind gets twisted a lot more because the people who are close to you, they don’t be mincing their words while people a little bit further away would be thinking ‘will I say this or will I not’. They don’t. They say it. Whether its criticism or praise, they say it.
“In one way it’s very good because it does stimulate your mind and it makes you see different points of view.”
Do they overrule you?
“They try. I’m always very happy to be overruled by anybody if it makes sense and everybody is agreeable to it. There’s no one person I know who can make the right decision all the time. I would have a strong opinion, like everybody, but I’m very happy to be overruled. It’s a very inexact science this whole thing.”
Nevertheless O’Brien is acutely aware that ultimate responsibility rests with him.
“It does absolutely and I know we need to get results. I’ll always be very happy when I feel I’m doing my best. That’s all I can do. That’s where my confidence comes from. If my mind is clear, if my mind is rested, getting up every morning you have a better chance of making the right decision. But if you make the wrong decision I always say it wasn’t meant to be and that’s it. We tried it but it didn’t work.”
That’s not to say O’Brien is in any way complacent. Far from it. Like most elite sportspeople the pain of failure lingers longer than the joy of success.
“The pain is worse,” he confirms. “Winners are brilliant but the minute you go to bed that night that’s gone. It’s hard to get rid of the one that’s run badly and you’ve made a muck of.
“Winning is relief but the minute you go to bed its over because that’s life and that’s sport. You’re only as good as your next win.”
