Aidan O’Brien’s reaction to losing Irish Derby to sons wasn’t surprising at all

Day two of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby Festival was a great one for the Aidan O'Brien and his sons.

There were eight races on the second day of the festival at the Curragh and while Aidan O'Brien lost the big one, he didn't mind too much. Viadera took the Dubai Duty Free Finest Surprise Irish EBF Maiden, the opening race of the day. The next two races, the Tote Rockingham Handicap and the Dubai Duty Free Creekside Dash Stakes were won by Aidan O'Brien's Battle Of Jericho and Fleet Review respectively. He secured his treble in the GAIN Railway Stakes as Van Beethoven rode home to victory. I’m So Fancy won the Listed Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire Celebration Stakes  while Petticoat took the Dubai Duty Free Full of Surprises Summer Fillies Handicap. Willie Mullins' Low Sun won the last race of the day.

The Derby

The big one on day two was, of course, the Irish derby itself. It proved to be a successful one for the O'Brien clan who had the first five horses to cross the finish line. Four of those were owned by father Aidan, but first place went to Latrobe, trained by Joseph O'Brien and ridden by his brother Donnacha. The result marked Joseph's third Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby win and his first as a trainer. Meanwhile, it was Donnacha's first time winning the race as a jockey. https://twitter.com/RTEracing/status/1013097255224553473 Unsurprisingly, Aidan O'Brien was only delighted for his sons. Speaking to RTE after the race, he admitted being, 'Over the moon' for his sons' success.

"Obviously I was hoping that the two lads would keep going. It would have been a sickener for us to chin the lads again because they worked very hard, day-in, day-out. We know how tough it is and we know how hard the competition is. We see how hard they work. It was something that we were obviously hoping that the horse would keep going, but Donnacha was in the pace a long time and we knew it was going to be tough. He committed early - he had to because the pace wasn't that strong early. "Listen, I was over the moon."

https://twitter.com/RTEracing/status/1013099652021800960