Donnacha O'Brien Set To Field First Runners As Trainer On Friday

Donnacha O'Brien

Donnacha O'Brien is looking to start a new chapter of his life in horse racing as he is set to send his first two runners as a trainer to Dundalk on Friday.

The youngster rode his first winner as a jockey back in 2014 as a young 16-year-old on Quartz, trained by his father Aidan O'Brien at Dundalk which makes it a very special occasion for him to also train his first horse at the track.

However since that first win the ex jockey then went on to become a well established rider landing back to back Irish Jockeys titles landing 111 winners last season with his final winner again coming for his father with Nobel Prize in a Naas maiden on the final day of the 2019 Flat turf season in Ireland.

It was rumoured that O'Brien would become a trainer after his spell as a rider but it came as a shock announcement with him being this young.

After the initial period of shock he has settled in nicely with his training career and already has an establishment set up in Longfield, County Tipperary. 

The youngest of Aidan O'Brien's four children, O'Brien has followed in the footsteps of his older brother, Joseph, who has gone to truly turn the flat and jumps racing world on its head with some superb winners over the last few years.

Donnacha fields Flower Garland and Mythologic who are both owned by Donnacha's mother Annemarie and the 21 year old already knows plenty about these horses before acquiring them as their handler as he rode both of them when they were with his father.

Both horses don't look the most straight forward for the young trainer with Flower Garland being a four-race maiden but showed clear signs of improvement last time out when finishing second at Leopardstown on his latest outing.

Mythologic is yet to hit the target in his eight starts, but has been a runner-up twice on turf and if using that form on the all weather could be very useful.

The two are both entered for the mile maiden contest set to go off at 19:00, with Flower Garland also holding an entry in the Apprentice race which goes off an hour later.

(Credit Racing Post) The young trainer said: We'll have to see if they get into the race but the plan is to run both of them."