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It’s sacrilegious, I know, and I know it’ll have some of you choking on your Sunday lunch but I think the time has come to give credence to the possibility that Aidan may have taken racehorse training to even greater heights than the former Ballydoyle maestro Vincent O’Brien.
Didn’t he match Vincent’s record for classics wins yesterday? its unreal he is the best trainer in the world.
People will say they
Buy and Breed
the best. But doesn’t Darley and others try? But still They don’t even come close to what they do Crazy
No way , total horlicks , you have lost it sir , and here/s why ….
Long before he became a flat training legend , he was a NH Legend , winning all before him , 3 grand nationals , 3 gold cups . 3 champ hurdles …..
A bit like Paul Nicholls chucking in Nh and trying his hand at the flat game
Then he transformed the flat scene , started wintering horses in warmer places , built Balydoyle with Epsom gradient gallops , started the coolmore dynasty with his son on law John Magnier , admittedly lucky there as he is a genius (JM )
Both had /have the quiet touch and know all about a horse to its minute detail , the best example of which was his insistence in buying a little scut of a horse called the Minstrel , which nobody else would have bothered with …but not him , he knew , he knew from the first moment that he saw him , boy was he right …
Aidan has a regular supply of quality horses given to him to train each year , and fair dues he delivers
Vincent had the best jockeys that lived , Lester and Pat Eddery
To even suggest that Aidan is in the same class is in my view churlish …..but a good try to enable a lively debate
Ricky
Dr O’Brien brought training into the 20th Century, Aidan has taken it into the 21st. Whether progress is positive or otherwise, you have to meet the demands of your environment and adapt accordingly.
One day, perhaps. That day is a long, long way off.Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
The one huge difference is that MV bought most of those horses. Aidan has them chosen for him, and lots of them. M.V almost single handedly put Northern Dancer of the road to being the greatest sire of the 2nd half of the 20th century. He was an amazing judge of horseflesh.
And that’s leaving out the NH game, where MV was Paul Nicholls x 5.
To put it in equine terms..
M.V = Arkle
Aidan = Kauto/Best Mate/Dessie/Red Rum/Mill HouseVincent started Ballydoyle with a dream.Aidan started with the reality.First you must dream.My vote goes to the dreamer.Of course I started following horses with Vincent.His Cheltenham winners paid my highschool fees at DLS Waterford in the late forties.So I owe my education to Vincent.Incidentally also to Michael Hurley(his son was a classmate) and Zarathustra.I was sixteen at the time.
It’s sacrilegious, I know, and I know it’ll have some of you choking on your Sunday lunch but I think the time has come to give credence to the possibility that Aidan may have taken racehorse training to even greater heights than the former Ballydoyle maestro Vincent O’Brien.
Do sacrilegious and blasphemy mean the same thing?
I think you are on drugs.
Pound for pound taking everything into consideration…like the amount of funds available, modern techniques v the old ways, Dr Vincent was in a completely different league to Aiden.
He left a legacy and the money came piling in plus every genius in racing was hired.
The old man for the best part made all the decisions I doubt if Aiden wipes his own ar$e without someone advising him what hand to use.
Different ball game these day back then it was all about the boss now it’s a huge business with a figurehead (AOB) and an army of advisers behind him.
You can just tell from the hysterical reactions against the suggestion that statistically at least Aiden might be getting close to the true great Vincent ( ……I hate all that Dr O’Brien nonsense BTW he had an honorary doctorate but of all people didn’t need affectations to his name to make him great) but MVO’b’s brilliance over both codes will never be matched and I don’t recall him having as many runners in the same race which is a crude approach that Aiden tends to lean towards……..still a worthwhile discussion IMO though.
Yup they added Doctor to his name undeservedly just to make him look good and get up your nose.
Or maybe you think Irish people don’t deserve to honour their own?Perhaps we should take Sir Henry’s and Sir Michael’s titles off them or did they deserve his more than Vincent did his.
Just to please you why don’t we just stop honouring people altogether and live in ignorance of their achievements.
I refer to the man as Dr Vincent in the same way as I refer to Henry Cecil as Sir Henry because i respect them and believe they deserve to be honoured so if it gets up your nose”’Good!!!!!
Vincent O’Brien is at the forefront of any discussion about who is the greatest ever person to train a racehorse……ANYWHERE….ANYTIME.
From what I know of him he seemed like the last person that would be interested in using honourary doctorates or any other affectations that considerably less talented individuals make such a fuss about.
As for Sir Michael Stoute’s knighthood for services to Tourism ( awarded by the government of Barabados……..what is there to be said????
)Henry Cecil wouldn’t be the worst person getting a knighthood these days when the honour is genuinely being cheapened by how easily it is handed out ( see knighted actors re this).
But please be clear, chip on shoulder responses aside Vincent O’Brien cannot be made any greater by deciding to use an honourary doctorate at the front of his name…….he doesn’t need it,if anything it is a cheap disservice to his achievements…what he did was real not honourary.
One day, perhaps. That day is a long, long way off.
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