Nobody should begrudge Aidan O’Brien, Joseph O’Brien or Donnacha O’Brien their success. They are outstanding trainers and owners are perfectly entitled to send their horses wherever they believe they will prosper.
But on day two of the Irish Champions Festival at the Curragh, the O’Briens won six consecutive races between them. As a racing fan, I found that troubling.
There comes a point where racing has to distinguish between celebrating excellence and protecting competition.
Tony Keenan highlighted an extraordinary statistic in The Irish Field last week: Aidan, Joseph and Donnacha O’Brien had supplied 44.1% of all runners in Irish Group races in 2026 at the time of writing. In each of the previous six years their combined share had been between 34.4% and 37.4%.
Almost half the runners at the highest level of Irish Flat racing coming from one family should at least provoke a discussion.
Joseph O’Brien’s operation illustrates the scale now possible. O’Brien himself said in December 2025 that there were “over 200 horses on site, training all the time.” Rumours within racing mention considerably greater numbers when horses in pre-training, recovery and associated operations are included.
That is an extraordinary business achievement. But should Irish racing ask whether there should ultimately be a limit on how many horses can be returned in training under a single trainer’s licence?
We already accept that principle at the other end of the scale. An IHRB restricted trainer is limited to four horses per code. There is therefore nothing unprecedented about linking a trainer’s licence to the number of horses he or she may train.
Fewer trainers, bigger yards
An economic report using HRI figures recorded 784 licensed trainers in Ireland in 2008. At the end of 2025, the IHRB recorded 392 full trainers, 208 restricted trainers and 17 hunter-chase licence holders. The categories are not directly comparable, but the long-term movement towards fewer, larger professional operations deserves attention.
The economics are self-reinforcing. Bigger yards attract more good horses. More good horses produce more winners and prize money. That attracts more owners and allows greater investment in staff, facilities, veterinary expertise and technology — which attracts still more good horses.
There is nothing improper about that. It is simply what concentration looks like.
But which is healthier for Irish racing: one yard with 400 horses, or eight yards with 50?
When smaller trainers disappear, racing loses more than businesses. It loses characters, local rivalries and local access to the sport for aspiring jockeys and others. It becomes harder for an ordinary owner to have a meaningful involvement with a local trainer.
It is the racing equivalent of replacing the local corner shops with a few super-sized Tescos. The operation may be extremely efficient, but something important disappears with the competition.
We have been here before
HRI recognised the problem.
And then it chickened out.
In 2024 it proposed 60 National Hunt races restricted to trainers who had trained fewer than 50 Irish jumps winners in either of the previous two seasons. Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Henry de Bromhead and Gavin Cromwell would have been excluded.
The reaction was revealing. Noel Meade and Ted Walsh publicly opposed the proposal and the four affected trainers were reported to be considering legal action against HRI.
The proposal was eventually shelved.
An alternative subsequently emerged through the IRTA and the William Hill Challenge Series. Everyone could compete for the normal prize money, but the biggest trainers could not qualify for the bonus element. The series ultimately distributed €135,000 in bonuses and delivered significant payments to smaller trainers.
That tells us three things: racing recognises concentration is a problem; measures to address it can work; and HRI appears reluctant to pursue measures once serious resistance comes from the major yards.
Who should act?
Responsibility rests principally with HRI and the IHRB, although their roles are different.
HRI controls much of the architecture of racing: fixtures, race programmes and prize money. It also receives very substantial State support. Of the €99.1 million allocated to the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund for 2026, €79.3 million goes to HRI.
That matters.
One of the traditional political arguments for supporting Irish racing is its contribution to employment and economic activity throughout rural Ireland. If racing becomes progressively concentrated in a handful of enormous operations, that argument becomes less convincing.
The IHRB, meanwhile, licenses trainers and makes and enforces the Rules of Racing. Any proposal to put an upper limit on the number of horses permitted under one licence would therefore inevitably involve the regulator.
The Irish Racehorse Trainers Association (IRTA) also needs to be part of the debate, but representation matters. Its committee includes trainers operating at very different levels, including some of the country’s largest operations (you can view the committee here https://irta.ie/irta-today-2/ ). Where policies concerning concentration are being considered, smaller and middle-ranking trainers must have a strong and independent voice.
What could actually be done?
- Introduce a cap on horses in training. HRI and the IHRB should examine a maximum number of active horses permitted under one trainer’s licence. Any limit would need a sensible transition period and anti-avoidance rules.
- Expand races for smaller trainers. The failure of the 50-winner proposal should not mean abandoning the idea. More races could include eligibility criteria designed to create opportunities for small and middle-ranking yards.
- Use bonus schemes. Where excluding major trainers creates legal difficulties, allow everyone to run but reserve substantial additional bonuses for qualifying yards.
- Limit multiple runners in selected races. Particularly where races are oversubscribed, should one trainer be allowed four or five runners while horses from other yards are eliminated?
- Publish a concentration index. HRI should report annually the percentage of horses in training, runners, winners and prize money accounted for by the largest five, ten and twenty trainers.
- Protect the middle tier. Racing needs more than a collection of tiny trainers and a handful of super-yards. It needs trainers capable of progressing from 20 horses to 40, from 40 to 80 and eventually becoming genuine competitors to the established giants.
None of this means punishing success.
America is regarded as the home of the free market, yet it has a long history of intervening when economic power became excessively concentrated. Standard Oil was broken up and, decades later, the Bell telephone system was divided.
The principle is simple: sometimes competition has to be actively protected rather than hoping the free market will deliver an optimum outcome.
And Irish racing is not a completely free market. It is a publicly supported and heavily regulated industry. Its authorities determine fixtures, race conditions, prize money, eligibility and who is entitled to hold a trainer’s licence.
If racing is prepared to tell one trainer that he may train no more than four horses, it is hardly unreasonable to ask whether there should also be an upper limit when individual operations run into the hundreds.
The objective should not be to make great trainers less successful.
It should be to ensure that, in twenty years’ time, there are still enough other trainers left to compete with them.