O'Brien continues to exert a stable influence

Put the racing year into words was the command, so here we go with a few contenders. What about money, as in what racing in this country is currently swimming in. Or foot-and-mouth, as in the disinfectant we were all swimming in last spring. Or tax, as in all the shaping going on around our betting shops. Maybe even water, as in the stuff Galileo was supposed to gallop on.

Johannesburg, Istabraq, Kinane, Smullen; the list is considerable, but boil it all down and 2001 really is all about one word, Ballydoyle.

The name of a stable complex in south Tipperary covers what is probably the most potent racing operation in the world today. Aidan O'Brien is the trainer, and the quiet public face, but behind it all roars the financial might of John Magnier's Coolmore Stud and it's that clout that could see O'Brien continue to rewrite the records in a remarkable career.

Already, it's no surprise to see many predicting the future of international racing as a series of blue-clad dogfights between Godolphin and Coolmore. It's a tribute to the Irish-based operation that Sheikh Mohammed could win an Arc and a couple of Breeders' Cup races and still see the year 2001 dominated by his arch-rivals.

A world record 23 Group One races were picked up by horses based in Ballydoyle, including O'Brien's first Epsom Derby winner, Galileo.

Despite a brilliant Irish Derby follow up and a brave King George victory testifying to Galileo's merits as a genuine mile-and-a-half champion, a lot of effort went into trying to turn the colt into something he couldn't quite become.

The task of winning at the top level over a mile and a quarter, and later on dirt, proved beyond him, but the process indicated the even greater influence the Breeders' Cup is set to have on world competition.

Galileo might have flopped at Belmont but Johannesburg won his fourth Group One of an unbeaten season in the Juvenile and is the most obvious contender for next May's Kentucky Derby.

No European-based trainer has ever won the Run for the Roses and the pressure will be on O'Brien to change that statistic. However the 32-year-old seems to have a remarkable capacity to soak up any kind of problem thrown at him.

That was proved when racing in Ireland resumed in April after a blank seven weeks due to the foot-and-mouth crisis. The Ballydoyle horses were less than sharp on their first starts but nothing shook O'Brien's confidence that they would come right. How right he was.

Rose Gypsy's French 1,000 Guineas success was followed by a clean sweep in the Irish 2,000 Guineas, Imagine's fortnight of Irish Guineas and English Oaks glory, Galileo's brilliant summer and a whole autumn of two-year-old domination.

The rising stars include the National Stakes winner Hawk Wing and Rock Of Gibraltar, who races in the colours of the Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, but the strength in depth at Ballydoyle is fast becoming unique.

This time round it enabled O'Brien to become the first since Vincent O'Brien in 1977 to also pick up the British trainers' title and in the circumstances, it was remarkable that any other Irish trainer managed a look in.

Dermot Weld, however, won both the Irish and French Legers with Vinnie Roe and propelled Pat Smullen to a second jockeys' championship.

John Murtagh's rise to the top of the international jockey tree continued with the news he will come in for rides at the Michael Stoute yard following Kieren Fallon's split with the Newmarket trainer.

On the jumps front, the Cheltenham festival was lost to foot-and-mouth, but Irish horses were last-minute entries to the extremely sudsy soap opera that was the Aintree Grand National.

Red Marauder won out, but the unique nature of the 2001 National was evident in jockey Richard Guest's post-race remark: "The National has never been won by a worse jumper!"

Istabraq, trained where else but at Ballydoyle, was denied a record fourth successive Champion Hurdle but the ruins of a foot-and-mouth spring later allowed the Turf Club's senior steward Ray Rooney to remark: "Everyone associated with the sport can be proud of the solidarity displayed throughout. That solidarity not alone sustained good relations within the sport but also between racing and the broader community on which we depend."

The feel-good factor can only have been helped by the confirmation that prize money in Ireland has risen by over 125 per cent in the last five years and that betting turnover rose by 105 per cent in the same period.

That came under the jurisdiction of the old Irish Horseracing Authority, which will quickly evolve into Horse Racing Ireland over the coming months.

The speed at which such political evolution can happen is emphasised by the choice of the widely liked and respected Brian Kavanagh as chief executive of the new body.

Last year, Kavanagh, as the then chief executive of the Turf Club, had to walk out on to the Curragh stands to receive a letter of protest from an angry crowd of "racing professionals". Today, he's at the helm of racing's future. Pick your own word for it.