No other trainer ever came close to matching his achievements as a master of both National Hunt and Flat racing codes in a career which stretched from 1943-94.
During those 51 years he won three successive Grand Nationals, plus a trio of Cheltenham Gold Cups and Champion Hurdles before switching to the Flat.
His stars on the level included the likes of Nijinsky, Sir Ivor, Alleged and Sadler's Wells as he built up the Coolmore Stud into one of the most important stallion centres in the world.
Newmarket trainer John Gosden, who worked for O'Brien from 1976-1977, said: "We don't use the word lightly when we say he is one of the legends of racing.
"Grand Nationals, Cheltenham Gold Cups, Champion Hurdles, the Derby, the Guineas, he did it all.
"I was lucky enough to be his assistant during a golden era. He opened up the world of international racing as well as bloodstock, through the 35 years of the Northern Dancer line. We will see the fruits of his labour in the Derby on Saturday."
The current incumbent of Ballydoyle is Aidan O'Brien (no relation), himself setting remarkable training feats and responsible for six of the 13 runners left in Saturday's Investec Derby at Epsom.
He said: "It is with great sadness that I learned of the passing of Dr Vincent O'Brien today.
"As for so many people in racing, he was my hero growing up. For Anne Marie (wife) and me to come to Ballydoyle, to the training facility he established, was an extraordinary privilege.
"Dr O'Brien was tireless in improving the yards and gallops and we enjoy the benefits of his half-century of hard work and dedication today.
"We would never have been able to achieve our successes without the facility and gallops he built.
"There is nothing that compares to it anywhere in the world.
"I feel the sense of history every morning when I walk into the yard that had horses such as Nijinsky, Sir Ivor to Sadler's Wells. Tweet
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