2016 looks like being a different year for former Irish champion jockey Joseph O'Brien. If all goes to plan he hopes to be granted a trainer's license within the first few months of the year, a move which will then see the twenty two-year-old saddle predominantly national hunt horses from the family's yard in Pilltown, Co. Kilkenny. He has already sent out his first winner as a point to point trainer(for which you do not require a Turf Club license) and O'Brien can look forward to unleashing a number of well bred young jumpers, many of them owned by JP McManus throughout the year. Reflecting on a riding career that yielded stellar results in just a few seasons, O'Brien said, “I was so lucky to get to ride some of the great horses that I got to ride and I always knew that I'd never be able to ride forever. I didn't eat much and was always sweating but jockeys the world over do that and I wasn't any different to them, really.”
O'Brien has not however turned his back in anyway on proceedings further south in Ballydoyle and he gave a glowing report on some of the well known stars trained by his father Aidan. The horse many fans are looking forward to seeing most in 2016 is undoubtedly triple Group 1 winning 2-year-old Air Force Blue (War Front). Last seen romping to victory in the G1 Dewhurst S. at Newmarket in October, Joseph O'Brien reports the colt to have wintered well. “He's turned into a huge, big monster of a horse. He's done really well and he's a very exciting horse for next season. The G1 2000 Guineas at Newmarket is the plan.” Reflecting on his juvenile year in which he tasted defeat only once when beaten by Buratino (Ire) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}) in the G2 Coventry S. at Royal Ascot, O'Brien added, “Air Force Blue never looked like he was going to be a 2-year-old as he's such a big horse, but he just got better and better all year. He always worked well and really improved when he got to the track. He has a lot of speed and class.”
With Golden Horn (GB) (Cape Cross {GB}) having broken the recent Coolmore/Ballydoyle stranglehold on the G1 Epsom Derby, the Ballydoyle team will be keen to resume normal service in 2016 and Joseph O'Brien nominated a few of the likelier Ballydoyle candidates for the Epsom Classic. “With regards to the Derby, we've a number of nice colts that all ran very well in big races. There's Johannes Vermeer (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) who won the G1 Criterium International in France and we've a horse out of Remember When (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), Beacon Rock (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who ran very well a couple of times.” O'Brien also gave favorable mention to a few unexposed colts but intends to keep readers guessing a while longer as to their identity. “We also have several nice Galileo (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) colts that haven't run and we've a nice horse that was just beaten in a maiden at Leopardstown towards the end of the season. So we have some nice horses that may be a little bit under the radar hopefully. Galileo is probably the best sire ever and you could never have enough of them.”
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