I've lived in the same three as her plus MI, TX, NH, RI, AZ :zz:

What about PR?

In a way, O'Brien is basically throwing Hail Mary's with the majority of his North American starters. Certainly these NA stats are not representative of his overall record anymore than Bobby Frankel's in the BC are or Todd Pletcher's in the Derby.

Specifically with his "in form" horses, O'Brien often takes them out of their comfort zone (not even factoring in the trans-Atlantic shipping) by running them in the BC Classic or Juvenile. Those entries are for the most part are "hit or miss" with no real sort of insight beforehand. For every one Johannesburg or Giant's Causeway (who didn't win) there has to be a myriad of Hawk Wing's and George Washington's.

If you eliminate his dirt starters, I presume his NA stats look a little better. Certainly most of his turf performers have done fine (if not win) the last couple of BCs (eg Westphalia, Heart Shaped, Excellent Art, Achill Island).

Another confounder to his stats here would be the private purchases. Black Bear Island, Ciro, Plan, US Ranger, Ballingarry, all came over to run one time for him, basically with the deals already finalized and/or designs on leaving in this country with other trainers.

O'Brien wins gobs of big races in Ireland and Britain; this year, he has the best (St Nicholas Abbey) and several of the second best 2yos over there. If you take out Sea the Stars, he had the 3 or 4 best 3yos running this last year. His lack of serious success with his US raiders indicates that he has not yet completely worked out (as his countryman Dermot Weld apparently has) which horses are likely to adapt well to US racing conditions. Inside-the-main-track courses are like a bull-ring to horses used to straight miles or 1-turn 12f courses and only some of them can run their best race on such tight courses, at least in their first try.

PS. The only Euro racecourse that is remotely similar to a US course is Chester, a tight left-handed oval which seems to have straights of no longer than a furlong in length. A 'handy' position on the rail in the vanguard is the key to success at Chester.

Sounds like a vessel full of shite to me. Cheeri-O.

For his career in NA...

North American Dirt: 30-1-2-1 ($0.55)

North American Turf: 66-7-12-13 ($0.98)

NA Synthetic tracks: 2-0-1-0


I'd much prefer a Euro trainer like Sir Mikey Stoute.

He's got an 11-4-2-1 record with turf marathoners in North America.. and with a super portly $5.46 ROI. One of the ones who missed, Ask, got beat a dirty nose in the '07 Canadian International.

"Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put."