How good is Aidan O'Brien?

LOL asking gamblers just after one of his fav's gets beaten, you aint going get many positive replies :p

He wouldnt be running the show for his employers if he wasnt!

I'm sure he'll make up to his supporters in the next with his 2nd string Highflying

He's a brilliant trainer but then there are plenty of other trainers who could do what he does with the same quality of horse he gets given. Having said that, they don't just pull a man off the street and ask them to train their horses and he would have had to have shown something early on for them to offer him the job to begin with when you consider that much of his early success was with jumpers.

The scatter gun approach is basically due to an embarrassment of riches in that he really doesn't know which of them are the best until they reach the racecourse or occasionally when none of them are stand outs and so he runs them all to see which one comes out on top.

Years ago before the breeding operation really took off he would have a single runner in races or maybe 2 at most and they very often would win or be 1st and placed and when you think that a horse like Hawk Wing was good enough to win a 2,000 Guineas most years but was beaten by a stable companion, or that he didn't truly stay the Derby distance but was still 12L clear of the 3rd but 2L 2nd when outstayed again by a stable companion, in another year we could have been talking about Hawk Wing as an exceptional horse.

I'm sure he has but then so would a lot of other trainers nowhere near as successful as him so the quality of horse is probably the biggest deciding factor.

of day*

Sorry, his Grandad

I believe he gets the very best out of his horses, and the performances of this horses are by and large consistent. Year after year he achieves in UK & Ireland. His achilles heel is lack of consistency internationally.

As with jockeys -impossible to tell. There can be no   objective comparative measure.
All people (can )do is make assertions ( invariably based on a positive or negative bias ) or offer subjective impressions.

short memories, as usual, on here - when he was a young NH trainer he was setting records all the time - Istabraq not that long ago was it ?

LOL...some win and some don't both UK/Ireland and internationally I mean, otherwise some win some don't is the very definition of inconsistent.

There doesn't seem to have been much comment regarding the fact he is, when all is said and done, just a member of staff, dancing to the tune of the pipers and whomever pays for the tune

AOB is DEFINITELY VERY TALENTED... but It surely cannot be THAT easy with hundreds of horses to keep your eyes on them all and be absolutely aware of where they're at in their development... especially when he is having to protect a breeding operation's reputation and that of its stars and potential/future stars ...

I may be cynical, but increasingly I fear the latter is the driving force, and pure revenue generation, and not the very best possible for each (or as many as possible) of the inmates there...

CASE IN POINT - I simply CANNOT BELIEVE it was Aiden's idea to use Cape Blanco as a pace maker at Ascot... and he freely admits sending the lad over to the US (where he has every chance of being US turf horse of the year) was an afterthought...

Buying SYT, buying Canford, buying Excelebration... Coolmore has ceased to be about nurturing of talent and more about cornering the market, eliminating opposition, simply making money

IF COOLMORE ARE SO RUDDY GOOD... how did they let Frankel slip through the net?!!  THAT year, I'm told, Coolmore had first choice/s of the offspring of the reciprocal arrangement between Khalid Abdullah's Mares and Coolmore's sires... and they missed him!!!!!!!  NEXT year it was PKA's choice and he sent Kind again and kept Noble Mission... previously he sent Kind to Saddlers Wells and they begat the slightly disappointing Bullet Train (STILL hope he comes good) - perhaps that was part of the master plan but I doubt it (just being provocative)

NO... AOB does a vg job in difficult circumstances and it's not HIM I blame...

I wonder if he ever thinks about life back in the quiet lane again, fifty horses, time to give them 24hr a day attention...

True he is only a paid member of staff but they would **** their jocks if he ever left.
The man is a 24/7 365 day workaholic who has to be bet onto the plane to take a holiday when the season is over. Remember his only vice is that place and imo thats what makes him different to others not only that his wife is bloody worse.
Dont be fooled by its up to the boss innocent act either, he has a fair call the proof of that is a lad that hasnt even lost his claim is their number one jockey. Kinane never fell out with the owners Spencer was muck so i wont use him as an example but either did he.
Anyone who has worked there will tell you get on the wrong side of either the wife or him doesnt matter who you are in with youre a goner!

I agree about JOB - nice lad, can ride (kind of - stick him on a hurdler he'll be ok!)... But using him in GROUP races when he cannot claim and is clearly not as strong/clever/experienced as other is illogical...

The power to the throne and behind the throne is the wife they always say, but I'm sure that is correct in this case also - wish she'd stop that silly tweeting

I'd be intrigued to hear Kinane and Murtagh on the subject one day

Nothing personal though - wish him luck... just cannot stand the business tactics of his masters!

The best in the world.

He has the best facilities and horses. This = good trainer.

He has the best facilities and horses. This = good trainer.

Cheers Orchardist for your comment above.

In fairness to Coolmore they've hung on to a lot more good ones than they've let go and not all blue bloods turn out to be top class and not all horses are particularly striking as yearlings but can still go on to better things once they start racing.

I'm sure Anne-Marie O'Brien has an input but it's going way too far to say she runs things and the likes of John Magnier won't let anyone dictate to him. Joseph O'Brien is a Gr1 classic winning jockey and also showed in the big sales race at Doncaster that he knows what to do. He's previously been on pacemakers and 3rd or 4th strings and they wouldn't let him near the better ones until he had gone some way to proving that he is capable.

He apparently rides out St Nicholas Abbey at home and wouldn't have got the ride in the KG but for Ryan Moore being on Workforce and the horse was beaten the other day with Soumillon on it anyway. Others have tried and failed on Seville and Jospeh O'Brien is the only jockey to have won on him and he isn't a blood and guts powerful finish type rider and is more about rhythm and keeping them going, so maybe they thought it was worth giving him another go in the longer distance of the Leger.

Vincent wasnt his dad. maybe your fishing...

@ ima_mazed66

Listen Listen LIIISSTENNN...

The lad's a foook sight better rider than I'll ever be, but just because he's sat on a horse that won a grade 1 does not make him a grade one jock!!!  I don't know what the inhouse politics with Seamie or Murtagh is/was... but he is NOT as good, nor as strong, nor as experienced...

He needs to go into the gym, he needs to look at his posture (I have an inkling the weight's too far back and riding longer or further forward or SOMETHING might help that) imho he has to find a way of whipping without losing rhythm/momentum... DON'T get me wrong - he is better than both the Hills boys put together, but b'JAYYYYZOOOOZ that's not saying much and he cld start by watching videos of Murtagh, Kinane and Julie KRONE!

Case in point http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLKkyHxGXMU  I'd much prefer to see a 2yr old filly winning without having half as hard a race or half as many cracks

He's by no means the worst, but is not the best available, NOR, inmho, the best in the yard... it's AOB's business, but it does smell a bit