O’Brien Doesn’t Have To Answer To Twitter Eejits

It was interesting to read some of the criticism of Aidan O’Brien this week regarding Gleneagles.

Aidan O’Brien Criticism
I’m on Twitter myself and it can be a great tool for all the obvious reasons but there can also be a lot of eejits on it. I know myself that Aidan O’Brien thinks about where he wants to send his horse and how to do the right thing for his horses 24/7, there’s no better man around.

Someone sitting at home on the couch or with a few quid on a horse can have their own opinion but at the end of the day Aidan knows what’s right or wrong for his horses so I wouldn’t pay too much attention to anybody else to be honest.

It’s the owners who pay the bills and the trainers who work the horses day in and day out.

That means the only people Aidan has to answer to are the owners, not some eejit on Twitter on his phone.

Female Jockeys
I was happy to see the introduction of a Ladies charity race at Fairyhouse in November, the first all-female chase under rules to be staged in Ireland.

This is definitely a step in the right direction. We’re lucky in Ireland that we have a lot of great female jockeys so there should be more races for them, definitely.

Certainly as much as I can use them, I do. We have a number of female jockeys working in the yard and I wouldn’t have any problem putting any of them up if we had something good enough, I’m all for it.

As you probably know Nina Carberry rides most of our bumper horses and she’s one of the best around. She rode them to sleep over in Aintree at the Foxhunters’ Chase and that’s not the first time she’s done it. You don’t have to tell her what to do, she’s second to none and I honestly couldn’t say enough good about her.

Promising Young Jockeys
Staying on the subject of jockeys, I think it’s important to give young jockeys as much of a chance as I can.

We’ve got the likes of Kevin Sexton or Luke Dempsey while Jack Kennedy is flying this year, he’s the new find. Himself and Donagh Meyler are the two young lads that are making the breakthrough this year.

But they have to keep their heads down and keep working because the problem is, when young jockeys start getting too much success, it gets to their head and that’s when it all goes wrong.

For me, Jack Kennedy is the main young lad in the country. He’s improving; he’s got a good pair of hands and a good head. He’s also got loads of experience and he’s a really nice lad, brought up well so he’s got a great chance. If he keeps in one piece he’s going to have a lot of good years infront of him.

I get CVs from young jockeys all the time. Some of them make it and some of them don’t. You have to have a good pair of hands and a good head but most importantly you have to work hard. That’s number one.