Racing; America the final frontier for the Ballydoyle boy king

Breeders' Cup: O'Brien sets out on mission to prove best in the world armed with classic pair of Rock Of Gibraltar and High Chaparral

As he stood outside the quarantine unit at Arlington Park in Chicago yesterday the vulnerable figure of Aidan O'Brien collected light specks of rain on his rimless spectacles. You felt like getting him a hot towel and a bowl of broth.

Yet appearance is a counterfeit canvas for the Irish trainer, 33 years old last week but apparently less. This may be what Harry Potter will grow up to look like and O'Brien too is a remarkable person hidden inside a diffident and unassuming package. The words were gentle, the manner retiring near the chain link fence which separated O'Brien from the seven horses he will run in tomorrow's equine Olympics, Breeders' Cup XIX. But the truth that workmates and competitors alike recognise is that extraordinary fire burns behind the softness.

It could well be that Aidan O'Brien is the best trainer in the world. Last year he won 22 of the 78 Group races staged in Europe. He also collected his first Breeders' Cup event when Johannesburg won the Juvenile section at Belmont Park in New York.

Now it may be that the Ballydoyle realm in Co Tipperary and its boy king are about to wholly conquer the final frontier. There are hot favourites chances for both High Chaparral, a contestant in the Turf, and Rock Of Gibraltar, who bids to extend his record-breaking sequence of seven Group One wins in the Mile.

High Chaparral was the best horse this season when the sun was high in the sky, collecting the notable double of the Derby and its Irish equivalent at the Curragh. Then, though, he was one of the worst victims when illness came to visit Ballydoyle in August. Narrow defeat in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in Paris followed.

"I probably hadn't got him sharp enough mentally in the Arc, but you'd be hoping he'd come forward for the run," O'Brien said yesterday. "He's very alert now and sharp in his work." By one statistic, Rock Of Gibraltar is the best horse we have ever seen, yet now he must convince another audience. "Every race he's run in [this year] has been a Group One and it doesn't matter how easy you win a Group One you always know you've run in one," O'Brien added. "But he's an amazing horse who seems to have taken each race more easily, so you'd be hoping he'll be OK.

"He's very well in himself. He takes everything in his stride. Physically, he's getting wider, heavier and stronger." A notable absentee tomorrow will be Rock Of Gibraltar's owner, Sir Alex Ferguson, who will be in the alternative sporting crucible of Old Trafford. It is a measure of O'Brien's industry that even Ferguson remarks on his commitment and work ethic. O'Brien too enjoys having an alternative sporting mind in his circle. "He [Ferguson] is a super man," the trainer said. "We love talking to him because we learn things we can put into practice with the horses. Like the way he manages the players and injuries. He says things you pick up on. But he listens an awful lot as well. He's a great man for the lads. It's just great to have him. You'd learn a lot from him. He's a real keen man. When you're on his team, you're part of the family."

Rock Of Gibraltar will be joined in the Mile by Landseer, while the other three-year-old standing after the smoke of the European programme has cleared is Hawk Wing, who runs in the Classic. The Juvenile gets the strongest numerical challenge in Tomahawk, Hold That Tiger and Van Nistelrooy.

"This [the Breeders' Cup] is in our minds from the beginning of the season and you hope to have horses who are good enough and well enough to come," O'Brien said. "So it's just great to be here with the horses. They're only two and three-year-olds so they're very soft horses. They're in good form and we know they are very high class, but the older ones are only three-year-olds and they've danced every beat through the year. I'd be delighted to have one winner."

At yesterday's official press conference at Arlington, which hosts the Breeders' Cup for the first time, O'Brien was partnered on the top table by his American counterpart, Bob Baffert. Both men have a singular adroitness with racehorses. That is where the similarities end. In the land of the free, nothing is freer than the wisecracks which come from Baffert, a man who once went into the winners' circle on Hallowe'en with a pumpkin on his head and also conducted a television interview dressed as Austin Powers. The grey fox and the boy king form an interesting juxtaposition. "He is a very nice guy, a very quiet guy," Baffert said. "But I think he needs to spice it up a little bit. Maybe sprinkle some of that cayenne pepper, Panama Red, sprinkle that on his testicles and he might come up with some stuff."

O'Brien remains an uncomfortable speaker in alien company, but has become more relaxed around the European racing journalist community. He knows most of them by first name, an ingratiating trick he also uses with all the lads on the Ballydoyle gallops. The ego does not fluctuate with his fortunes. "The great thing about Aidan," John Magnier, the supremo at both Ballydoyle and the neighbouring Coolmore Stud, says "is that he always wears the same size hat." The attitude will therefore not change even if the farmer's boy from Co Wexford makes tomorrow the most outstanding day of his already extraordinary career.

There will be plenty of noise in the bleachers from Chicago's substantial Irish community but little reaction from Aidan O'Brien himself even in the crisis moments. He would not shout even if the house was on fire.

"The biggest thing has been to get the horses here fit and healthy," he said. "When they are racing at the top level throughout the season it's very hard to keep them coming. The good horses do it, keep going from run to run." So do the good trainers.