Aidan O Brien. Will he be in Ballydoyle next year?

Heard the same.

smyth and gleneagles in france ?

David O'Meara

Sounds like a load of pony to me. Coolmore need Aidan, Wachman has no chance and there’s no-one else that looks in line.

Just as importantly, Aidan needs Coolmore. How could a guy like him face into training jumpers full time after the success he has had?

By far and away the most likely scenario is the status quo remains at Ballydoyle but Joseph takes over the Piltown licence. Undoubtedly there has been friction in Ballydoyle but Aidan knows which way his bread is buttered. The problem isn’t him anyway but the wife. She doesn’t realise how good they have it.

The obvious problem here is the nepotism involved, and the lack of tolerance of such by some of the big players inside the inner cirle.
Its patently obvious that sub standard riders are the major issue here, Joseph is ordinary and has huge weight issues, Donnacha is worse than ordinary and the little girl that rides on the flat, well its hard to quantify how much of a liability she is against seasoned professionals.
Its not fair on the girl to be shown up the way she is, and its not fair on the people who are paying the bills, nor is it fair on riders like Heffernan and O Donoghue, even McNamara who are continually marginalised.
A world class operation that has world class facilities, world class horses with a world class trainer, and to complete the jigsaw we dont have world class jockeys, and if we do then we dont use them.
Even the most talented jockeys do not ride below their threshold, yet Aidan O Brien continues to ask a jockey who isnt really up to the required standard, to ride at nearly half a stone below what he should .
He couldnt ride at 9st 5lb early this year and wasnt deemed fit to ride Found who carried 8st 12lb even today, yet amazingly he was to ride Gleneagles who was to carry the same weight.
As to his future, id imagine he will go sooner rather than later, and with regards his future , who knows what will happen. There is an obvious succesor, and a much better candidate than O Meara alot closer to home. Money speaks all languages so anythings possible.

Well the obvious one is Willie Mullins. He has proven he is a master trainer that can get it done on the big occasions repeteadly. He has his family reared, and has a ready made succesor in Patrick to take up the NH mantle if required. The big money is in the flat and he has nearly achieved everything over jumps. Vincent and Aidan o Brien came from the jumps, Dickinson switched codes, why not Mullins?.
My own opinion for what its worth is that O Meara will not be entertained, id imagine Wachman will have a better chance than him.

would willie be able to employ his own "methods" there though?

His methods as you put it look fairly good to me, the one thing he does is put up the best jockeys, and you cannot say the same for O Brien.
Its patently obvious that even Heffernan is completely different class from Joseph, but the nepotistic tendencies continue unabated.

If Willie wins the Gold Cup & CC next season, which looks very likely, he has nothing left to achieve. Anyone else, even O'Meara, would be a step down from O'Brien. Wonder would it lead to Ricci getting involved on the Flat?

O'Brien training for the Arabs would be massive, in fact the Qataris, the UAE, the lot of them should form a racing conglomerate, buy a big long lease somewhere on the Curragh and give all of their best horses to Aidan O'Brien who I assume would bring a lot of his staff with him. There have been too many potentially very good horses mishandled.

Yeah I heard its a formality. Will still be mostly flat horses. Aparently will have 150 in training.

Wildmanfromborneo pm'd you

Ah right, thanks lads. Most interesting racing story in years anyway.

Well Golden I was down in a yard in Mooncoin almost exactly six years ago, not long after Joseph started riding. The talk even then was that The Hill was being prepared for him to train from when he finished riding (I’d say it’s a surprise to all locals that he is still riding). He also drives a jeep full of riders to Piltown every day after morning lots in Ballydoyle. Aidan may not see them horses until they get to the track. Whether he is capable or not I think its highly likely he will be taking out a licence for that yard. Similarly, Wachman isn’t capable of running Ballydoyle but that doesn’t totally preclude him from getting it.

The role of Ballydoyle trainer is such a gargantuan task that it suits a neurotic like Aidan. Ultimately I can’t see The Boys wanting him gone unless the relationship is completely irretrievable. Equally training them high class flat horses is a drug for Aidan. I suppose most normal men would side with family over those horses. Aidan’s not normal though and I find it difficult to see how he would give it up and certainly not to train JP’s jumpers.

Tony of course DOM would jump at the chance to be given a regular wage. My understanding is AOB has no say where the horses go. Eg Gleneagles last week.
DOM looks a very good trainer but he is getting a serious helping hand if u get my drift! It's amazing how much these horses improve.......
Very similar to Newland, Dalgleish and I could name a few more. How these boys are not caught is beyond me!

thanks BWS, I get you..as I say you guys at home hear more than us over here.

If it does actually happen I expect that will put the kibosh on the David Walsh book being written about Ballydoyle in collaboration with the O’Brien family.

This is Tabor led,he is volatile and punts.

Magnier knows he needs Aidan OBrien a lot more than he needs him,he also knows no matter where OBrien would go he would have a stable full of choicely bred horses.

Jimeen points to the downside of having the OBrien children riding the horses but misses the upside.
There are now four unpaid live in full time experts in that stable,they know those horses inside out.

If the Arabs had any sense they would have poached OBrien years ago with some super offer.

If I was in there shoes I would buy Coolcullen lock stock and barrel,let Jim Bolger have a state of the art stud and then give it gratis to OBrien with the stipulation he trains for them.

At least the children wont be secretly training an opposing runner either. Feedback and trust are very important attributes in a jockey.

Don't think Tabor is the problem either, when Murtagh was there half of Tipp knew better than Tabor which horses were fancied. Having the O'Briens riding for them meant whatever they were losing on jockey skills they were gaining by everything staying in-house. With Ryan Moore they have the best of both worlds. I don't think Aiden will be going anywhere soon.