It is five years since Joseph O'Brien made his first mark on the Breeders Cup, riding St Nicholas Abbey to success, and he will aim to make a similarly dramatic impact with his first runner as a trainer when Intricately lines up in Santa Anita in just over two weeks' time.
O’Brien has packed a lot into the intervening time, including the rest of a short but superbly successful riding career that included a pair of jockey’s championships and multiple classic and Group One victories featuring the Epsom Derby twice. He has also wasted no time with his new training career.
If Ivanovich Gorbatov’s Triumph Hurdle success in March is officially attributed to his father, Aidan, there is no confusion about who will go down in the history books as being responsible for Intricately who provided her 23-year-old trainer with a maiden Group One on the flat in last month’s Moyglare Stud Stakes.
That the 25-1 outsider was ridden by O’Brien’s 18-year-old brother, Donnacha, and the filly was bred by his parents, only added to the resonance of that Moyglare success, the form of which continues to work out superbly well.
Hydrangea and Rhododendron, who filled the Moyglare places, have since completed a Dubai Fillies Mile 1-2 for O’Brien Snr at Newmarket. The fifth, Promise To Be True, has finished runner-up in the Prix Marcel Boussac, and another Ballydoyle inmate, Brave Anna, sixth at the Curragh, has since landed the Cheveley Park.
Market forecasts
Brave Anna, along with Roly Poly, also figures in betting lists for the $1 million Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf race on Day One of American racing’s richest fixture in Los Angeles.
But it is Intricately that tops most market forecasts at 3-1.
And it could provide another memorable family occasion with Donnacha, this season’s champion apprentice-elect, set to do the steering again even if it means getting down to do 8.10, the lowest weight he has managed in the last 12 months.
“It’s quite a light weight in that race but hopefully Donnacha will rider her. The Breeders Cup is the plan at the minute. It’s going to be very quick ground there but I don’t see that as a big issue for her,” said O’Brien. “It’s wonderful to have one good enough to think about going there and the Moyglare form is working out amazingly well.”
The Juvenile Fillies Turf has gone to European raiders just twice in its eight-year history.
Chriselliam won for Charlie Hills in 2013 and the French hope Flotilla scored the year before. Aidan O’Brien’s Alice Springs was runner-up to Catch A Glimpse a year ago.
The champion trainer’s son has made an immediate impact in his first few months with a full official licence and has secured 18 victories on the flat in Ireland this season. Intricately’s Moyglare success has boosted his prizemoney haul to over €500,000. He has also had 17 winners over jumps.
Sole focus
O’Brien’s sole focus at Tuesday’s Gowran fixture will be on Along The Shore in the concluding handicap. The trainer’s sister, Ana, does the steering but an interesting runner here is Edward O’Grady’s import
Sackfullodreams
, a triple winner in France already this year, including on very testing ground.
O'Grady and jockey Billy Lee could also make their presence felt in the Nursery with Bouquet Garni.
There are four Ballydoyle hopes in the opening juvenile maiden and Sir John Lavery's experience from his promising Curragh debut a week could prove crucial. The most interesting of the newcomers is Dermot Weld's Haripour, a half brother to the dual-Derby hero Harzand who lost on his own debut at Gowran last year.
In other international news, Bondi Beach continues to please connections ahead of his second attempt at the Melbourne Cup. Aidan O'Brien's charge was 16th last year but is currently a 10-1 third-favourite for the 'Race that stops a Nation' behind only Hartnell and the Caulfield Cup winner Jameka.
Bondi Beach’s part owner, Nick Williams, told media in Australia: “He looks like he’s travelled really well. He only lost a kilo and that’s a great sign. He obviously had a long trip on the place but he was bucking his brands off there. He seems very fresh.”
Also set to fly the Irish flag in the Melbourne Cup is Willie Mullins’s Irish Leger winner, Wicklow Brave, a 16-1 to go one better for the champion jumps trainer than Max Dynamite a year ago.
