Normal service is resumed! There can be only one winner of the TRC Trainer of the Week award, and that just has to be Aidan O’Brien this time.
Although there were other deserving cases, including Chad Brown, who won four Graded races, and Bill Mott, who saddled the horses awarded first and third places in the Kentucky Derby (Country House and Tacitus, O’BRIEN (+2pts, stays #4) completed the 1000 Guineas–2000 Guineas double at Newmarket - for the fourth time.
This could be the start of the expected revival for the Ballydoyle maestro, for so long so dominant in this category but who has slipped to fourth in the standings after a less-than-stellar 2018.
For the record, O’Brien had four runners in the 1000 (Hermosa 1st, Fairyland 5th, Just Wonderful 6th and Fleeting 15th) and two runners in the 2000 (Magna Grecia 1st, Ten Sovereigns 5th).
Stable jockey Ryan Moore (-4pts, stays #1) was on Just Wonderful in the 1000 and Ten Sovereigns – who did not stay the one-mile trip – in the 2000.
Instead, the beneficiaries of O’Brien’s brilliance among jockeys were Wayne Lordan (+6pts, #96 from #107) on Hermosa, and the trainer’s son Donnacha O’Brien (+4pts, #31 from #34) on the impressive Magna Grecia, who was winning his second G1.
Since January 1, 2018, the record of jockeys on O’Brien Group- and Graded-race runners who have won at least one race for the trainer is as follows:
So, Moore – who remains the undisputed first-choice rider at Ballydoyle – leads this category in aggregate and also had a higher strike rate than Donnacha, though the difference is less than might be expected.
Click here for a list of all last week’s biggest TRC Global Rankings points gainers.
Click here for a list of all the week’s Group and Graded winners