Let's talk about... Aidan O'Brien's greatest horses

Matt Brocklebank - So You Think

SO YOU THINK remains quite a rare commodity in that Aidan O'Brien doesn't get the opportunity to handle many horses who have been trained by someone other than himself.

Here was a horse who arrived from Australia with a massive reputation and while he was clearly a very welcome addition to the yard (reported £40m deal to take him there), the pressure was on O'Brien and the team at Ballydoyle not to mess things up.

So You Think was trained by Bart Cummings Down Under and in 2009-2010 went on a meteoric journey which started with him winning a small seven-furlong handicap at Rosehill and culminated in finishing third in the Melbourne Cup the following season.

By the time that race came along he'd won five Group Ones, including the Cox Plate twice, and there was talk of a glorious retirement ahead of Flemington, for which he was sent off 2/1 favourite - the shortest priced runner in the race since 1971.

On the day he produced a staggering performance on ground much softer than ideal. After pulling hard early, he waltzed to the front after straightening for home and looked booked for Aussie immortality before the petrol gauge hit zero inside the final 100 yards or so.

The plan was hatched by Coolmore to switch him to Europe and while Cummings didn't seem all that impressed by the whole story - or the way that O'Brien was training him - the horse lived up to his reputation on many occasions in Britain and Ireland, adding six more wins to his tally, five at Group One level, and ending up with a Timeform rating of 133.

O'Brien admitted after the 2012 Prince of Wales's Stakes - which turned out to be So You Think's final public outing - that he'd got a few things wrong and issued a public apology to the son of High Chaparral's disgruntled fan base back home, but in truth there was little to be sorry about.

So You Think had beaten the previous year's Derby and Arc winner Workforce in the 2011 Coral-Eclipse, and the previous year's Oaks winner Snow Fairy in the Irish Champion Stakes later that season, while he lost precious little in defeat when edged out by French colossus Cirrus Des Aigles in the Champion Stakes at Ascot.

Was he O'Brien's finest training achievement? Probably not. But when it comes to the greatest horses to have passed through the trainer's hands it's hard to argue the well-travelled So You Think isn't among those battling for the title.

Richard Mann - Churchill

I’m not going to argue that CHURCHILL is one of the best horses to have passed through Aidan O’Brien’s hands in an already remarkable and record-breaking training career, but I will try to make the case that he came very close to greatness before heading off to retirement slightly underrated.

The fact Churchill ended his career with a whimper in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar having been beaten in the QEII, Irish Champion Stakes and Juddmonte International before that ensures his legacy will be forever tarnished somewhat.

Nevertheless, it’s important to remember just how brilliant a racehorse Churchill was as a two-year-old and then when landing the England and Irish 2000 Guineas in the style of a real champion.

What went wrong thereafter is a question to which we will never truly know the answer, but there is no doubt his light diminished a little after a near-faultless beginning to his career that had threatened to catapult him to top of the Ballydoyle pecking order, past and present.

Rewind to the beginning of his juvenile campaign and he had everything; speed, size, a beautiful action and the heart of a lion which helped claim Royal Ascot success before then adding the Tyros Stakes and National Stakes to his CV.

He rounded off the season with a brilliant victory in the Dewhurst at Newmarket, one which saw him beat the likes of Blue Point and Rivet in a time faster than the mighty Frankel had recorded when he won the same race only a few years earlier.

When his day of destiny arrived in the 2000 Guineas the following spring, Churchill didn’t disappoint as he produced an authoritative winning performance that was only matched when he landed the Irish equivalent at the Curragh a few weeks later.

By this time regular pilot Ryan Moore was, unusually for him, struggling to contain his excitement about Churchill while the Ballydoyle PR machine was also in overdrive.

Then disaster struck. The team at Ballydoyle were quick to offer legitimate excuses for his odds-on defeat in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot but despite going down on his shield when returning from a mid-summer break in the Juddmonte at York, Churchill could only finish second to the impressive Ulysses.

Another placed effort on British Champions Day at Ascot was as good as it got for Churchill thereafter and suddenly the would be champion headed for the exit door an almost forgotten figure and a long way from the superstar horse so many had predicted he would become only a few months earlier.

Whether Churchill’s early-season exploits had left their mark to such an extent he was never able to match that level of form afterwards is one possible theory for his demise, or maybe the impressive physique that set him apart as a two-year-old was no longer as advantageous as his peers caught up with him through the year.

It’s a question even O’Brien himself might not know the answer to but there is little doubting that when he was on song; that big, strong, fluent action devouring the ground beneath him as he overpowered any number of high-class performers, Churchill was near unbeatable. That’s certainly how I remember him, anyway.

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