Walking on water: How Joseph O’Brien’s pedigree is better than that of Galileo

It was on board Australia he claimed his first Derby winner and it was in the country of the same name on its grandest of racing days that Joseph O’Brien announced himself as a trainer to be admired and feared given his potential.

The only first that mattered was saddling Rekindling, besting his father’s Johannes Vermeer and Willie Mullins’ Max Dynamite in an unprecedented Irish 1-2-3 to claim the AUS$3.6 million (€2.4m) prize. But it was a day of many firsts. Indeed, it was the 24-year-old’s first entrant in the prestigious race, the first Irish-trained victor since 2002 and only the third ever following Vintage Crop in 1993. A first three-year-old winner since 1941.

Seventeen years younger than the victorious jockey Corey Brown mounting his second Cup victory, O’Brien was the talk of a nation stopped by this race. A proud, if defeated, Aidan O’Brien watched on from Barbados as Joseph emphasised he is more than the son of the father. But then it’s long been evident in the humility and the understated nature of Joseph how much he has learned from his dad.