‘I do gym work from half four in the morning – there aren’t enough hours in any day and you have to stay well and healthy’

It is towards the end of our hour together, maybe even the final question, when Aidan O’Brien tells me what it takes to be, well, Aidan O’Brien.

“You have to be on it the whole time,” he stresses, while shimmying slightly in his armchair. “It’s not five or six days a week, it’s seven. It’s not 22 or 23 hours a day, it’s 24. If you think different, you’re only kidding yourself. There are too many variables, too many things changing, too much happening.

“There aren’t enough hours in any day, so what you have to do is try to get enough sleep that you can stay well and healthy to get the most out of your day, every day. You have to sleep to stay well. I get about six or seven hours of sleep, maybe eight, and I do gym work from half four in the morning. If I wake up, I get up at half four.”

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Published on 27 September 2025inThe Big Read

Last updated 18:59, 27 September 2025