O’Brien honoured by Turf Club for Derby wins
Champion trainer O’Brien was recognised at the annual Moyglare dinner, which took place at the K Club on Saturday night and also acknowledged the team behind Ireland’s inaugural Champions Weekend in September.
Australia’s easy triumph in the Epsom Classic followed Ruler Of The World (2013) and Camelot (2012) and he was O’Brien’s fifth winner of the race.
The Turf Club’s senior steward Neville O’Byrne, who made the presentations, said: “Aidan O’Brien is no stranger to breaking records. He has already trained multiple Group 1 winners and in 2014 he trained his 11th winner of the Irish Derby since 1997.
“It is not for the creation of that record that Aidan is receiving his presentation, but for another record he set in 2014 in relation to the Derby. The Derby was run for the first time in 1780. Since then it has been run on 235 occasions.
“However, in 2014 Aidan achieved something that no trainer has ever achieved before in the history of the race when he became the first person to train three consecutive winners of the race — an incredible achievement.”
Officials at Leopardstown and the Curragh were also honoured for the successful launch of Irish Champions Weekend, which took place at both tracks in September.
O’Byrne added: “Starting from scratch the committee, along with the various sponsors and partners, put together a racing extravaganza over the two days which was an unqualified success. With total prize-money of over €3.7 million and attendances over 24,000 we saw the best of Flat racing that this country has to offer.”
