THE world used to be a much nicer place, didn’t it?
You only have to go back a decade and it was a more innocent time when our idea of something a bit edgy was watching various celebrities cough up their guts doing the cinnamon challenge.
On that subject, a belated happy 10-year anniversary to all those who
celebrate the day Mike Parry tried to eat a tablespoonful of cinnamon and his head nearly exploded. It remains one of the most iconic videos of our times.
Nowadays, there is so much more noise, so much more anger, and there are no grim depths people won’t go sink to in order to get as much attention as possible.
But one man who is a shining example of how to stay classy in this chaotic day and age is the great Aidan O’Brien. And I’m not talking about his penchant for namechecking half of his workforce every time he has a winner.
Unfortunately in racing, too many of our leading participants have major ego issues.
When your clients are billionaire businessmen and Middle Eastern royalty, I suppose it can rub off a little. But it really doesn’t have to be that way — as amiable Aidan has shown us.
He has every right to be an arrogant arse, given his unprecedented level of success, but he chooses not to be, which is why I hope he beats his own record for Group 1 wins in a single year.
So far in 2025, he has banked 22 Group 1s, including Precise in yesterday’s Fillies’ Mile. In 2017, he set a new benchmark with 28, beating the late, great US trainer Bobby Frankel’s record of 25.
By my count, there are 20 realistic Group 1s he can target throughout the remainder of the year, between Britain, France, Germany, America and Hong Kong, and he needs to win seven of them.
It will be a tall order, but I do hope if he ties the record going into December he’ll consider having a crack at the Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini Internacional (no, of course I didn’t have to Google it) in Argentina to get over the line.
If anyone is asking, I’ll volunteer to go down and cover the trip.
Of course, it helps when you’ve got the Coolmore blue-blood production line to call upon, and the strength in depth in Ballydoyle this year is incredible.
But, as this game has shown us many times over the years, it’s all well and good having the best gear, but if you’ve got no idea you won’t get very far.
Plenty of average trainers have had well-bred or expensive horses over the years but they’ve been unable to get the best out of them.
Having Coolmore in your corner clearly gives you a running start, but it’s not a guarantee of success.
Aidan entered the ‘genius’ club ages ago, and there was another clear example why at Longchamp last weekend when Puerto Rico won the Group 1 Jean-Luc Lagardere.
The horse took six races to get off the mark, but Aidan has kept working at him and working at him — and he has now blossomed.
It’s reminiscent of US Navy Flag, who ran 11 times as a two-year-old. He looked bang average for the first few months of his career but ended the season doing the Middle Park-Dewhurst double in Aidan’s record-breaking 2017 season.
I don’t think any other trainer would have been capable of achieving those sorts of results.
For some racing anoraks, it would be blasphemy to mention Aidan’s name in the same breath as his legendary predecessor at Ballydoyle, Vincent O’Brien. But I reckon he’s just as good.
So I hope he breaks his own record — the countdown is on.
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