Last week, Aidan O'Brien trained four high-profile winners at the Royal Ascot race meeting. Coming on the back of Galileo's stunning Epsom Derby triumph, the Ascot bonanza helped cement O'Brien's status as racing's hottest young talent. But champagne celebrations are not in his repertoire.
After each day at Ascot, O'Brien flew back to the Ballydoyle stables near Cashel where he has trained since 1995 at the invitation of Coolmore Stud boss John Magnier. At 10 each night, the 31-year-old bespectacled horseman toured the yard's blue-blooded occupants, drew up training rotas for the following day, and eventually went home to his wife and four children an hour later.
Those who know O'Brien are not surprised at such dedication. After all, this is a trainer who dislikes going to the races. The real work is done at home and real work is what O'Brien has a seemingly endless appetite for. The racetrack is just the end result.
Galileo is confidently expected to notch up another of those winning results in tomorrow's Budweiser Irish Derby, but the intriguing suspicion remains that such a victory might only be a prelude to the Co Wexford-born farmer's son redefining every statistic in the Sport of Kings for years to come.
Legendary jockey Christy Roche has ridden for O'Brien and during a long career also rode winners for some of the other great names of Irish and European racing. He has no doubt about O'Brien's ability to dominate the sport for the foreseeable future.
"Over the next 10 years, he can only get better. I don't think we have seen anything yet. I look at him and I see that natural talent of Paddy Prendergast, the dedication and attention to detail of Vincent O'Brien and the will to win of Jim Bolger. On top of it all, he is a fellow anyone would love to be around," says Roche.
"Aidan's biggest attribute is that he started from the ground floor. He had the toughest apprenticeship any man could have at Jim Bolger's. But the result is there can be a lad at Ballydoyle doing the simplest job like mucking out and Aidan can talk to them. His man-management is unbelievable. I have no doubt he would be a highly successful businessman in any firm," Roche adds.
Such considerations must have been a long way from O'Brien's mind when he left school at 15 and started work as a forklift driver at the local co-op near Enniscorthy. During summer months, O'Brien also picked strawberries to make some extra money but his father's love of point-to-points had imbued the youngster with a passion for horses.
One short stint at a Curragh stable was followed by joining Jim Bolger's Co Carlow establishment as a stable lad. O'Brien's appetite for work served him well under Bolger's strict regime and he also began riding as an amateur jockey. It was at the start of an amateur race that he met Anne-Marie Crowley, who became his wife.
She is from a racing family in south Kilkenny and was champion jumps trainer herself in 1992 but the licence was transferred to her husband the following year. O'Brien's first winner was Wandering Thoughts at Tralee on June 7th, 1993.
He was also champion amateur rider in 1994 but gave up riding to dominate the trainers' table over jumps. It was a meteoric rise to prominence that attracted the Coolmore Stud supremo John Magnier following the retirement of the legendary Vincent O'Brien (no relation).
Training from an establishment that Magnier's father-in-law had turned into the world's most famous stables - with horses like Nijinksy and Alleged still fresh in the memory - would have created sleepless nights for most, but not the new O'Brien.
"It must have been hard, almost like taking over from Alex Ferguson at Man United, but Aidan is a very level-headed guy," says Charlie Swan, who has ridden one of the few National Hunt horses at Ballydoyle, Istabraq, to three Champion Hurdle victories.
"I think Istabraq has helped Aidan cope with the pressures he has at Ballydoyle. I know the money is entirely different but at the same time Istabraq has been a very big story," Swan adds.
It's the multi-million investment poured into the search for potential stallions every year by Magnier and another Coolmore partner, Michael Tabor, that allows O'Brien to work with the cream of the world's best-bred bloodstock. However, there appears to be a comparative lack of resentment within the sport at the sort of dominance that has seen O'Brien pick up six Group 1 races already this season.
"He has the ammunition but he is a bloody good trainer. This is a fickle game though. Look at Henry Cecil; five years ago he was at the top. Now he is wondering what's gone wrong," one Curragh trainer offers.
O'BRIEN'S capacity for work has led some to speculate on the possibility of burn-out. Friends admit he has no interests beyond horses and the pressure of trying to develop a horse to a high enough level on the track in order to allow Magnier use it as a stallion is considerable.
Quietly spoken and uncomfortable in the media spotlight, O'Brien can also sometimes appear awkward and tonguetied in front of camera, but those who underestimate his steel make a mistake.
"He is very ambitious and just loves training winners," says Swan, while Roche offers: "I see how much he has changed his style in the last few years. It used to be winners that Aidan wanted but now he is thinking classics. Every horse that comes into him, he is thinking what it will be like as a three-year-old."
At 31, O'Brien has already won six Irish classics, four in Britain - including the Epsom Derby - and in Galileo has a horse that many believe is a worthy heir to the Ballydoyle heritage of Nijinsky. But the feeling is growing that O'Brien, just like Galileo, is only starting to hit his stride.
