Aidan O’Brien, the legendary Irish horse trainer, recently appeared at the Longines Hong Kong International Races. With some winningest strategies up his sleeves, O’Brien’s first job was to monitor his horses’ track work sessions. Since 1996, his training journey has been nothing short of inspirational. Acknowledged as the horse racing GOAT, the 54-year-old perceives his equines as a part of them.

In 2017, he made a fresh record by training Grade or Group 1 winners in a year. Having said so, his expertise shone through on multiple occasions when his equine’s win depended on a lot of other factors. It’s just not the speed of the horse that counts. Shedding more light on this, the 54-year-old spoke to World Horse Racing.

 Horse racing legend speaks of mental health

The X handle of World Horse Racing captioned the post as “Training insights from the GOAT“, where Aidan O’Brien’s explanations were worth listening. He said, “This year we have been bringing them a little bit earlier, and giving them a little bit more time to build into it.” He further added, “We always try and with those good horses, have a horse that will lead them. That they’re not feeling too much mental stress.“

According to his statements, he likes to be easy on the horses in the initial days. In the recent seasons, his remarkable path-breaking wins has placed him atop the global scoreboard. The three-time Hong Kong Vase winner sports a mixture of confidence and humility in his personality. Before the race on December 10 kicked off, the media caught O’Brien in a candid conversation. Sharing some of his pre-game feelings, the 54-year-old brought a good name to the horse racing world.

O’Brien’s take on training and the game

Before the race commenced, all eyes were on Aesop’s Fables, Cairo, Luxembourg, and Warm Heart’s trainer Aiden O’Brien. When the interviewer asked him about the race plans, he had said, “I’m both confident about racing we’re all in a lot of now like the strangest things can happen“.

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Never keeping expectations from his people or his animals, the horse trainer and dad-of-four sometimes disrupt holiday flavor. Since he’s so dedicated to his craft, keeping himself away stresses him.  Though he missed his fourth Vase Showdown victory, O’Brien anticipates a better season next year.

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