'It'll be our turn' - title leader O'Brien confident festival winners will flow

Fergal O'Brien is confident he will break his Cheltenham Festival duck – even though it isn't his main priority and he won't break the bank in searching for a superstar.

O'Brien was speaking to the Racing Post for a major interview in Sunday's newspaper in which he discusses the devastating day that turned out to be the turning point in his career, the single-minded drive for winners that he blames for the breakdown of his marriage, and the secret to the success that has carried him to the top of the trainers' championship.

"We know we're just keeping the seat warm for Mr [Paul] Nicholls," he said. "We managed to stay in front until Cheltenham's November meeting last year, but it's amazing how much difference it makes to have one or two of those good horses like Bravemansgame.

"People keep telling me we need to up our quality, but we're no different from a rugby academy or a cricket academy – you have to have numbers and then you hope you'll find some gems among them.

"I've seen other trainers have two or three good seasons the way we are now, and suddenly they're at the sales buying the 150-grand horses, and if those horses don't work out, it's a long way down. That's not for me."

Instead, O'Brien is happy to continue churning out winners at his current remarkable rate, with a third successive century already looking all but certain.

"If you offered me 100 winners a year for the foreseeable future, I'd take it over a festival winner or a trainers' title," he said. "If you can keep doing that, you'd like to think the festival winners will come along."

O'Brien had two seconds at last season's Cheltenham Festival but refuted any suggestion he was unlucky not to break his duck.

"We weren't unlucky at all," he said. "We never missed a day with either of ours in the run-up and if we had our time again we couldn't have done any more. They ran their hearts out, Paddy [Brennan] gave them great rides, there were no excuses and that's fine, because another day it'll be our turn."

Read more from Fergal O'Brien in The Big Read, available in Sunday's newspaper or online for Members' Club Ultimate subscribers from 6pm on Saturday. Click here to sign up

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