Four years in the making but in-form O’Shea is more than off and running
Randwick trainer’s stable stars step out in crucial spring barrier trials
When John O’Shea left the high-pressure role as Godolphin Australia’s head figure a little over four years ago and returned to life at Randwick as a public trainer the Queenslander could have felt the need to make an immediate impact on the racetrack, and the sales ring, in a bid to re-establish himself among Sydney’s leading stables.
Barring a few exceptions, O’Shea instead focused on sourcing horses which may not be up and running in the opening months of their two-year-old season but he deemed to be in a value price range for his clients.
Many of them were by under-the-radar stallions who cost under yearling sale averages but that patience and longer-term investment taken by O’Shea and his clients is starting to reap the rewards.
Yesterday’s Randwick barrier trial session showcased the growing depth of the stable overseen by O’Shea, whose presence in spring feature races seems assured.
None more so than Lost And Running (Per Incanto), a lightly raced gelding whose career has been carefully managed to date, who began his campaign towards October’s The Everest (1200m) with an eye-catching performance in heat two over 850 metres on the Randwick course proper.
A winner of six of his seven starts, the five-year-old defeated Marway (Hemingway) and Marboosha (Dream Ahead) by a neck after running his final 600 metres in 34.18 seconds.
Hugh Bowman rode the gelding who will represent slot holder Tabcorp in The Everest.
“The horse on his inside (Marway) is a well-performed galloper and there’s a Golden Slipper winner (Stay Inside), a good horse out of New Zealand (Sword Of State) in behind him which gives you a bit of a guide and they were chugging along all right,” O’Shea told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“He’s got a lot of improvement to come, so we are really happy with where he is at. We will probably trial him at Randwick on the tenth of September and we might run him a week later in The Shorts. We are happy enough to race him at home, that is the key for us.
“He doesn’t have to go anywhere – he just walks down the road to his favourite track.”
O’Shea believes Lost And Running, selected by the trainer for $40,000 at the 2018 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, has improved since he went to the paddock following his decisive Luskin Star (Listed, 1300m) win at Rosehill on May 15, his first victory at stakes level on his first attempt in the grade.
“I think he’s improved physically and he’s still learning his craft, so once he gets up to ten starts, he’s going to understand his craft a little bit more,” the trainer said.
“He’s had to get some miles into his legs as well and he did that in his last prep and hopefully we are going to reap the rewards of that patience this preparation.
“If there wasn’t an Everest on, he would probably have been a horse who would have been going along a Premiere Stakes path with a view to running down the straight at Flemington (in the Darley Sprint Classic).
“We are lucky now that we don’t have to leave our state to race in good races.”
O’Shea’s Randwick Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Lion’s Roar (Contributer) also made an appearance at the Randwick barrier trial session yesterday, his second public hit-out this campaign, finishing fifth behind J J Atkins Plate (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Converge (Frankel).
Despite carrying entries for the Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) and Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m), Lion’s Roar is likely to race exclusively in Sydney during the spring, according to his trainer.
“He is very big in condition and he has plenty of juice left in the tank. Today was a good day for him to blow out a few cobwebs and I think it will help him,” O’Shea said.
“From today onwards we will ask him to get a bit more involved. He looked like a genuine ten furlong horse there today. He will have a run in the Tramway (September 4) and the George Main (September 18) to start off and then we will worry about what direction we take with him after that.
“He would have to win something along the way to warrant (a Cox Plate). We can stay home here in Sydney. He can run in a Craven Plate, a Rosehill Stakes and that sort of thing for a bunch of money.
“We are not going to rush taking him out of the state. He is another horse who races very well at Randwick, so he can stay here at the moment.”
Sisters All Saints’ Eve (Sacred Falls) and All Hallows Eve, both of whom are raced by Waikato Stud and Rosemont Stud in partnership, also trialled for O’Shea yesterday on their way to a possible berth in the inaugural $2 million The Invitation (1400m) at Randwick on October 23.
Robodira (Husson), the three-year-old Ron Finemore-owned filly who was runner-up in the Magic Night Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) during the autumn, also had her second barrier trial this campaign in heat five over 1045 metres.
O’Shea said: “She trialled really well in a fast heat. Hugh (Bowman) was pretty happy with her actually, so we will get her started in a fortnight.
“She is one who will probably end up in Melbourne because she’s just below that top tier of fillies and there’s probably more options for her in Victoria.”
More immediate for O’Shea is today’s comeback of Lillemor (Hallowed Crown) in Toy Show (Gr 3, 1100m) at Randwick but the well-conceived plan to have the last-start Gai Waterhouse Classic (Listed, 1200m) winner has hit a hurdle.
He said: “We thought we were going to get her ready early and go around in a nice, easy 1100-metre Group 3 with a little bit of jar out of the track and we’ve come across a race that is an absolute belter and it hasn’t rained for about two months here in Sydney, so it hasn’t quite worked out as we’d hoped.”
‘I always had an intention to go along steadily’
Meanwhile, O’Shea, who won Thursday’s Rowley Mile (Listed, 1600m) with European import (Dark Angel), said the slow rebuild of his stable post-Godolphin was a deliberate approach rather than attempting to hit the jackpot straight away.
“I just always had an intention to go along steadily and look after them and hopefully get to this scenario where we’ve got three, four, five-year-olds who are nice horses running in good races and that’s where we are at the moment,” he said.
“We try not to buy at the top end, so consequently, we’ve bought Contributers, Per Incantos and whatever else and they’ve been a bit of fun for us.
“I enjoy buying that horse in the $60,000 to $150,000 bracket who can get a return for their owners and we’ve got a couple there at the moment who seem to be doing it.”
O’Shea has been mindful of not getting caught up in the hype which can often shape a yearling sale in his search for perceived value.
“When you go to a sale, there’s usually a lot of ‘fashion’ and people jump on the bandwagon,” he said.
“They all want to buy Vinnies (I Am Invincibles) or whatever, but there’s usually a bit of statistical data there to provide you with a slight edge that is not necessarily what the market’s telling you.
“A horse like Per Incanto is the perfect example. He has been punching out really good stats for a while now and I know Carl Holt, who owns Lost And Running, has always been a big fan of his and you’d have to say (he’s right) now that he’s the champion stallion in Hong Kong.
“He’s a darn good stallion and he had stats for a long time that were saying he was doing a better job than what the market was giving him credit for.”