'It's amazing what he's done since' - jockey recalls riding master trainer Aidan O'Brien's first winner 30 years on

Tralee racecourse may have closed down but 30 years after Wandering Thoughts justified favouritism at the track in an unremarkable 0-75 contest, Aidan O'Brien is going as strong as ever and Pat Gilson, the man who steered home the trainer's first winner, says the attention to detail he is renowned for was always evident. 

The Ballybeggan Racegoers Club Handicap doubtless looked an inconspicuous contest when Wandering Thoughts, a four-year-old chestnut gelding, obliged at 5-2 on June 7, 1993. However, it proved to be a seminal moment in racing history as it got a certain 23-year-old rookie trainer, who still trades as AP O'Brien on the racecard, up and running. 

"Someone said it to me earlier in the week and I couldn’t believe it," O'Brien says of the landmark. "It’s hard to believe it’s been 30 years since Wandering Thoughts won in Tralee. We had a winner at Leopardstown that day as well, Kevin Darley won on a filly called Tryarra, would you believe?"

By now, we very much would believe. Wandering Thoughts had four uninspiring runs in maidens prior to a runner-up effort on handicap debut at the Curragh. At Tralee, he went one better under Gilson to make a little slice of history.

"I remember it very well," Gilson says now. "Aidan had asked me to ride it but the horse was only carrying 8st 5lb so I said I would ride him but I had to carry 1lb overweight. Aidan said that was no problem. After he won I said to Aidan that he would run up a sequence which he did. Wandering Thoughts won very well that day. I actually rode his dam as well but I’m going back well into the archives there!"

Soon after, it was made abundantly clear that something special was brewing at Owning Hill. Aidan's wife Annemarie had already landed the champion jump trainers' title in 1992-93 and, within 19 months of saddling his first winner, O'Brien had eclipsed Dermot Weld's record of 150 wins in a calendar year by sending out an astonishing 241 winners in 1995.

Five jumps championships and 24 Flat titles later, Auguste Rodin stormed to Derby glory last week, rewarding the total confidence O'Brien had in the colt despite an uninspiring effort in the 2,000 Guineas. That success marked a scarcely believable 90th Classic success on either side of the Irish Sea for the trainer and strengthened his position as the leading handler in Derby history with nine victories.

"It is amazing what Aidan has done since," Gilson says. "He was doing very well at the time. I worked for him down in Ballydoyle for a while, I rode work with Christy Roche down there. I was a stable jockey with Vincent O'Brien so Christy told me to come on down as I knew the gallops well.

"Back then, Aidan was a man for the detail and took everything in. He was always that way, he was a great man for feedback – he was always looking for it. To this day he seems the same and feedback is a very important thing because without it, you’re only guessing."

Gilson, who was a Group 1 winner aboard Jim Bolger's Priory Belle in the 1995 Moyglare Stud Stakes, was perhaps best known for his association with Con Collins but is also etched into another of Irish racing's greatest success stories, having been one of seven jockeys to partner Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup-winning mare Dawn Run.

"I was the only Flat jockey to ride Dawn Run," he recalls. "I rode her in the Cesarewitch, that’s nearly the only one they didn’t win with her!"

Read more:

'We enjoyed it every bit as much as the first' - Aidan O'Brien still on cloud nine and Curragh could be next for Auguste Rodin 

The Derby is defended as those who believed in the race and the genius of Aidan O'Brien win out 

Auguste Rodin back to his brilliant best to provide 'genius' Aidan O'Brien with a record-extending ninth Derby win

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