Joseph O'Brien Joining Forces with Juddmonte

Multiple group 1-winning trainer Joseph O'Brien has joined forces with owner/breeder powerhouse Juddmonte for the first time. The County Kilkenny-based trainer has enjoyed success at the highest level across both codes in Britain and Ireland, alongside major wins in Australia, France, Germany, and the United States, and will now train for the leading operation, founded by the late Prince Khalid Abdullah, who was behind champions such as Dancing Brave, Frankel (GB), Kingman (GB), and Enable (GB). The 33-year-old has built a formidable CV on the flat, having trained winners of the British St Leger (G1), Irish St Leger(G1), Irish Derby (G1), and major international contests. Most notably, O'Brien has won the Melbourne Cup (G1) twice, with Rekindling in 2017 and Twilight Payment in 2020. Speaking on the Nick Luck Daily podcast, O'Brien said: "It's a real privilege for us to be asked to train horses for the Juddmonte team. They have had an incredible number of years as a historic operation. "It came about through a call with Barry Mahon (Juddmonte's general manager for Ireland and European racing) a little while ago, and some of the team came to visit the yard, and it went from there. "We have a few 2-year-olds for them, and at this point in the season, they will be second-half-of-the-season types. "It's hard to get horses that are capable of turning up in classic races and group races, as it is for everyone, because there are only a few of those in each generation, but the bigger breeding operations have access to these incredible families, and Juddmonte has that."