Aidan O'Brien's fine brushstrokes paint a golden summer landscape of success

There is plenty of science that goes into training a racehorse but it is good to know there is still a place for art and fine brushwork and the deep understanding a life devoted to horse care can bring.

No better person to illustrate that than Aidan O'Brien and in a remarkably candid interview with the Racing Post's Ireland editor Richard Forristal published on Sunday, a relaxed and enthused O'Brien spoke of being able to look into a horse's eye and know whether it is happy or sad, healthy or sick.

To convey his point he showed two photos on his phone, close-ups of a horse's eye, one dull and the other glistening, but the same horse. "He had been sick," O'Brien explains, "and you can see the sadness in his eyes, and the other picture is six months later. It’s the people who are dealing with the horses who see these things."