Irish Trainer Aidan O’Brien has broken the world record for having the most Grade/Group One winners in a calendar year with Saxton Warrior’s victory in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster in the UK. The two-year-old brought up his 26th success of the campaign, beating the Hall of Fame American trainer Bobby Frankel’s previous best set in 2003.
O’Brien’s colt was too quick for his rivals at Doncaster as he got up late on to deny Roaring Lion and put himself at the top end of the betting for the 2000 Guineas and Derby next year, where he is surely going to be one of the key contenders for the British Classics.
Javier I. Farache via Twitter
The record-breaker, O’Brien, started his run of victories back in May when he completed the Guineas double at Newmarket. Churchill landed the 2000 Guineas at the start of the weekend, while 24 hours later, Winter established herself as one of the leading fillies over a mile with success in the 1000 Guineas, despite not being the number one choice of retained jockey Ryan Moore that day.
O’Brien added more Classics a month later as Wings of Eagles caused a surprise at odds of +4000 in the Epsom contest over 2400m, while Capri continued his grip on the Irish Derby, a race he has now won nine times in the last 12 years. Capri went on to become a Dual-Classic winner as he scooped the St Leger at Doncaster in September.
Although the flat season has now come to the end, the Irishman still has the opportunity to add to his tally in France, USA, Australia, and Hong Kong before 2017 comes to an end. If you are having a bet on any of the Ballydoyle runners for the remaining big meetings in those countries, you can pick up free bets at Bookmaker.com.au, a site that will match your opening deposit up to $100 when opening an account.
Ante-post prices are already available in all the big Grade One contests so you pick up early odds before the day of the race.
At The Races via Twitter
O’Brien has always supported the big international meetings around the world as he is not afraid of travelling with his horses. One of the few Grade One races he has yet to win but would love to do so before he retires is the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Unfortunately for the Ballydoyle man, the race is run on dirt, which is something European horses are not so familiar with. That said, the man who has trained 12 Breeders’ Cup winners has saddled some of the runners before in the contest.
Although the O’Brien team will celebrate this incredible achievement when the year does come to an end, they will already be plotting how they can better it in 2018. The Ballydoyle operation have a number of exciting two-year-olds who will be given a rest over the winter and allowed to develop before they embark on their three-year-old campaigns. Although 26 Grade/Group One winners will take some beating, you wouldn’t bet against the great man doing it in the near future.
