At 3.45 next Saturday, 13 horses will line up at Epsom to contest this year’s Derby, the race that defines the thoroughbred.
All bar two of them can trace their ancestry directly to horses trained by the late Vincent O’Brien, who died on Monday at his home in Straffan, Co Kildare.
That, and the fact that it it almost certain to go to an Irish-trained horse, are probably the most fitting tributes to a man who is recognised as having been the greatest racehorse trainer in the sport’s 300-year-plus history.
But it’s also a reminder of something else - O’Brien’s enormous contribution to this country and most importantly its economy. On the back of his training skills, he became the architect of Coolmore Stud, the Tipperary-based breeding operation with divisions in the US and Australia, that is recognised as the world leader in its field.
To put this in context, Coolmore is to racehorse breeding and bloodstock what Intel is to technology. And the foundation’s of its success are laid on O’Brien’s ability to spot raw talent in the sales ring, mould it into a top class racehorse and ultimately a stallion, or in economic terms, an asset worth tens of millions of euro.
He also played a key role in globalising the both the sport and the breeding industry, which meant he was bringing US investors to Ireland long before the IDA.
The result was that he put Ireland at the centre of a multi-million, multi-national business, and not just Ireland, but rural Ireland, where there were few economic opportunities. This, combined with the stud-fee tax break, drew other bloodstock investors here. As a result, a broadly-based industry, whose influence can be seen throughout the world, sprang up here.
The seeds of the business were here all along, and good horses were always bred in this country. But there was nothing like the strength and depth that we have now, and much of that is down to O’Brien. Unfortunately there is little up-to-date information on just how much this business is worth, but one study carried out by consultants, Indecon, five years ago, found that racing and breeding employed 16,000 people and contributed 335 million euro to the Exchequer every year in taxes. These figures may have changed, but there is no reason to believe that they have dropped dramatically.
Despite this, plenty of people, mainly politicians in search of easy headlines, have in recent years lined up to knock this business. That’s not to say that it’s above criticism. But the problems were first, that the critics largely made statements that were plain wrong, and second, their main talent seemed (and seems) to be an uncanny ability to shout louder than everyone else.
Partly because of this, his legacy now faces the possibility that it will be eroded, and that much of its value will simply fade away over the next decade or so. This may be disappointing for people who want to cheer an Irish winner at Epsom, but it would be alot more serious for the country as a whole.
This is an indigenous industry which makes a substantial direct contribution to the economy, employment and the Exchequer. Despite the economic achievements of the nineties and the early part of this decade, we still don’t have enough homegrown industries that deliver value. Without them, our chances of cashing in on the global economic recovery, when it comes, are limited.
Keeping them alive should not take much effort and it’s not in our interest to allow any of them to fade away. The best memorial that Vincent O’Brien could have is that we ensure the one that he helped to develope continues to thrive.
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