The history of Aidanobrienfansite A.O.B.F.S

Small bit of Background about me 

Hi My name is Paul Rhodes I am the founder of AOBFS

Basically i am a half Irish half English Man based in Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland on saying that around 90% of my family are Irish & Live in Ireland and most of the Hayde Clan (My Mums Family) Live in Rosegreen Cashal Co Tipperary and if like me your a a fan of The O'Brien's & Coolmore you will recognize the name Rosegreen straight away as it is the location of the World Famous Ballydoyle Stables established by the Legendary Vincent O'Brien in the early 50's. And a quick drive down the road to Fetherd will take you to the world Famous Coolmore Stud.

So Got the bug for racing at a very early age Really though it was not until i moved back to Ireland from London in 2002 that my passion grew for racing it really is like a religion over here and it did not take long for a small hobby/pastime to turn into an outright obsession. At the time it was a golden age for Ballydoyle Galileo had won the Derby the previous year and Hawk Wing & High Chaparral were about to battle it out in the Derby. By 2006 i had become a huge fan of Aidan's & Coolmore's. In 2008 i got the huge privilege to take a tour around Ballydoyle and undoubtedly the highlight was spending a bit of time with my all time Favorite YEATS i was just completely awestruck it was just a few weeks after his 3rd gold cup win an amazing day something i will never forget. By the time Yeats completed his 4th gold cup i was completely hooked and following Aidan & Coolmore was like a supporting a football team for me.

 

 

The Begining

In 2010 Aidan discontinued his website aidanobrien.com which was a great site had regular updates and bits and pieces on the horses & a few pictures for followers it was disappointing to loose this site.

The Coolmore site is an excellent site (& still is) but everything points to the breeding side of things Stallions Rosters etc.. There was very little information for fanatics like me very little about on track achievements and future plans of the horses.

I have a long background in computers i worked for Bluebird Software in the early 90s So i thought ok there is a hole that needs plugging so i will have ago i signed up to Yola and started to design a New Website it was basic and i mean basic but i was up and running Aidanobrienfansite was born.

I literally only updated the site once every 2 or 3 weeks pictures of successes on the track when i think back it was incredibly basic and i really put little effort in but i noticed that i was starting to get a few regular visitors.

By the end of the 2010 season i think i had about 300 Visitors then i got an email form one of my visitors (Ian from York hi mate).

Well lets put it this way Ian told me how great the site was BUT if i put more time and effort in it could become something special basically Ian gave me the kick up the backside i needed. 

So there and then i committed to make the website the best it could possibly be.

By the end of the following season (2011) i had built up a respectable amount of regular visitors that would re visit the site every now and then to get updates.

During 2011 i started making videos for the site which were quite popular

& Started to create my own posters for the site

In 2012 i started to get a decent following and started a twitter feed for the website

& had a link to my Facebook Profile things were starting to take off with the site.

A Stella Year

2013 to be quite frank has been unbelievable this is the year that AOBFS firmly established itself we hit some really big milestones during the year too.

60,000 Unique Visitors 100,000 Video Views 700 + Twitter Followers just to mention a few.

We also got a plug from Boycie on AtTheRaces on Epsom Derby Day undoubtedly gave us a huge boost in traffic to the site.

The Future

In 2014 I am fully committed to try and make the site even better I am hugely appreciative of all our visitors and especially returning visitors i have plenty of ideas for new content or if you can think of something you would like to be added click on the contact us icon on the home page always happy to hear any suggestions,

Thanks for reading Health and Happiness in 2014 & some G1 wins PLEASE 

Paul (AOBFS)