- Aidan O’Brien was crowned as the champion trainer at Ascot last month
- O’Brien has had an incredible year and been one of racing’s best ambassadors
- City Of Troy’s odyssey to the Breeders’ Cup was fantastic for the sport
We had fireworks in midweek but there will be no sparkle at Doncaster on Saturday afternoon.
The Flat turf season ends with a competitive card but none of the ceremony we savoured at Ascot last month.
What a joy it was for us to crown Aidan O’Brien as champion trainer in front of a 30,000 crowd. Another 600,000 watched on ITV and millions tuned in from around the world for a spectacular occasion.
Personally, I’d love to see domestic Flat racing end on Champions Day rather than meander to the second week in November. All-Weather racing goes through to New Year’s Eve, when the curtain falls in front of a few hardy souls at Lingfield.
That is a discussion for the future but today is about O’Brien. He has had an incredible year with his horses but he has been the star of 2024 for so many reasons, the main one being he has stepped up to be one of racing’s great ambassadors.
Champion trainer Aidan O’Brien has been one of racing’s great ambassadors in 2024
City Of Troy’s odyssey, which ended in defeat at the Breeders’ Cup, was fantastic for the sport
A story I remember from York in August: It was a high-pressure day for O’Brien, with City Of Troy running. In the race before, he had three horses to prepare. As he dashed to the saddling boxes, a racegoer asked for a picture. O’Brien apologised and explained he was busy. I’ve seen things happen in football where a wave of apology would be the last the fan saw of their hero, but not on this occasion.
Five minutes later, O’Brien returned, posed for every selfie, autographed every racecard and shared jokes. The pressure on him in that moment was as intense as you could imagine, yet he still found the time to make someone’s day.
People criticise him for things he says about his horses but I don’t get it. He’s incredible for the sport and I ask you this — how would 2024 have looked without O’Brien and City Of Troy’s odyssey, which ended in defeat in the Breeders’ Cup Classic? My answer would be: fairly dull. It was fantastic that O’Brien tried to pull off mission impossible. City Of Troy won’t go down as an all-time great but he was a fabulous winner of the Epsom Derby and — most importantly — he was box office. We’ll miss him next year.
Some will remember the season as one that lurched from crisis to crisis. The wretched affordability checks for punters, alarming falls in crowd numbers and prizemoney concerns. Plenty needs fixing but the rest of the world still look at British and Irish racing with green eyes.
Our festivals at Royal Ascot, Leopardstown and Glorious Goodwood are breathtaking and you can’t buy that history. Our horses aren’t bad, either, as we saw last weekend with dominance on the turf at Del Mar and successful raids in Australia from William Haggas, Harry Eustace and Brian Ellison. My highlight? The Friday of Royal Ascot. We went from the sublime of Calandagan and Porta Fortuna, the emotion of Colin Keane riding Crystal Black to victory for his dad, Gerard, to the glorious ridiculousness of my ITV colleague Luke Harvey singing Mr Brightside in the Windsor Enclosure disco tent.
There was also a spell-binding display in the Albany Stakes from Fairy Godmother, prepared meticulously by O’Brien. Let our wish be granted for more such days in 2025.
BET OF THE DAY: Latenightpass in the Grand Sefton (Aintree 2.40). Relishes the fences and travelled so well in the National. This looks a far more suitable test.
Ed Chamberlin is a Sky Bet UK ambassador.
