Joseph O’Brien eyes back-to-back wins in Ascot Grade-One feature with Fakir D’oudairies

Joseph O’Brien pursues a first top-flight success in 2023 at Ascot on Saturday, although his list of accomplishments already extends this year to the boardroom.

The former champion jockey and Classic-winning trainer is now serving on the board of Horse Racing Ireland (HRI).

O’Brien (29) is the board nominee from the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association (IRTA) and officially took up his duties last month, taking over as the trainer’s representative from Michael Halford who opted to step down.

It is O’Brien, rather than the IRTA chairman Ado McGuinness, who has been nominated to follow in the footsteps of other former trainers such as Noel Meade who’ve served on the board.

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“I was privileged to be considered for it, obviously through the trainers’ association which I’ve been a member of for a while now,” O’Brien said on Friday.

Having enjoyed a short but stellar career as a rider, principally for his father Aidan’s Ballydoyle team, O’Brien has made a major impression since officially taking out his own trainer’s licence less than seven years ago.

At just 24 he became the youngest person to train a Melbourne Cup winner with Rekindling in 2017. He beat his father’s hope on that occasion and three years later repeated the feat with Twilight Payment.

O’Brien is also the youngest ever Breeders’ Cup-winning trainer with Iridessa successful at Santa Anita in 2019. On that occasion, he joined Freddy Head as just the second person to both ride and train a winner at the Breeders’ Cup.

Still shy of his 30th birthday, O’Brien is by some distance the youngest member of the HRI board, chaired by businessman Nicky Hartery.

“From my point of view, and from the trainers’ association point of view, I’ll hopefully be able to help in whatever it is for the betterment of our sport.

“That’s what everyone’s trying to do, and I’ll be there to provide whatever assistance I can,” he added.

A HRI spokesman confirmed O’Brien is on what was described as “a short-term representation” until May of next year. The possibility of serving a second four-year term will then be open to him.

HRI is racing’s governing semi-State body, although responsibility for integrity rests with the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB), formerly known as the Turf Club.

The division of those roles came under scrutiny recently on the back of a failed IRTA appeal against a €300,000 award for defamation won by the IHRB’s head of security Chris Gordon in 2020.

HRI came under fire when the Court of Appeal judgment delivered by Justice Brian Murray in December referred to how the IRTA had “successfully petitioned Horse Racing Ireland to exert pressure on the Turf Club to restrict Mr Gordon in his duties and prevent him from investigating trainers”.

Current HRI officials have declined to comment on that judgment, although former long-serving chief executive Brian Kavanagh has said he stands over the processes carried out by the board at that time.

In comparison, bookmakers are straightforwardly united in rating O’Brien’s star Fakir D’oudairies as favourite to win back-to-back renewals of Saturday’s Betfair Ascot Chase.

Watered going at Ascot will be very different from when JP McManus’s admirable eight-year-old emerged on top last year in a slog.

However, ground conditions appear largely irrelevant to Fakir D’oudairies who, in the absence of Allaho, looks the best around at this intermediate trip.

If he appeared lucky to score at Thurles last month when Haut En Coleurs fell at the last, he now has a chance to cement his new position as favourite for Cheltenham’s Ryanair Chase.

Officially, the Irish hope is second best on ratings behind Shishkin but Nicky Henderson’s runner has it all to prove as he steps up in distance.

A bigger danger could be Pic D’orhy who is chasing a first Grade One but has been in prolific form this season.

“This is going to be the biggest race of Pic D’Orhy’s career so far, but he is up for it and I have a feeling he will go very well. The ground is right for him and he could not be going into it in better form having won his last three,” trainer Paul Nicholls said.

“Fakir D’Oudairies is a good horse. You could say he was lucky to win the other day and it looked like he had a hard enough race, but he won. He beat Hitman in the Grade One at Aintree last season and that gives me a lead with Pic D’Orhy.

“The Irish have maybe not had as many winners over here this season as they normally do but they target these races and, if we are going to compete in a Ryanair or the Grade One at Aintree, we need to be right in there with him,” he added.

In other news, Aidan O’Brien will have his first runners of 2023 when competing in Qatar on Saturday.

Both Stone Age (Ryan Moore) and Broome (Wayne Lordan) line up in the $2.5 million (€2.3 million) Amir Trophy due off at 1.15 Irish time. The mile and a half contest holds local Group One status.

Earlier on the card at the Al Rayyan racecourse in Doha, another Ballydoyle stalwart, Order Of Australia, takes his chance under Moore in a one-mile contest that also features Ado McGuinness’s Real Appeal (Ronan Whelan).

McGuinness won the race two years ago with Bowerman.