Paul O'Brien

The headline numbers are impressive enough, but it is the quality dotted through them that tells the fuller story. O'Brien has won 5 top-level races in his career — the kind of races that attract the best horses in Britain — at venues including Cheltenham and Ascot, two of the most prestigious tracks in the sport. He added two more Class 1 victories in quick succession in February 2026, at Huntingdon and Wincanton, before following up with a winner at Kempton Park on the 21st of the same month. Three winners inside three weeks at the top level is the sort of purple patch that can define a season.

If there is one relationship that underpins his recent rise, it is his partnership with trainer Harry Derham. Together they have produced 43 wins from 189 races — that is 23 wins for every 100 rides, or roughly 1 in every 4, which is a genuinely excellent return and well above his already solid overall average. When a trainer keeps booking the same jockey at that kind of rate, it is a clear sign of trust built on results.

Haydock Park is worth flagging separately. Four winners from just 7 races there means O'Brien has won more than half his rides at the track — a remarkable record at any venue, and the kind of number that suggests he reads that particular course unusually well. His record on fast, dry ground also stands out: 1 win from 3 races gives him a 33% win rate in those conditions, though the small sample means it is one to watch rather than a firm conclusion.

His partnership with Norn Iron — two wins from five races together — is a smaller thread in the story but a telling one. Finding a horse that brings out the best in you, and doing it twice, is never an accident. At 178 career winners and still only four years in, O'Brien has the look of someone still well short of his ceiling.