O'Brien hails Murtagh magic

Ballydoyle maestro hails impact of top jockey

Last updated: 17th November 2008

O'Brien hails Murtagh magic

Deadly Duo: O'Brien amd Murtagh

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Aidan O'Brien has reflected on an amazing season and praised the skills of his Ballydoyle staff, and in particular jockey Johnny Murtagh, after a success-laden campaign.

O'Brien dominated the Flat season, saddling an amazing 23 Group One winners during the campaign, falling just two short of Bobby Frankel's record of 25 top-level victories.

Murtagh was in the saddle for the vast majority of those victories and O'Brien says his number one pilot has played a huge part in their success.

"I suppose we were very lucky in that we had a great team of horses and a great team of people working together," O'Brien told At The Races.

"Obviously, Johnny (Murtagh) was marvellous all year which has made a massive difference to us and I'd say they are the three main reasons it went so well.

Prepared

"You can't ever take anything for granted and everybody knows that like in life, in horseracing nobody ever knows what is going to happen tomorrow and there is no such thing as a certainty.

"When Johnny agreed to come to us we were over the moon, he's a great rider and a great man.

"He's been through a lot and has a lot of experience and I can't tell you the difference he made to us this year in all parts of our operation.

"Johnny has been in a lot of places and worked with a lot of different people, he's unbelievably focused and has unbelievable ability.

"He's also at the age now where he is at the peak of his talent and we believe it takes that long for a jockey to reach the top and we are so lucky to have him."

O'Brien also bagged a clean sweep of the Irish Classics, something last done 73 years ago by Jack Rogers, due to the vast depth of talent in his stable.

Dazzling Duke

Duke Of Marmalade was a huge star in 2008, with the four-year-old now retired after five group One victories.

"He was an amazing horse with a great constitution. A very special horse," O'Brien said of his charge.

"He was one of those horses who handled fast ground and had the will to win. He had great physical strength and when push comes to shove, a horse with that power and such will to win, are very difficult to beat."

Stable-mate Yeats will stay in training though, with the seven-year-old stayer being aimed for a fourth Gold Cup at Royal Ascot next year.

"The plan at the moment is to come back next year. He (Yeats) came back from France in good shape and everything seems to be in good order," O'Brien added.

"We knew we were lucky to be in a position to have a horse who could win three Gold Cups and the lads did a great job with him to keep him sound.

O'Brien, meanwhile, dismissed reports that he could take up his National Hunt licence again to emulate his success with three-time Champion Hurdle winner Istabraq.

"We had Hebridean and we hope and think he is going to be a very exciting jumper, but at this time of the year we are very busy with a lot of yearlings having to be broken so we won't have any runners this year.

"It's hard to get the time, in the middle of the winter we are trying to get things sorted for next year."