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Donnacha Aidan O'Brien

Four years into his training career, Donnacha O'Brien has already shown he belongs at the very top table of the sport. Since taking out his licence in 2021, he has built a record of 89 career winners, and in the last twelve months alone he has sent out 30 winners from 225 runners — that's roughly 1 in every 8 races, a healthy return for any yard, let alone one still in its early years.Based on TrackLab's AI analysis
Quick Facts
Role
Trainer
Based
Ballyroe, Co Tipperary
Record
30 wins from 225 races
Win rate
13.3%
Top jockey
Best course
Naas (22.7% from 22 races)
Best going
Yielding to soft

📊 Key Numbers

A snapshot of this trainer's performance over the last 12 months
225
Races
30
Wins
13.3%
Win rate
avg ~10%
37.8%
Place rate (top 3)
avg ~30%

🔍 Full Analysis

TrackLab's AI-generated assessment based on career data and recent form
TrackLab's Trainer Breakdown
Auto-Generated

The highlights on his CV are hard to argue with. He has won four of the sport's top-level races, picking up Class 1 victories at two of the most prestigious venues in the calendar — Ascot and Newmarket. Ascot in June and Newmarket in both September 2023 and July 2024 are not places where you stumble into success. These are races where the best horses in training line up, and O'Brien's yard has been competitive on the biggest days.

The partnership with jockey Gavin Ryan is worth paying attention to. Ryan has ridden 135 horses for O'Brien, producing 17 winners between them — again, roughly 1 in every 8. That kind of consistency across a high volume of rides suggests real communication and trust between trainer and jockey, the sort of working relationship that tends to get better over time rather than worse.

There are two areas where O'Brien appears to have a particular edge. On wet or muddy ground, his horses win at a noticeably higher rate — 4 wins from just 20 races, which works out at 1 in every 5. That 20% figure is significantly better than his overall average, suggesting he either has horses well-suited to those conditions or knows exactly when to run them. And at Killarney specifically, he has won 3 races from just 8 runners — nearly 1 in every 3 — which in racing terms is the kind of record that makes rivals nervous whenever his name appears in a race card there.

Still only four years in, O'Brien is already operating at a level that takes some trainers decades to reach. The question now is not whether he can compete at the top — he has already answered that — but how far and how quickly he can build on it.

📈 Form Trend

How this trainer's win rate has changed month by month
Monthly win rate
2025–2026
14.3%
Apr
16.7%
May
9.1%
Jun
26.7%
Jul
0%
Aug
11.8%
Sep
14.3%
Oct
12.5%
Nov
50%
Dec
25%
Jan
0%
Feb
20%
Mar

🎯 Where This Trainer Thrives

Performance broken down by ground, class, and track type
🌧 Ground Conditions
Yielding to soft
Loves
Soft to heavy
Loves
Standard (all-weather)
Yielding
Good to yielding
Heavy (very wet)
Good (firm-ish)
Ok
Soft (muddy)
Ok
Good to firm
Avoids
🏅 Competition Level
Class 1
Avoids
🏟 Track Shape
Left-handed, tight turning
Loves
Right-handed, undulating
Loves
Right-handed, tight
Loves
Left-handed, wide and galloping
Right-handed, wide and galloping
Ok
Wide and galloping
Right-handed, tight turning
Avoids

🏇 Jockey Partnerships

The riders they work with most, sorted by rides together
Gavin Ryan First Choice
12.6%
Win rate
17/135
Won / Rode
12.2%
Win rate
6/49
Won / Rode
27.3%
Win rate
3/11
Won / Rode
25%
Win rate
1/4
Won / Rode
0%
Win rate
0/4
Won / Rode
33.3%
Win rate
1/3
Won / Rode
33.3%
Win rate
1/3
Won / Rode
0%
Win rate
0/2
Won / Rode
100%
Win rate
1/1
Won / Rode
0%
Win rate
0/1
Won / Rode
0%
Win rate
0/1
Won / Rode
0%
Win rate
0/1
Won / Rode
0%
Win rate
0/1
Won / Rode
0%
Win rate
0/1
Won / Rode
0%
Win rate
0/1
Won / Rode
0%
Win rate
0/1
Won / Rode
0%
Win rate
0/1
Won / Rode
0%
Win rate
0/1
Won / Rode
0%
Win rate
0/1
Won / Rode
0%
Win rate
0/1
Won / Rode

Top Horses

The strongest horses currently associated with this trainer
Form: 2-
Form: 724-1
Form: 54201-
Form: B14
Form: 4152
Form: 00-0
Form: 77-6
Form: 00144-
Form: 9807-

🏟 Course Record

Win rate at each course, sorted by number of races
CourseRacesWinsWin rate
Dundalk 46 8 17.4%
The Curragh 38 5 13.2%
Leopardstown 25 3 12%
Naas 22 5 22.7%
Cork 18 0 0%
Navan 12 0 0%
Gowran Park 10 2 20%
Killarney 8 3 37.5%
Down Royal 7 1 14.3%
Tipperary 7 0 0%
Limerick 6 0 0%
Listowel 4 0 0%
Galway 3 1 33.3%
Newmarket 3 0 0%
Sligo 3 0 0%
Roscommon 3 0 0%
Bellewstown 2 1 50%
Punchestown 2 1 50%
Fairyhouse 2 0 0%
Ascot 2 0 0%
abu_dhabi 1 0 0%
Ballinrobe 1 0 0%

📅 Recent Results

The last 20 results, most recent first
20 Mar
Dundalk · 1m1f – 1m2f · Standard
Won
20 Mar
Dundalk · 7f – 1m · Standard
15 Mar
The Curragh · 7f – 1m · Heavy
3rd
12 Mar
Limerick · Long Distance (2m+) · Soft_To_Heavy
4th
6 Mar
Dundalk · 1m1f – 1m2f · Standard
10th
27 Feb
Dundalk · 1m1f – 1m2f · Standard
20 Feb
Dundalk · 1m1f – 1m2f · Standard
11th
20 Feb
Dundalk · 1m1f – 1m2f · Standard
2nd
13 Feb
Dundalk · 1m1f – 1m2f · Standard
4th
13 Feb
Dundalk · 1m1f – 1m2f · Standard
5th
13 Feb
Dundalk · 1m1f – 1m2f · Standard
6th
7 Feb
abu_dhabi · 1m1f – 1m2f · Good
3rd
7 Feb
Naas · 1m6f – 2m · Soft_To_Heavy
4th
23 Jan
Dundalk · 7f – 1m · Standard
2nd
12 Jan
Punchestown · Long Distance (2m+) · Soft_To_Heavy
Won
9 Jan
Dundalk · 1m1f – 1m2f · Standard
2nd
9 Jan
Dundalk · 1m1f – 1m2f · Standard
8th
26 Dec
Limerick · Long Distance (2m+) · Heavy
5 Dec
Dundalk · 1m1f – 1m2f · Standard
Won
28 Nov
Dundalk · 1m3f – 1m4f · Standard
6th