Donnacha O'Brien: 'It feels normal. It was always going to be my next chapter'
David Jennings visits the champion jockey who is embarking on a new career
Donnacha O’Brien does not know it yet, but he is going to be a big hit with the hacks if his first interview as a trainer is an indication of what’s to come.
It is not very often you get an answer you don’t expect in this game. The digging can be monotonous. The same questions, the same sort of replies. Nothing to see here, move along. So, when the youngest member of the O’Brien family is asked about his thrilling tussle with Colin Keane in this year’s Irish jockeys’ championship, the expectation is that he will say he enjoyed it. Of course he will, he was the champion at the end of it and that is all that matters.
“It was actually completely head-frying to be honest with you,” he says instead after riding 111 winners, eight more than Colin Keane.
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Published on inInterviews
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- It's been a quarter of a century since we started - here's how we've seen the sport we love change
- 'You can see why people end up struggling - when you're trying to pay the electric bill, losing one ride can be massive'
- 'I've never paid six figures for a horse and never will - I learned pretty quickly you're only one phone call away from f*** all'
- 'I’ve trained some fabulous horses, worked with some excellent riders - maybe I have brought a little bit of talent to the table as well'
- ‘When you’re in the moment and you’re starved, you’re ready to explode - everything built up and I just lost my s**t’