The Times
22nd June 2024
Ascot is being overloaded with O’Briens. Not content with father Aidan leading the trainers’ table for the 12th time, along comes his 25 year old son Donnacha to saddle the O’Brien family bred Porta Fortuna to win the Coronation Stakes with Aidan trained Opera Singer second.
More of the younger O’Brien in a moment but first concentrate on the magnificent record of the bay daughter of Caravaggio (trained by O’Brien Snr) who has never been out of the first three in 9 races across Ireland, England and America, won the Albany Stakes at last year’s Royal Ascot, and was here reversing the places with Elmalka in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket six weeks ago.
Back then Elmalka took her in the last strides with the French filly Ramatuelle inches behind them in a frantically cramped finish. Yesterday there was daylight. Ryan Moore jumped Opera Singer out in the lead and set a strong pace in front of the Juddmonte filly Skellet with Porta Fortuna already poised in third and Ramatuelle tucked away behind by new jockey Oisin Murphy with Elmalka out the back as she was at Newmarket.
Opera Singer had to work hard to take Skellet at the two furlong pole but then fought off Porta Fortuna until the last 100 yards before finally conceding by a length with Ramatuelle and Elmalka running on to take the next places a further couple of lengths away. The race run two seconds slower than Rossallion’s St Jame’s Palace over the same course on Tuesday but that should not lessen the credit due to the filly and to her trainer who is not 26 until July.
Of course he is an O’Brien and, forget his father, his older brother Joseph was twice Irish Champion jockey and won two Epsom Derbies before turning trainer and already has an English St Leger, an Irish Derby and two Melbourne Cups on his. Both boys are impossibly tall for jockeys but Donnacha also logged two Irish championships and won three English classics before weight forced him to switch codes and land the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood with his very first runner.
Even when his face was the front of a hollowed out skull Donnacha was always the coolest of the O’Briens. Freed from starvation rations he is now a tall elegant figure as ready to discuss crypto currency as training trends. “I was happy the whole way,” he said cooly afterwards. “Everything went to plan. It’s not too often you can say that. I’m delighted.”
So too were another Irish family after Colin Keane brought the six year old Crystal Black through the 20 strong field to win the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes for his father Gerard. And if you thought that was jubilation or that Donnacha O’Brien was something of a youthful prodigy, you should have watched the scenes as 18 year old Billy “The Kid” Loughnane came back after winning The Sandringham Stakes. Age didn’t count at Royal Ascot.