Compared to most years, the upcoming spring carnival in Melbourne is looking a little different, not least for its small contingent of international raiders. Racing Victoria is still hoping for crowds in the grandstands, and the new strict veterinary protocols have toyed with visiting numbers.
Additionally, a COVID stranglehold is still enforcing two weeks of hotel quarantine on human arrivals, and the expense and logistics have kept a number of European contenders away. But they didn’t keep away Irish trainer Joseph O’Brien, who has committed a pair of horses to Victoria this spring.
His Cox Plate contender State Of Rest (Ire), a son of Starspangledbanner, arrived in Melbourne on Sunday night. The 3-year-colt (by the Northern Hemisphere calendar) is the trainer's first ever Cox Plate entry, and he's chasing the legacy of Adelaide (Ire), who won the race in 2014 for O'Brien's legendary father, Aidan.
State Of Rest (Ire) (yellow and maroon silks)
Meanwhile, O'Brien's Melbourne Cup horse, defending winner Twilight Payment (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), is at home in Ireland completing pre-export quarantine before shipping in on October 9.
Ahead of each horse, O’Brien had to send his stable staff, including seasoned travelling foreman Mark Power, well in advance of the horses’ arrivals, and you wouldn’t have blamed him if it had all got too hard.
“It has been difficult this year,” O’Brien said. “There has been a lot of additional work that’s gone in to taking the horses down, especially in so far as the people, my guys in the office here, are concerned. And there’s been the veterinary reviews and scans and information that had to be sent down, all prior to the horses travelling, so it’s been quite a challenge.”
“It has been difficult this year. There has been a lot of additional work that’s gone in to taking the horses down, especially in so far as the people ... are concerned." - Joseph O'Brien
Did it get to the point where it just didn’t seem worth it this year?
“We got pretty close,” O’Brien said. “It was quite disruptive to the horses’ routines to spend time at an equine hospital in preparation for a big race, but those were the hoops that Racing Victoria set for us. If we were to go, this is what we had to do and we just tried to manage it and deal with it as best we could.”
Success so young
At just 28 years old, Joseph O’Brien is an old head on very young shoulders. He has squeezed in a lot of success to his young life, both in his training and riding career.
Joseph O’Brien and Corey Brown
During his short, six-and-a-half-year tenure as a professional jockey, he was co-Champion Apprentice while still in school and, later, overall Irish Champion Jockey. He was the youngest-ever rider of a Breeders’ Cup winner when pushing home St Nicholas Abbey (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}) in the 2011 G1 Breeders’ Cup Turf and, in the same year, he won his first European Classic, the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas aboard Roderic O’Connor (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).
From there, the records and the champions were plentiful.
O’Brien won the G1 Epsom Derby twice, aboard the now Coolmore sires Camelot (GB) and Australia (GB), and his Classic victories included the Irish Derby twice, the G1 St Leger, G1 2000 Guineas and G1 Grand Prix de Paris. He also won the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic aboard St Nicholas Abbey.
All up, the young O’Brien tallied 31 Group 1 races all over the world before his six-foot frame got the better of him. He announced his intention to train full-time in 2016, to which his father, Ballydoyle master Aidan O’Brien, said he’d finally know a good day’s work.
All up, the young O’Brien tallied 31 Group 1 races all over the world before his six-foot frame got the better of him.
O’Brien moved into the family’s yard at Owning Hill, County Kilkenny.
His grandfather had trained from there, as had his parents for a time. Carriganog Racing is a world-class facility with stiff uphill gallops and all the trappings, and O’Brien’s success from it has been extraordinary.
He had four winners on his first official day with runners, and his first Group 1 winner was just a handful of months later when Intricately (Ire), a filly by Fastnet Rock, won the Moyglare Stud S.
Thereafter, O'Brien won the G1 Irish Derby with Latrobe (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), the G1 National S. with Thunder Moon (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) and G1 St Leger S. with Galileo Chrome (Ire).
Latrobe (Ire) (navy and white silks)
His filly Iridessa (Ire) (Ruler Of The World {Ire}) made him the youngest trainer to land a Breeders’ Cup victory when she won the G1 Breeders’ Cup Fillies’ and Mares’ Turf last year, in addition to her Group wins in the Matron S. and Pretty Polly S.
In Australia, O’Brien forever stitched his name to Melbourne Cup lore when, in 2017, he became the youngest trainer of a Cup winner with Rekindling (GB) (High Chaparral {Ire}). He won it again last year with the 8-year-old gelding Twilight Payment, and both horses carried the colours of the Cup's most successful owner, Lloyd Williams.
Twilight Payment has returned for a second bite at Australia’s richest handicap, despite the challenges of getting here in the first place.
It is what it is
When O‘Brien talks about the stress of getting his horses to Melbourne this year, it’s with only the slightest hint of frustration. He’s diplomatic and respectful of the processes, even if they’ve given him some headaches.
“Getting the staff down to Australia has been a difficulty, as it was last year,” O’Brien said. “We’ve had lots of flight cancellations at the last minute, and obviously the guys have had to do a mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine, which is not easy for them. As well as anything else, it’s an increased expense on the owners that are sending the horses down there.”
"As well as anything else, it’s (hotel quarantine) an increased expense on the owners that are sending the horses down there.” - Joseph O'Brien
The trainer said his loyal staff have handled everything well. Mark Hackett back home has managed all the paperwork and logistics, and Mark Power has headed the team from Australia.
“I’m lucky that my guys have been very good throughout the whole process,” O’Brien. “They’ve taken it all in their stride.”
O’Brien’s staff wrapped up their hotel quarantine just in advance of State Of Rest’s arrival at Werribee.
“We had a separate set of staff that did the quarantine for State Of Rest in Ireland, and then the guys that are doing the trip in Australia had to travel in advance,” O’Brien said. “Obviously, it’s very tough on them because they’re fully vaccinated and they have to sit in a hotel room for so long.
“They’ve gone completely backwards because Melbourne is in a full lockdown at the moment, and the population of Ireland has been largely vaccinated and most of our restrictions have eased. But it is what it is and they’re dealing with it.”
History stacked against him
It won’t be a new thing for O’Brien to watch the Melbourne Cup from afar. He didn’t travel for Twilight Payment’s victory last year either.
“I’d love to be there,” he said. “It’s a fantastic race and a fantastic build-up, but we just have to do the best we can with the circumstances.”
“I’d love to be there. It’s (the Melbourne Cup) a fantastic race and a fantastic build-up, but we just have to do the best we can with the circumstances.” - Joseph O'Brien
The trainer said it wasn’t always ideal to be absent in those final weeks before a big race, but he’s used to it.
“You just have to collect all the information from the horse’s work every day, liaising with the riders,” he said. “MJ Doran will be riding State Of Rest, and we have Neil Bashford down there also. Twilight Payment will be ridden by Sean Corby, and they know the horses well from riding them here. I’ll be in touch with Mark (Power) every day, and we just take it day by day. It’s not ideal but again, it is what it is.”
Twilight Payment (Ire)
If O’Brien has any concerns about Twilight Payment being on the wrong side of history this spring, he doesn’t say so. The gelding is nine years old now, and no horse has won the Melbourne Cup at that age in the race’s 160-year history.
Twilight Payment has been given top-weight of 58kg, and only five horses since the year 2000 have won the race with 55kg or more. They include the gelding, who carried 55.5kg last year, and in November his closest rival weight-wise is likely to be be G1 Cox Plate winner Sir Dragonet (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) with 57kg.
“I don’t look at all of that history too much,” O’Brien said. “I’m not sure how long it was before a horse led all the way in the race, like he did last year, so every horse is different.”
“I’m not sure how long it was before a horse led all the way in the race, like he (Twilight Payment) did last year, so every horse is different.” - Joseph O'Brien
Likewise, the young trainer spends no time mulling over his claim to the Melbourne Cup as a two-time winning trainer, or any ambitions he might have had to pin himself to Australia’s greatest race.
“I’ve been lucky to have had the support of Lloyd and Nick Williams, because they’ve been really good to me since I began training," O’Brien said. “If there was anything I needed to know about Australian racing, which was a lot of things, they were always there on the other side of the phone.”
O’Brien, no doubt, comes from humble stock.
“I wouldn’t say it’s about being humble,” he said, deflecting his great success much of the time. “All we do every day, as in life, is the best we can with the horses we have and the people we work with, and that’s what it all comes down to at the end of the day.”
Twilight Payment is among three internationals in contention for the 2021 G1 Melbourne Cup after second declarations on Tuesday.
He is joined by English stayers Spanish Mission (USA) (Noble Mission {GB}), who was third to Subjectivist (GB) (Teofilo {Ire}) in this year's G1 Ascot Gold Cup for trainer Andrew Balding, and Away He Goes (Ire) (Farhh {GB}), who is trained by Ismail Mohammed and was second in the G1 Goodwood Cup S. in July.
The three horses are among 80 total horses that remain in the Melbourne Cup after second declarations were released.