Joseph O'Brien's string will be split 50-50 between flat horses and jumpers when he starts his training career hopefully in a couple of months' time.

O'Brien, twice champion Flat jockey, has quit the saddle to concentrate on his new role.

The 22-year-old has been playing a key role in helping his father, trainer Aidan O'Brien, with a large string of horses recently, including JCB Triumph Hurdle favourite Ivanovich Gorbatov, from a base at Piltown, Co Kilkenny, where the great Istabraq's triumphs were originally masterminded.

He said: "My grandad trained from here and both my mum and dad trained from here. The last couple of years we'd had horses back here and it's gone on from there.

"I'll just take things as they come and do my best with every horse that comes in and go from there. I'll just do my best with all the horses and see what happens after that. Hopefully I'll have the licence for May. That's the plan at the moment.

"We're pretty much 50-50 jumpers and Flat horses. We've got a nice bunch of two-year-olds and some National Hunt horses. Hopefully we can get a few winners when the season gets going."

Tall for a Flat jockey, O'Brien was always likely to find his battle with the scales proving too much.

"Starting off, I never thought I would be able to ride for an awful long time. I was very lucky to ride some very good horses. I was in the right place at the right time," he said.

Of his many big-race triumphs, O'Brien rates the Epsom Derby, which he won twice on Camelot (2012) and Australia (2014), and the Breeders' Cup Turf on St Nicholas Abbey in 2011 as career highlights.

He told At The Races: "I just started off wanting to ride a few winners and things kind of went from there. You don't ride big winners if you don't ride good horses, so I was very lucky.

"Riding the winner of the Derby is something else. It's the history the race has and everything about it - the day and the build-up to it. It's very hard to equal the Derby.

"The Breeders' Cup is a huge stage and to ride there was unbelievable and to win there was something you wouldn't even dream about happening.

"I would have carried on riding over jumps but things on this side have happened a little bit quicker than maybe what I was expecting and it's very hard to do one thing right, let alone try to do two things. It makes a lot more sense to concentrate on one thing.

"Training horses is different to riding, but it's the same kind of kick when things come right. There's a lot more goes into it."

OUTSTANDING CAREER

Joseph O'Brien can be proud of an outstanding riding career as he prepares to follow in the illustrious footsteps of his parents as a trainer.

Having ridden his first winner for his father, Aidan, at the age of just 16, O'Brien went on to share the Irish champion apprentice title and twice be crowned champion Irish Flat jockey.

In taking his second senior championship in 2013, he broke Mick Kinane's long-standing record for the number of winners ridden in an Irish season, ending on a new record total of 126 wins.

No other jockey has ever achieved so much by the age of just 22, but constant battles with the scales meant that his career as a Flat jockey was never going to last as long as he may have wished and so a career as a full-time trainer beckons.

O'Brien's Group One wins spanned six countries and included the Derby, St Leger, 2000 Guineas, Irish Derby, three consecutive Irish 2,000 Guineas, a Breeders' Cup Turf, a Grand Prix de Paris and a Dubai Sheema Classic.

His came agonisingly close to winning the $5million Breeders' Cup Classic on Declaration of War at Santa Anita in November 2013, finishing third, beaten a nose and a head.

O'Brien has applied for his licence with the Irish Turf Club, thereby taking the first steps towards a new career as a trainer at Carriganog, Piltown, Co. Kilkenny.

O'Brien senior credited Joseph on a number of occasions as having had a significant input into the training regime and consequent success achieved by horses of the calibre of So You Think, winner of five Group One races in O'Brien's care, and six-time Group One winner St Nicholas Abbey.

It was from Carriganog in Piltown that Joseph's maternal grandfather Joe Crowley trained. His mother, Anne-Marie, went on to become champion Irish National Hunt trainer from the same yard, as did Aidan, prior to their move to Ballydoyle.

O'Brien's aunt Frances (Smullen, nee Crowley), took over the licence and proceeded to train 42 winners from Carriganog in her very first season.

O'Brien has already been in the headlines in looking after his father's jumps string, and has JCB Triumph Hurdle favourite Ivanovich Gorbatov to look forward to at Cheltenham next week.

It will be a surprise if he is anything other than a resounding success in his new career path - one that could eventually see him taking over from his record-breaking father at Ballydoyle.

READ AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH JOSEPH O'BRIEN IN THE IRISH FIELD THIS WEEKEND