O'Brien renaissance gathers pace as he looks to get back on Group 1 trail
He hasn't had many group race runners this season, never mind winners at the top level, which is why the quiet renaissance of Danny O'Brien has rather flown under the radar.
O'Brien has had to rebuild his stable and his business after several years in which his career was blighted by the long running Racing Victoria cobalt investigation against himself and Flemington trainer Mark Kavanagh.
The saga came to an end in February of 2018 when Justice Gregory Garde of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal found that neither man had knowledge that a number of horses in their care had been treated (with cobalt) by their vet without their knowledge.
O'Brien's stable of 180-200 horses had reduced to 70-75 as a result of the probe and his staff from 50 to about 30.
Since then O'Brien, so often partnered by veteran champion jockey Damien Oliver, has been restocking his stable, trying to win new clients - something he admits was not easy when the cobalt probe was at its height - and re-establishing himself as one of the leading metropolitan trainers.
"We are just building our team with nice young horses. We bought him at the yearling sales two years ago.
"You just have to keep doing it, buy young horses and keep bringing them through - it doesn't matter how good a trainer you are you have to have the stock.
"All our clients stayed, but it was hard to attract new clients. In this business you have to be bringing in new clients, Yulong, Aquis and all these big Chinese syndicates came in, they didn't consider us [at the time of the cobalt probe].
"But we have got some very strong owners and a lot of nice young horses.
"If you keep training metro winners at 20 per cent, you can't help but finish up with a lot of horses."
The win of Grinzinger Star on Saturday at Caulfield was O'Brien's 20th city success of the season from just 97 runners.
As a trainer on the rise O'Brien won many of Australia's greatest races, contests like the Australian Derby and Guineas with Shamrocker, the Cox Plate and Australian Guineas with Shamus Award, the Newmarket Handicap with Shamexpress, the Blue Diamond and Coolmore with Star Witness and the Caulfield Cup with Master O'Reilly.
He hasn't had a winner at Group 1 level since Shamus Award became the first maiden in history to win the Cox Plate in 2014, but he is hopeful that Saturday's Caulfield scorer, Grinzinger Star, might bring him back to the elite level by taking out the South Australian Derby at Morphettville next month.
"We will run him at Flemington in a fortnight in a 2000-metre race and then potentially back him up in the derby," O'Brien said after the Oliver-partnered galloper scored against older horses in a 2000m handicap at Caulfield.
The son of Reliable Man (a French Derby winner who also won the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick) and Miss Artistic (an NZ Oaks winner) is definitely bred to stay. He is also improving, having only made his racecourse debut last September.
"He's definitely a more seasoned racehorse now, he was gelded at the end of the spring and that was his first racing prep.
"To go from his first start to the Victoria Derby in the spring was a pretty long journey for him but he's got a really good base and he now knows what he is doing," O'Brien said.
"He beat a good horse here the last time [his previous win at Caulfield] in Mr Quickie and that was a really solid field of older horses he has beaten here today.
"He will go back against the three-year-olds in two weeks' time and then potentially has a seven day back-up into the SA Derby from there."
By Michael Lynch for the Sydney Morning Herald
Pic by Racing Photos