'Almost as if racing itself has died' as Vincent O'Brien laid to rest

“THE NAME Vincent O’Brien seemed not merely synonymous with horse-racing but its very embodiment and definition so that, now that he is gone, it is almost as if racing itself has died,” said Fr Bruce Bradley SJ, at the thanksgiving Mass for “the long and wonderfully productive life” of the great trainer, who died last Monday at 92.

“Like God’s servant in the reading from Isaiah, ‘he [didn’t] call attention to what he [did], with loud speeches or gaudy parades’. . . He was an essentially modest, undemonstrative man, genuinely astonished at the praise heaped upon him.”

The congregation had travelled from England, France, Scotland, America and Australia to St Conleth’s Church, Newbridge, Co Kildare. St Vincent de Paul volunteers laid out baskets for the donations requested by the family in lieu of flowers, and racing greats gathered in the morning sun – Lester Piggott, Johnny Murtagh, Pat Eddery, Michael Tabor and Sir Michael Stoute among them – making it “like a good day at the Curragh”, said an old-timer, as stories tumbled out about the exploits of a man distinguished by “courage, innovation, ambition and a desire for perfection”, in the words of his son, Charles.

In his affectionate eulogy, Charles recalled a few of “MV’s” (as he was known) exploits – such as when he sent nine horses to Royal Ascot of which seven cantered in, all three-year-olds and older at a time when MV had just 15 in the yard. Nijinsky and Northern Dancer, his legendary finds, were also recalled, and a portrait of MV throwing an eye over Nijinsky in the stable was the one chosen for pride of place at his coffin.

In his private life, MV loved the country pursuits – the hunting, the shooting, the fishing – and he was “absolutely obsessed” with trees, said Charles. He loved horse sales, hardly noticing the 90 per cent humidity in Kentucky, his betting and poker games and his 4.30 cup of tea – “preferably with a biscuit or a bit of cake”.

For a quiet man, said Charles, he was well able to put the fear of God into people; his donning of a tweed cap was a sure sign that “something was going to blow”. But he never swore or lost the plot, “except for two times: once, every time Lester [Piggott] was around”, said Charles to loud laughter, “and the other time was on the golf course . . .”

He engendered “massive respect” from the public but somehow remained a humble man. “He never dwelt on what went before . He wasn’t into going over past glories. Tomorrow was what mattered . . . His motto was to never stop learning . . . and never be content with second best.”

He was also a deeply religious man – “Mass every Sunday . . . and he knelt every night by his bed, crucifix and rosary beads on his bedside table.”

During his 55-year marriage to Jacqueline, “they supported each other to the last”.

During the traditional service, enriched by the singing of the St Patrick’s Cathedral Choir and Close Chorale, with the organist Peter Barley, the children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren of Vincent O’Brien participated in the readings and prayers of the faithful. After majestic renditions of Panis Angelicus and Pie Jesus, his granddaughter Sophie recited Yeats’s The Lake Isle of Innisfree.

Aptly in his homily, Fr Bradley quoted Philip Larkin’s poem, At Grass. Written 50 years ago when OBrien’s career was just beginning to build, it portrays two once-famous racehorses, now retired and grazing anonymously in “the cold shade” of a field.

“And not a fieldglass sees them home,/ Or curious stop-watch prophesies:/ Only the groom, and the groom’s boy,/ With bridles in the evening come”.

The St Patrick’s Cathedral Choir sang Glory, Glory Hallelujah, as the coffin was borne from the church by his sons and grandsons. The chief mourners were Jacqueline O’Brien, their three daughters, Elizabeth McClory, Susan Magnier, Jane Myerscough, and two sons, David and Charles, his 17 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

The President was represented by her aide-de-camp, Capt Murt Larkin, and the Taoiseach by Comdt Michael Treacy. Current and former politicians included EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, Seán Barrett TD, Michael Lowry TD and Tom Hayes TD, Joe Walsh, Ray MacSharry and Michael O’Kennedy. Figures from the racing and sports world included Queen Elizabeth’s racing manager, John Warren, Sheikh Maktoum’s racing manager, John Ferguson, Eimear Mulhern, John Magnier, Lord Dunraven, Sonia Rogers, John Oxx, Noel Reid, Sir Peter O’Sullevan, Paddy Prendergast, Dermot Weld, Maria Niarchos, David Wachman, Jim Bolger, Dermot Weld, Brough Scott, Arthur Moore, Ned Gowing, Michael Hillman and Babs Keating.