“WE do all the science bits, but it’s hard to get away from what you see,” Aidan O’Brien stated on Monday at the press gathering ahead of a new flat season in Ballydoyle.

The eyes and ears have it. “I love to hear that sound,” he said, as the horses blow air noisily up the gallop.

But the science is fascinating too. Sights, sounds, horses breathing as they performed at the sharp end of a canter. We heard too of the science, most of the 64 horses in first lot wore heart monitors. Tom Curtis listens to what the heart beats say and what it tells him.

Forget your stride lengths, a heartbeat can indicate what distance the horse will stay. And you can tell a son or daughter of Galileo from the rest by their heartbeats. They stand out from the rest.

It’s a sound guess that this is what separates talent from the rest of us trying to just add two and two together. And it’s a sight that takes Aidan back to Ballydoyle every day after his runners perform at the track, and up at five o’clock every morning.

“I’d look forward to seeing the horses every single morning, and seeing every person on every horse. Every morning is different, tweaking things, changing things. I don’t have any other interests, not a single thing

“The only time I’m not here is if I’m at the races for a few hours but you need the time. You need every minute of the day.”

You’d think training horses was easy – keep them well and get them fit, gallop them up and down in a straight line. All you need is a long strip of grass. But last year’s string never worked on grass all year. It was too wet in the spring and then, when the weather changed, it was quickly too firm.

It brings your mind back to a quote after Royal Ascot where the stable failed to win a two-year-old race for the first time in many years. Aidan spoke then of the horses not having the hard edge they had in other years.

This, he thinks now, might have been one of the reasons they were more susceptible to the virus they picked up mid-summer.

Everyone knows their job in Ballydoyle. Even the tractor driver following the work rolls the indoor arena after the first lot have warmed up and gone to the gallops. These horses never work on less than perfect underfoot conditions.

You think it must have taken a lot of practice to get 64 horses to trot two abreast, nose-to-tail around the indoor arena but all behave impeccably, even with press intruders watching in the middle.

Aidan only makes one correction to the first lot work, everyone is connected by radio so a “gentle ... steady” command for the two-year-olds is carried out immediately.

Stallions matter too. Aidan is clad in Justify gear – the Triple Crown winner has a date with many of previous Aidan’s Group 1 winning fillies this season.

“Australia’s have great minds. They’re like Galileo,” Camelot’s are more clearly Montjeu’s sons. Sky Lantern’s colt Gentille Bellini is the only Dubawi on show so far but with a few more to come this season. How will his heartbeat rate?

A swift canter uphill for four furlongs, walk down and canter up again, as the roller compacts the woodchip again – the fillies follow the colts – “you wouldn’t want to be distracting the colts.”

Rising at five, bed at 9.30, keep him sharp and alert to miss nothing. “Twenty breaths and I’d be gone.”

If anything is missed, it’s processed and moved on. “When things go wrong and you do your best it’s never a problem, but if things go wrong and you didn’t do your best, that’s when it gets to you.

“Things don’t happen, they are always caused by a line of circumstances, we would think back and know how it happened and change those things and try not let it happen this year.”

There are times you think this is not a serious multi-million stallion-making business. Mistakes can cost six-figure sums.

But on a relaxed Monday morning you would think they don’t matter. Ryan Moore is “never afraid to be on the wrong one. That doesn’t bother him, he’d always be delighted to be getting beaten by the lads. He’s always wanting to steer the lads in the right way.”

Even Joseph emerging as a big rival is welcomed. “We’re always delighted to get beaten by Joseph – we do our best for it not to happen!”

Aidan at home is relaxed and forthcoming. Magna Grecia and Ten Sovereigns follow each other in their work. They look the part, that’s the first step, one by one the boxes are being ticked – now it’s all down to what happens on the track.

If you were a horse, this where you’d want to be trained. And, just like their trainer and the rest of us on Monday, you too would be reluctant to leave.