Joseph O'Brien interview: Destiny’s child

Joseph O’Brien has made a huge impact since making the transition from record-breaking jockey to trainer. The 23-year-old tells John O’Brien in The Irish Racing Yearbook 2017 that he wants to build a strong dual-purpose yard on The Hill and to challenge the established operations — including Ballydoyle

The way Joseph O’Brien tells it, there was no grand plan, no scorching blueprint for grabbing Irish racing by the lapels and shaking it to the core afresh.

It was a perfect storm of circumstances: A jockey whose resolve for the tortuous daily grind of wasting was waning and a grand old yard in Co Kilkenny whose potential wasn’t being realised. In terms of pedigree, it was a natural and obvious mating.