If you check out the most successful flat trained horses this season, you will find no less than four out of the ten are trained by Aidan O’Brien and the Ballydoyle team. He is the only trainer to have more than one horse in the top ten which is quite amazing. He has to be the contender for the trainer’s championship this year which ends in November and is based on the top prize money. Out of 96 runners so far this year, O’Brien has had 54 placed and 26 winners, his total prize pot is £5,725,226,03, which is amazing when you consider that second place in the list is John Gosden and his prize pot is a little over £2 million pounds.
Just to put that in perspective, Gosden has had 375 runs, 180 places and 80 wins, but still is more than £3 million behind in prize money.
With horses like Highland Reel, number 1 on the list of top-earning horses, with £944.608 as prize money alone, O’Brien has obviously captured the luck of the Irish on the flat track. Most trainers would be happy with that one horse in their stable, but O’Brien has a whole stable full of them. Next on the list is Minding and what a horse to have in your stable, a phenomenal success this year.
Bypassing two other great horses, Harzand and Postponed, to place number five where sits The Gurkha, another incredible horse. This season from six runs, he’s won three times, with two second and a third place. O’Brien picks his races carefully, he’s not overworking the horses just for the sake of a little pot of gold, his knack is placing them in races he pretty much knows they can win, which they do.
After The Gurkha on the list are Galileo Gold, My Dream Boat, Wings of Desire and Limato. All horses of a fantastic calibre and not to be sniffed at in betting terms. Then comes O’Brien’s last horse in the top ten, US Army Ranger, he’s only had four races this season but has won two and come second in the third, you can forgive him for not hitting a place in the fourth. His winnings this season are just over £375,000, so he’s earned his keep.
Then all you need to do is look at all the other horses that come under the Ballydoyle stable and O’Brien has a bright future for the next couple of years, horses such as Rhododendron who won at The Curragh yesterday followed closely by stablemate Hydrangea and Washington DC to name a few.
The youngest ever winning trainer O’Brien is still a young man and plans to go on for many years at Ballydoyle, the most successful racing stable in Europe, maybe the world. One thing is for sure, Aidan O’Brien has set out to break records, many of which he already has, I’m not sure anyone can catch up with him this season so Good Luck to him and all at Ballydoyle.
Check back on Wednesday when we have a preview of the days racing.