Aidan O’Brien has highest-pressure job in racing – we should appreciate him more

I THINK the kids call this sort of thing an ‘appreciation post’.

Because we definitely don’t spend enough time, A) admiring the talent of Aidan O’Brien, and B) considering the amount of pressure he is under, year in, year out.

His is the highest-pressure job in world racing and, arguably, one of the most intense jobs in all of sport.

Don’t give me any rubbish about the Man United job being more pressurised – I’m sure the multi-million pound payout awaiting Erik Ten Hag when he gets the tin-tack will soften the blow.

Yes, Aidan’s job is an enormously privileged one – he gets to train some of the most beautifully-bred horses in the world for some of the most powerful owners in the world.

But with that privilege comes a price – he must find a stallion or two, every year, to keep his bosses at Coolmore happy.

And, let’s not forget, without Coolmore, who understand the importance of breeding middle-distance horses, races like the Derby would be on their knees.

Making stallions of racehorses is more difficult than it sounds, as good breeding doesn’t guarantee success on the race track.

Remember the racehorse Hydrogen? You probably don’t, in fairness. 

He was the most expensive horse bought at the sales in 2012, being a brother to the Derby winner Authorized.

Yet he could barely raise a gallop and was retired after just two starts, having finished well-beaten both times.

Aidan has been working wonders for nearly three decades, and we saw it again last Saturday with City Of Troy.

The horse looked finished in the 2000 Guineas, barely seven months after being compared to Frankel in the Dewhurst Stakes.

Barely four weeks later, his trainer, who had shouldered the blame for the Newmarket disaster, had him back to his best as he romped home in the Derby.

Given all Aidan’s achievements, you’d forgive him if he was an arrogant arse – but he is one of the most humble people in racing.

On a recent press trip to Ballydoyle, in the driving rain and howling wind, the first thing Aidan did was shake everyone’s hand and apologise for the weather.

And when it came to brekkie in a little temporary marquee, he waited for everyone to serve their food first before heading up last to get a plate of scrambled eggs on toast.

He then finds a spare seat and says, ‘sorry, lads, do you mind if I join you?’, before chatting away and showing everyone videos sent by his missus, who had been to a Bruce Springsteen concert the night before.

Most of the time, when he is at the races, he is the coolest cookie in the building.

But the pressure of getting a Derby win on the board with City Of Troy was clear to see.

Defeat would have knocked tens of millions off the horse’s stud value, and while the Coolmore ‘lads’ have ultimate faith in Aidan, they will have let him know in no uncertain terms the importance of this race.

That pressure was evident when Aidan took three very deep breaths to try and calm down after a brief but excited phone call with the big boss, John Magnier.

Then we saw that politeness again as us hacks were all over him like a cheap suit just as City Of Troy was walking back towards the winners’ circle: “I’m really sorry, do you mind if I walk back in with him? Is that OK?”

You crack on, Aidan. He was excellent when being interviewed by our man Matt Chapman on ITV and he is always patient and thoughtful with the media, which is more than could be said of some of Britain’s elite trainers.

The relief at the result was palpable, as was the outpouring of happiness on his behalf at having won yet another Derby with, in his words, the best he’s ever trained.

Remember a few years ago when Ballydoyle had a quiet season, and there was a load of talk about the ‘Lads’ giving Aidan the boot in favour of David O’Meara?

If memory serves, O’Brien responded to that load of codswallop with a record-breaking campaign in 2017, when he won 28 Group 1s around the world.

He is simply one of the best trainers we’ve ever seen. But above all, he is a top bloke.

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