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I’m reading a book I got out of the library the other day, called, VINCENT O’BRIEN, THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY, by Jacqueline O’Brien and Ivor Herbert, and what a book it is.
When you see the classy format it’s produced in, you have to think Vincent had a say in it. I won’t try to describe it. You have to see it.
But it’s the content, of course, that is fundamental, and reading an account of the life of someone who exhibits such a marriage of great wisdom and great empathy, and how it bore fruit in his career, makes compelling and quite uplifting reading.
The writing is full of anecdotes and episodes, and reads in a straight-forward, matter-of-fact way, but it’s leavened with a wonderful sprinkling of humorous quotes, for obvious reasons, usually in Irish vernacular – which tickles us more than our own. Here’s one example:
"Ballydoyle was the stage, and all who worked there played their vital part on it. The esprit de corps at Ballydoyle was high because of the top-class winners produced there. And the Boss was a huge success. He could do no wrong. If he told you to do something you thought odd, he’d probably turn out to be right. Vincent all his life engendered loyalty from his staff He demanded the strictest standards and was lightning quick to criticise, spot faults and reprimand errors. He did, however, pay top wages, and his horses’ winnings provided rich bonuses. "We’d follow the boss over a cliff", said one employee, "and land runnin’"
Among others, there are one or two choice quotes from Lester, also.
I had it for Christmas two years ago and can concur it is a superb biography to read despite the man being heavily involved with racing way before my time.
Am getting this for Christmas, yes that was yesterday but my uncle couldn’t find it in time! Looking forward to reading it eventually, I’ve got the book on Moscow Flyer too so will be kept busy reading for a while!
I love everything Ivor Herbert writes he is so wonderfully descriptive makes you feel your part of the story. Rummy, Arkle he takes you right there. Someone told me he wrote a book with John Cussack of all people and said it’s brilliant………anyone know if that is true?
Haven’t read VO but will get a copy first chance I get.
Another book to read if you have an interest in MVO’B, Sangster, Magnier, Niarchos and co, would be the brilliant "No Regard For Money" by the late Charles Benson.
Not only about racing but also about the lifestyle that this forthright and hedonistic man led.
The funniest parts are about Lester. MV was obviously a man who instinctively commanded a respect verging on reverence on the part of those who worked for him or knew him in any other connection, but, well, Lester’s a one-off, isn’t he?
I don’t mean that Lester didn’t respect MV. I’m sure that, like so many otehr people, he loved him, and never more than when MV asked Lester to come out of his recent retirement, to ride Royal Academy to win the Breeders Cup Mile.
But Lester being Lester, he was, well, at times shall we say, "head-strong", and would defy Vincent’s orders not to push the 2 year-olds on the gallops, allowing them to get well behind, then geeing them up, to try to catch the lead horse/other horses; testing them.
I imagine Vincent just thought to himself that, as the Americans say, "There’s something not right with that boy…", usually indicating he does seem quite 16 ounces, but here just an inescapable recognition that Lester was a simply one-off; that that kind of wilfulness, flaw though it was on those occasions, was almost certainly just the other side of the coin of his genius. After reading this book, I’m more persuaded that, given the scale of the racing and the size of the American contintent, while there are a fair number of comparable "greats" in the US", the Forum posters here who laud Lester to the skies as the "one and only" aren’t really that far wrong.
Like Vincent, Lester was both a very astute strategist, particularly perhaps in relation to the top races, but equally intuitive. He was keenly interested and soon got to know his horses’ individual temperaments and foibles, and also many of the race-riding characteristics of his fellow-jockeys and their likely tactics. Vincent found his insights very valuable, as he warmly acknowledged.
But the occasional, very brief quotes from Lester will crease you up. Usually, just before or after, he "does his own thing", not necessarily to the desired effect! Though given the number of Classics he rode for Vincent and the number of winners, and the fact that we’re not machines, either, his arguable 2 or 3 misjudgements pale into insignificance.
I’m sorry I’ve just finished it. I’ll be getting more of Ivor Herbert’s books. Mind you, after reading about the highly focused and motivated professionalism of MV and Lester, highly enjoyable though it was, watching the The Big Lebowski last nicht was a good antidote to a drop-out like me.
I thoroughly recommend the book on Ouija Board by Lord Derby, I gathered that Lord Derby and his family are very nice sociable people and would be great to talk to if you by chance had the opportunity.
I thought at first with him being a ‘Lord’ might mean they are very posh and a tad stuck up but I was so wrong and they came across as totally in touch with the rest of us lower classes lol
(Speaks for himself) and weren’t afraid to show their emotions in the book and were quite humble when meeting with fellow owners for big races when O B became the star she was.If the Sangster/Vincent/Magnier era is of interest to any of you, I would strongly recommend Robert Sangster’s ‘Horsetrader’.
(Speaks for himself) and weren’t afraid to show their emotions in the book and were quite humble when meeting with fellow owners for big races when O B became the star she was.
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