Quiet man who let his horses do the talking

THE KING OF EPSOM: Brian O'Connorprofiles former trainer Vincent O'Brien who has six Epsom Derby wins to his credit and is a guest of honour at the great race today.

THE SHORT figure may be 91 now and in a wheelchair but Vincent O'Brien will dominate Epsom today almost as much as in his pomp when he ruled the Derby with some of the legendary names of the turf. A new star will emerge from the great race just after 4pm but no name can ever have the same resonance around here as O'Brien's. The Epsom authorities have invited him as their guest of honour this afternoon. Rarely can a positive RSVP have been so happily received.

Mind you officialdom hasn't always been so welcoming. It is 46 years since the little Cork man, who had dominated National Hunt racing to an unprecedented level, won his first Derby with Larkspur. Behind the little chestnut colt were a string of loose horses that had been brought down in an incident coming down the hill and made flat racing's blue riband briefly and incongruously look like a well-heeled point-to-point.

However, far from overseeing that rather pressing piece of business, the steward's first reaction was to haul O'Brien in front of them in relation to what was described as "irregular betting patterns" on Larkspur in the lead up to the race.

He had been a doubtful runner due to injury at one stage, a fact O'Brien was quick to point out. But by the time sense was restored, insult was added to injury when O'Brien couldn't find his top hat. Years later that still rankled: "They asked me a lot of questions and they stole my hat!"

There were five more Derby winners to follow, all better than Larkspur, but all with their own stories.

Sir Ivor's memorable scything down of Connaught in the closing stages of the 1968 Derby might not have happened at all only for missing out on being scythed down himself by traffic when loose during an Italian break in Pisa the previous winter.

Two years late Nijinsky was peerless against Gyr, which was some feat considering he had a colic scare the day before. Two years after that Roberto only got home under a powerful Lester Piggott drive that followed the controversial jocking off of Australian Bill Williamson.

In 1977, The Minstrel required cotton wool stuffed down his ears to stop him going Tonto during the long, nerve-frazzling preliminaries.

Pat Eddery was the man on board for Golden Fleece in 1982 when like his father Nijinsky, the giant unbeaten colt frightened the life out of his connections by coughing the day before his greatest moment.

The Derby has always had its detractors and this year has been no exception. But those six victories are unquestionably the jewels in the most fantastic CV in racing history.

The great old race will get no bigger compliment than that because that same CV has completely altered the way we look at an entire industry.

O'Brien may not be directly involved in today's race but his influence is peppered through it. There isn't a runner in the race whose breeding hasn't been crucially impacted by the great horseman.

The ante-post favourite Casual Conquest is a great grandson of Nijinsky, the horse that O'Brien bought on spec as a yearling in Canada and who began the hegemony of the great sire Northern Dancer.

New Approach is a grandson of Sadler's Wells, another son of Northern Dancer, whose own emergence as a sire of sires secured the future of Coolmore Stud which was the brain child of O'Brien, his son-in-law John Magnier and Robert Sangster.

Curtain Call is a son of Sadler's Wells and so is Doctor Freemantle. Tajaaweed is a grandson of Roberto. Then there is the Ballydoye battalion and all those colts by Montjeu, himself a son of Sadler's Wells.

It's little wonder O'Brien was voted racing's most legendary figure by readers of the Racing Post and there is good reason for arguing that Irish sport in total has never produced anyone to compete with him in terms of success and influence on the world stage.

Yet for many he remains an enigmatic figure who has determinedly maintained his privacy despite over half a century in the limelight.

Since retiring he has divided his time between homes in Ireland, England and in Perth in Western Australia, where his wife,k Jacqueline, is originally from. Such a low profile is ideal for a man whose natural inclination was always to let his horses do the talking. Public statements are increasingly rare, although he did back the controversial jockey Kieren Fallon during last year's high-profile race-fixing trial in Britain.

"Even at home with friends he was never a man who would say much. But what he said was worth listening to," says his former vet, Stan Cosgrove, now manager of Moyglare Stud, who own today's Derby favourite Casual Conquest.

"I remember the owner Charles St George advised us all years ago to invest in Lloyds. Vincent's observation was he didn't like to go into something he knew nothing about. He was dead right too. The rest of us lost our shirts!"

Liam Ward rode many O'Brien stars in Ireland, including Nijinksy, and recalls: "He really is a quiet individual. He's never been outgoing. Attention to detail was always his big thing. I found him okay to deal with. He never told me I rode a bad race.

"Mind you, he also never told me I rode a good race either. He would never praise you to your face and after a while he didn't give me too many orders. He realised jockeys couldn't be tied down. Anyway, Lester never took any notice of orders."

What Piggott always took notice of was the best place to secure winning rides and he is in no doubt about O'Brien's status.

"Vincent has been the outstanding trainer of my time. His record speaks for itself. He was special."

What there is unanimity about in the sport is that O'Brien was ahead of his time. He tapped into American bloodlines before anyone else. He helped revolutionise the breeding industry on this side of Atlantic as a result and he created an international element to racing in Ireland that hadn't existed before.

Fundamentally, that all resulted from the mysterious nature of his understanding of horses. A lot of money changed hands on the basis of that telepathy and at the peak of the 1980s bloodstock boom, yearling deals of up to $14 million for just one animal occurred. But no one has ever been able to look at a horse and peer into their souls like O'Brien.

"I remember the race Alleged ran in before he won his second Arc. He looked like he had quite a hard race and MV wasn't happy with him. It looked like he might not make the Arc. These days everyone does blood tests but back then it was unusual.

"Vincent had him tested and we found out he had a deficiency in potassium. So we loaded him up and he won the Arc," Cosgrove remembers.

"I don't think what he has done will ever be surpassed. Even years ago, with all those Grand National wins, that was fantastic. He was always absolutely professional and was always asking questions. He was a precise and accurate man himself and he expected the same in return," he adds.

In that he shared a characteristic with the renowned Italian horseman Frederico Tessio whose view on the importance of the Derby was echoed by John Magnier last month when the Derby's prestige was taking a pounding.

"The thoroughbred exists because its selection has depended not on experts, technicians or zoologists but on a piece of wood: the finishing post of the Epsom Derby." That's a hell of a lot of influence to be exerted by a piece of timber stuck into the side of a rolling hill on the outskirts of London. Paying tribute to a red lollipop might be an odd exercise, even with racing's capacity to absorb the unusual.

Better instead to praise the man who made the passing of that lollipop as close to a genius as sport can ever manage.

FACTFILE 

Name: Michael Vincent O'Brien.

Born: Good Friday, April 9th, 1917 in Churchtown, Co Cork.

First winner: Oversway, Limerick Junction, May 20th, 1943.

Final winner: Mysterious Ways, Curragh, September 17th, 1994.

Total winners in ireland: 1,529.

Champion trainer in Ireland: 1959, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1989.

Champion NH trainer in Britain: 1952-53 & 1953-54.

Champion flat trainer in Britain: 1966 & 1977.

Irish Classics: 2,000 Guineas ( 5); 1,000 Guineas (3); Derby (6); Oaks (4); St Leger (9).

British Classics: 2,000 Guineas (4); 1,000 Guineas (1); Derby (6) Oaks (2); St Leger (3).

Major International Victories: Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (3); French Derby (1); Washington DC I'ntl (1); Breeders' Cup Mile (1); Major NH wins: Aintree Grand National (3); Cheltenham Gold Cup (4); Champion Hurdle (3); Irish Grand National (1); King George VI (1).

Honours: Honorary doctorates from the National University of Ireland and Ulster University.