Is 'Warrior' A Crowning Glory?

Think about it. Aidan O'Brien has won 300 Group 1 races in almost 22 years. And it's treated almost casually, like part of a checklist ticked off: yeah it's a superb landmark figure but he does this stuff. It's Ballydoyle and Coolmore and probably the finest bloodstock empire ever assembled. There's never been anything like it because there's never been anything like it. As always with O'Brien the results are indivisible from the ammunition he gets to fire. But no one can ever argue with his aim.

Desert King was the first of O'Brien's top-flight flat winners in the 1996 National Stakes. The following year the same colt won both the Guineas and the Derby at the Curragh. Classic Park won the 1,000 into the bargain. Two decades later he is rapidly closing in on a century of Group 1 successes in Ireland alone.

Last year's Group 1 world record for a calendar year confirmed O'Brien's worldwide reach. Notwithstanding Mendelssohn's Kentucky Derby flameout on Saturday - although such were the conditions it was more like a washout - the Irishman has consistently delivered top-class results around the globe.

So for over two decades O'Brien has averaged almost 14 Group 1 victories a year. No doubt statistical wonks can pick holes in the win to runner ratio or whatever. No matter how you look at it though it represents an astonishing record of consistent delivery on the biggest stage. And whatever about the ammo O'Brien remains supremely hawk-eyed when it comes to squeezing the trigger.

That was part of the fascination to Mendelssohn's Louisville expedition. There was history but also a sense of a new challenge on the other side of the Atlantic for someone who's done it all on this side.

Ultimately even the elements seemed to conspire against the Irish runner although the biggest problem was still the start. The US culture is that you have to trap like a greyhound. Justify's trainer Bob Baffert said his biggest concern was a fast break. The culture here is the exact opposite from that. So maybe the 'Durby' key is a series of prep races to adapt to the American way.

As for other future challenges for O'Brien there are more than a few people in the game who believe he has yet to get his hands on a true freak, one of those rare racing talents that define the sport and a generation.

Hawk Wing remains the highest rated horse he's had through his hands. Despite the numbers O'Brien hasn't had a singular talent such as Sea The Stars or Frankel to grab the public imagination and send ratings bods crazy - unless you count Istabraq of course.

Galileo has been the commercial beau ideal in terms of his stud career. But as brilliant a racehorse as he was it still didn't constitute a racing career as defining as say Nijinsky's.

It's hardly going to keep awake someone at the height of his powers and able to watch another of his children perform so assuredly on the classic stage as Donnacha O'Brien did in Saturday's 2000 Guineas. And there's also the tantalising thought of how that Guineas victory for Saxon Warrior might be the start of a very special racing career indeed.

Talk of becoming the first Triple Crown winner since Nijinsky has begun and for once looks valid. Saxon Warrior looked that good at Newmarket. Sure it's possible to crib the bare form but that happens after every Guineas. However maybe only George Washington of O'Brien's previous eight winners looked to win with similar authority.

Saxon Warrior travelled like the best throughout, should improve significantly and is bred to relish further. Maybe a valid rival will emerge from the Derby trials but they'll need to be very convincing to persuade most people they're up to beating this colt who in some ways had his thunder stolen a bit by Mendelssohn's US trip.

Saxon Warrior is centre-stage now however, unbeaten, supremely talented and a magnificent slab of a horse to look at. If this summer he creates an outstanding CV, maybe even including that elusive Triple Crown, then he might yet prove to be something of a crowning glory for his trainer.

In a business sense Saxon Warrior is already proving to be supremely significant. Japanese racing has long been among the best and this Guineas seems certain to make the breeding suffix 'JPN' all the more prevalent, encouraging racing's commercial world to become all the smaller.

It's that commercial perspective which made Billesdon Brook's 66-1 shock in the 1,000 Guineas all the sweeter. Taking it as reassurance that it proves how you don't need billions to compete at the top level will no doubt be overdone but there was still plenty to like about such a success, particularly in relation to her jockey Sean Levey.

It will be fascinating to see the impact of this victory on Levey's career. Always highly regarded for his horsemanship this could propel him to the next level again in terms of fashion. It's a success that's also a reminder of the talent produced in this country, a lot of which still has to leave in order to flourish.

On to less exciting matters and there are few things more mind-bendingly tedious than racing politics. Racecourse politics might just be the most boring of the lot. It's like talking theatre and preoccupying on what's happening at the ticket-office rather than the stage.

But having a stage in the first place is of primary importance so Down Royal's uncertain future is of very real importance to a lot of people. It's location close to Belfast has always been a major plus. That selling point now appears to make Irish racing's current 'Racecourse of the Year' a very valuable property for non-sporty reasons.

The same applies to how Horse Racing Ireland is apparently sitting on the most valuable vacant site in the country at Leopardstown. Two plots of land constituting 18 hectares have been valued at €79 million, proof once more that location-location-location is everything when it comes to property. But in the midst of a housing crisis this land threatens to become very costly indeed.

It's been estimated that up to 1,000 houses could be built on the land and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council have urged the Housing Minister that it be used for public and affordable housing. The Minister in turn has said what happens with the land is up to HRI.

All of which is pretty predictable political posturing except that local authorities can now charge a levy on property owners who don't develop prime housing land. The levy is three per cent of the value of the land for this year and seven per cent for other years. Potentially that has HRI facing a €2.37 million bill next year and €5.53 million the year after if nothing happens on the sites. And that means the taxpayer coughing up.

No doubt appeals and counter proposals will be flying around in the coming months. But HRI is a semi-state body. It has form when it comes preferring its state links to be little more than the handing over of government money. Whatever your political stance on the housing issue though, the idea of the state paying out millions in order to keep land vacant for a body like HRI is a hard one to stand over. Racing is a little bubble of its own. But it isn't air-tight.