IF YOU catch Aidan O’Brien becoming unusually animated about a Worcester novice hurdle during Royal Ascot next week, there is a ready explanation. The master of Ballydoyle has never lost his love of jump racing and takes a close interest in the burgeoning riding career of his teenage nephew, Tom.
A winner at Hereford yesterday briefly restored O’Brien’s clear lead in the jockeys’ championship — not bad going for one who only turned professional a fortnight ago. Polite and modest, true to the family tradition, Tom deflects much of the credit for his rise to early days skipping school at Ballydoyle, where his father, James, is assistant trainer. “Once my dad joined Aidan when I was 13, I used to spend every weekend and holiday at Ballydoyle — and then plenty of times when I should have been at school,” he said. “Some of the tricky horses had their regular riders but I rode out champions like High Chaparral, Rock Of Gibraltar and Mozart.
“In my last year of school, I was making a clown of myself, ringing up trainers to try and get a few rides in bumpers when I had no proper experience. It frustrated me that I never got a ride, so I packed my bags and said I was heading to England.”
Having the courage to phone trainers eventually paid off. “I’d watched some British racing on the TV and I got Philip Hobbs’s number out of a directory and rang him to ask for a job,” he said. “Originally, I was only coming for the experience but he made me feel so welcome and I love it here now.”
O’Brien, who won the amateurs’ title last season, is well aware that family eyes are trained on his professional progress. “I speak to my father every day but I also hear from Aidan,” he said. “He is still a jumps man at heart and when he sits down to watch me ride, he often gets on the phone to give me a rollicking.”
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Among the countless logistical and structural problems to confront Ascot’s executives as they put the finishing touches to a new racecourse, none has caused more debate than the traditional community singing at the royal meeting. “Believe it or not,” Douglas Erskine-Crum, the chief executive, said, “it’s taken up more time than any other issue. We’ve looked at eight different sites for it but we’re now building a temporary bandstand in the Plaza area.”
Erskine-Crum is alert to the threats of a rail strike on the opening day, next Tuesday. “About 25 per cent of our crowd travel by train, so we’re taking it very seriously and looking at the whole estate for extra car parking,” he said.
If the strike takes place, Ascot may also stay open later and show England’s evening World Cup match against Sweden.
NO SURPRISE that Sir Mark Prescott was at home in Newmarket when Confidential Lady won the French Oaks to bring him his first classic in 37 years of training — there was football on the TV and he had a bullfighting book to read. The engaging Prescott was probably also remembering the first of his surprisingly few classic runners. “It was Triple Dash in the French 2,000 Guineas and the stalls opened for all the others save mine,” he recalled ruefully.