O'Brien: Chances of this happening were millions to one
Aidan O'Brien has trained a remarkable nine Gold Cup winner at Royal Ascot, a record in a race that dates back to 1807
At one stage, it didn’t look like he was going to live. It was really impossible to come back from what he came back from. - Willie Mullins on Kyprios
Aidan O'Brien doesn't do superlatives, but you certainly run out of them when describing him, writes James Toney
In the space of just 12 months, he has masterminded three training performances of a lifetime.
In successive years, Auguste Rodin and City of Troy bounced back from 'flops' in the Guineas to win the Epsom Derby.
And then - perhaps topping the lot - Kyprios returned from a serious bone infection, which many thought would end in retirement and his trainer feared would end his life, to win Royal Ascot's showpiece Gold Cup.
The relief 😅
— Horse Racing Ireland (@HRIRacing) June 20, 2024
Aidan O’Brien cool as a cucumber for Kyprios’ #RoyalAscot Gold Cup win 🏆 #GreenTeam | @Ballydoyle pic.twitter.com/e3ByQQnJcU
O'Brien insists he never lost faith in this battling stayer, who two years ago lowered the colours of the legendary Stradivarius to win this prize for the first time. Though for a time, it was staying alive rather than winning that was Kyprios's biggest race.
“I’d say it’s millions to one this was going to happen," said O'Brien.
"At one stage, it didn’t look like he was going to live. Then it was getting him to stand, and then to walk, then to trot, then teaching him how to canter again, because he had to move all his body in different ways again.
"It was incredible; it’s unbelievable, really. It was really impossible to come back from what he came back from.
"He got an infection in his joint, and it got into the joint capsule. Usually, what happens is that they lose the movement in the joint—and for a while, he did, but it came back.
"It’s from the care that they all took to get him back. No horse has ever been x-rayed and scanned more in their life than him."
Aidan O’Brien - the ultimate horseman 👏
— Horse Racing Ireland (@HRIRacing) June 20, 2024
Always hands-on#GreenTeam | #RoyalAscot | @Ballydoyle pic.twitter.com/2PovhFELv7
O'Brien knows you need more than just teamwork and belief to be successful; real sport at this highest level is not a Ted Lasso script.
But he has total confidence in his team at Ballydoyle and his star jockey Ryan Moore, who gave his charge an absolutely textbook ride that the Master of Ballydoyle rightly referred to as 'masterful.'
Game most definitely recognising game.
"It wasn’t easy, but I could see Ryan biding his time. It’s incredible; it’s masterful stuff, really," added O'Brien.
This was O'Brien's ninth win in the showpiece race, a run which started with the legendary stayer Yeats, a four-time winner of this storied contest.
Its history dates back to 1807, and Kyprios is just the third horse to regain his title after missing his defence 12 months ago.
Moore - who earlier rode O'Brien's Port Fairy to victory in the Ribblesdale Stakes, an 82nd winner at the meeting that moves him beyond Frankie Dettori - was certainly peerless in his ride, a jockey with an innate understanding of what is required.
"I said to Aidan that he's the class horse in the race and he stays the best, so I've just got to get it right. I didn't get it quite right, but he still won," said Moore, like his boss, an unerring perfectionist.
"He's an unbelievable horse. Aidan knows exactly what they need to do; he knows how to get them here better than anyone. It's lovely to ride a horse like this."