O'Brien, (Michael) Vincent (1917– )

Irish racehorse trainer, who enjoyed an extremely successful career in both National Hunt and flat racing. His most famous horse was ‘The Minstrel’, which in 1977 achieved the remarkable feat of winning a sequence of major races – the Derby, the Irish Derby, and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. O'Brien was long associated with the champion jockey Lester Piggott, who rode for him from 1968 to 1980.

Born in County Cork, O'Brien made an immediate impact on post-war English National Hunt racing, as trainer of the horse ‘Cottage Rake’, which won the Cheltenham Gold Cup for three consecutive years from 1948. Later he turned his attention to flat racing, and on several occasions headed the list of winning trainers. A notably successful season for O'Brien, rivalling that of 1977, was 1966, when he trained the winners of the Oaks, the 1000 Guineas, the Eclipse Stakes, and the Champion Stakes. He retired in 1994.