THE horse that put Joseph O’Brien on the map as a trainer is back home in Ireland.
Rekindling won the Melbourne Cup in 2017 in just O’Brien’s second season with a licence.
The horse beat the Aidan O’Brien-trained Johannes Vermeer to provide an O’Brien family one-two in the ‘race that stops a nation’.
After the victory, Rekindling only had one run for trainer Liam Howley before retiring, with owner Lloyd Williams intending to stand him at stud in Europe.
However, he is now back in training, with County Kilkenny-based O’Brien readying the six-year-old for a low-key reintroduction.
He said: “He was very, very good to us a couple of years ago. I suppose it’s fairly obvious things haven’t gone smoothly for him since then, but it’s great to have him back in the yard.
“We’ll aim nice and low and then gradually move our way up into some better targets as the year progresses.
“We’re just excited to get him started first of all and then we can go from there.”
He added: “I suppose you could say on his three-year-old form there’s a big chance he could turn into that type of (Cup) horse, but obviously there has been plenty of water under the bridge between now and when he won the Melbourne Cup.
“We’ll get a bit of confidence on the board first of all and take it race by race from there, see what Lloyd would like to have a crack at with him. The most important thing will be to get him back on track and try to get him some confidence.”
