Who is Aidan O’Brien?

 

Born on October 16, 1969 in County Wexford, Ireland, Aidan O’Brien has, since 1996, has been private trainer to Irish business magnate John Magnier at Ballydoyle Racing Stable, County Tipperary. Magnier is married to Susan O’Brien, daughter of Vincent O’Brien, co-founder of the Coolmore Stud breeding operation in 1975.

Prior to succeeding Vincent O’Brien as ‘Master of Ballydoyle’, Aidan O’Brien had, like his unrelated namesake, been a highly successful National Hunt trainer. In fact, he won Irish National Hunt trainers’ championship in Ireland five seasons running between 1993/94 and 1997/98 and famously trained Istabraq to three consecutive wins in the Champion Hurdle in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

By that stage of his career, O’Brien had already become the youngest-ever winner of the Irish Flat trainers’ championship, in 1997, and was well on his way to becoming the outstanding trainer of his generation. Indeed, he has been Irish champion trainer every year, bar one, since, and British champion trainer on six occasions, most recently in 2017.O’Brien is the leading trainer in the history of the 2,000 Guineas, with 10 wins, including three in a row between 2017 and 2019, courtesy of Churchill, Saxon Warrior and Magna Grecia. He is also, jointly, the leading trainer in the history of the Derby, with 7 wins, most recently with Anthony Van Dyck in 2019. In 2017, O’Brien trained 28 Group One or Grade One winners in a calendar year, thereby beating the previous record, 25, set by the late Bobby Frankel in 2003.

How many times was Brigadier Gerard beaten during his career?

Awarded a Timeform Annual Rating of 144, equivalent to Tudor Minstrel and inferior to just Frankel (147) and Sea-Bird (145) in the Timeform era, Brigadier Gerard raced eighteen times between June, 1970 and October, 1972 and won all bar one of his races.

Bred and owned by John Hislop, trained by Major Dick Hern and ridden, exclusively, by Joe Mercer, the son of Queen’s Hussar was unbeaten as a two-year-old and as a three-year-old and did not taste defeat until the sixth start of his four-year-old campaign, or his sixteenth start in all. Defeat came at the hands of Roberto, the Derby winner, in the inaugural running of the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup – now familiarly known as the Juddmonte International – over a mile and a quarter at York on August 15, 1972.

Ridden by Panamanian-born American Braulio Baeza, who had been recruited by trainer Vincent O’Brien on the advice of owner John Galbreath, Roberto made all the running and passed the post three lengths ahead of Brigadier Gerard, with Gold Rod a further ten lengths further behind in third place. Joe Mercer later claimed, controversially, that Brigadier Gerard was a sick horse at York and that ‘mucus poured out of him’ afterwards. Brigadier Gerard may have just about reached Roberto’s quarters inside the last quarter of a mile or so, but the Derby winner, who was priced, rather insultingly, at 12/1, pulled away again in the closing stages to win in a course record time of 2 minutes, 7.1 seconds.

Was William Buick ever Champion Apprentice?

Nowadays, Norwegian-born William Buick is, effectively, the principal jockey for Godolphin in Britain, following the demotion of James Doyle from his previous position as first-choice jockey to the longest-serving Godolphin trainer, Saeed Bin Suroor, in September, 2016. Buick was signed by Godolphin, alongside Doyle, in November, 2014, and rode the first Derby winner in the famous royal blue silks, Masar, trained by Charlie Appleby, in 2018.

Prior to his Godolphin appointment, Buick had previously been stable jockey to John Gosden, succeeding Jimmy Fortune in January, 2010. He famously won the Group One Dubai Sheema Classic in Meydan, United Arab Emirates on Dar Re Mi on just his fourth ride for his new employer.

Buick began his riding career in 2006, at which point he was apprenticed to Andrew Balding, based in Kingsclere, near Newbury, Berkshire. In his debut season, Buick rode just ten winners, but increased his seasonal tally to 67 in 2007 and, in 2008, was involved in a ding-dong battle with David Probert, also apprenticed to Balding, for the Apprentice Jockey Championship. After 95 winners, Buick lost his claim in May, 2008, thereby giving Probert the chance to catch him. Andrew Balding said at the time, ‘They are at different stages of their careers. They aren’t taking each other on.’ Nevertheless, the title was not decided until the final day of the season and eventually shared by Buick and Probert, with 50 winners apiece.

Who was Nat Flatman?

Elnathan ‘Nat’ Flatman, who died from consumption, or tuberculosis, at the age of 50, in 1860, had the distinction of being the first ‘official’ Champion flat jockey in Britain. In 1846, Flatman rode 81 winners to win his first officially recognised jockeys’ championship and remained Champion jockey until 1852, recording his best seasonal tally, 104, in 1848.

Flatman rode his first British Classic winner, Preserve, in the 1,000 Guineas – a race he would win twice more, on Clementina in 1847 and Imperieuse in 1857 – in 1835. That same year, Flatman was beaten just a neck on Ascot in the Derby, but he would not taste Classic success again until the 1844 Derby and, even then, only in controversial circumstances. The Derby ‘winner’, Running Rein, was subsequently discovered to be the ineligible four-year-old Maccabeus, who was disqualified in favour of Orlando, ridden by Flatman. All told, Flatman rode a total of ten British Classic winners, including the 2,000 Guineas in 1845, 1851 and 1856 and the St. Leger in 1848, 1856 and 1857.

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