A Breeders' Cup win would give Joseph O'Brien another record

ARCADIA, California – Given his pedigree, it should come as no surprise that Joseph O’Brien this week at Santa Anita has a chance to go where no Breeders’ Cup horse person ever has gone before.

O’Brien already is the youngest jockey with a Breeders’ Cup winner, having piloted St Nicholas Abbey to victory in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Turf. Friday or Saturday, O’Brien, now 26, could become the youngest trainer with a Breeders’ Cup winner. Craig Dollase was 26 when he won the BC Sprint with Reraise.

And there’s more. Only one person, Freddie Head, has both ridden and trained a Breeders’ Cup winner, having piloted Miesque to consecutive victories in the Mile and trained Goldikova to an historical three-peat in the same race. O’Brien, should Iridessa win the Filly and Mare Turf, Alligator Alley the Juvenile Turf Sprint, or Unforgetable the Juvenile Fillies Turf, would join Head on that exotic island.

O’Brien, as anyone connected with racing knows, is the son of trainer Aidan O’Brien, who brought his children to Breeders’ Cups so long ago that Joseph can’t particularly remember the first one he attended. Joseph took out a jockey’s license at age 16 and rode as long as he could, but the man stands six feet tall and his days in the saddle always were numbered. He officially retired in 2016 and immediately began a training career that long had been planned.

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“From the time I was small I guess I always wanted to train. I always had it in my head I would be a trainer, and then I was lucky to be a jockey, but it was always a stepping-stone, I suppose,” O’Brien said Wednesday morning at Santa Anita after riding a lead pony onto the track ahead of his trio of Breeders’ Cup starters.

O’Brien’s stable at first had mainly jump-racing horses but now is roughly 70 percent flat-racing horses, he said, and will continue to shift that direction. This is his third year training a Breeder’s Cup runner following unplaced starters in 2016 and 2017, and Iridessa, a two-time Group 1 winner this season, is the best horse he’s brought to America.

“She’s very versatile and has won Group 1’s at a mile and 10 furlongs this year, and she likes firm ground,” O’Brien said.

Alligator Alley “is very fast and loves firm ground,” according to O’Brien, and lost his chance in his most recent start when he acted up in the starting gate. Both horses will be facing starters trained by O’Brien’s father, Aidan, but that happens regularly overseas. One day, it could be Joseph O’Brien in charge of the famed Ballydoyle training yard long headed by his father, but that day is nowhere near.

“Dad is far too young for me to even consider that,” O’Brien said.

This weekend, he can consider adding another O’Brien to the ledger of Breeders’ Cup-winning trainers.