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Post by SALFORD GIRL on Jul 7, 2023 21:59:09 GMT
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Post by SALFORD GIRL on Jul 7, 2023 22:00:13 GMT
O’SHEA QUITS TRAINING RANKS Joe O’Shea, who next week will receive the title of champion hunters’ chase trainer at Britain’s national awards dinner, says he has saddled his last runner.
Cheshire-based O’Shea (pictured above), who excelled at improving horses and converting them into multiple winners, won Aintree’s Foxhunters’ Chase two years ago with Cousin Pascal, a horse who is also among his four winners of Haydock’s Walrus Hunters’ Chase. In the season just ended O’Shea saddled five hunters’ chase winners, which gained him his first national championship, although that success has also played a part in his decision to quit.
Hannah Roach, 21, who has been working for O’Shea for seven years, will take on the responsibility of trainer at the yard.
O’Shea said: “I’ve had a good think about it and I’ve nothing left to prove. I’m an adventurer, I’ve won the hunters’ chase championship and Aintree’s Foxhunters’ Chase, and I can’t think of a better time to hand over the reins. Hannah Roach, who first came to the yard aged 14, will be the new trainer.
“I still like a bet, and I’m involved in two four-year-olds who will be running for Hannah later this year, but I know the time is right. Something’s been telling me. I’ve done alright over the years and I’ve got enough money to keep me until I die.
“I’m not sad because I never look back. When I finished riding I said that’s it, and it will be the same with training. I’ll be on the end of a phone if Hannah needs advice, but I won’t miss getting up at 5am in winter and being on the gallops at 5.30am. I’ve had my time and it’s been fantastic, but I’m 66 now. I’ve really enjoyed the sport in the last two years, and that’s been since winning the Aintree Foxhunters’. I always wanted to win that race, and with the pressure off I had a different outlook on the job. I’ve got great memories, and they can never take those away.”
An enigmatic character who spoke his mind, hired and fired riders and whose yard saw owners and their horses come and go, O’Shea trained 102 winners over 12 seasons. The total involved 82 point-to-point winners from 234 runners (35 per cent) and 20 hunters’ chase successes from 90 runners (22 per cent).
In his first season (2011/12) O’Shea saddled two horses and picked up just one win, but that was a victory for 22/1 shot Unowatimeen, ridden by Sam England, in the Walrus. If that was regarded as a lucky victory by an unknown trainer O’Shea made his presence felt at the start of the following season when saddling Promising Anshan (Gina Andrews) and Cottage Oak (Paddy Gerety) to win at Barbury Castle’s December meeting. He left the course that day having landed substantial bets.
Cottage Oak went on to win the 2013 Walrus and the following month finished third in Cheltenham’s Festival [then Foxhunters’] Chase, but that experience did not bond O’Shea to the Festival. He says: “I loved the evening meeting at Cheltenham, but not the Festival.”
His winners at Cheltenham’s evening hunters’ chase fixture included Lilbitluso (John Mathias) who won the 2016 intermediate final when it was sponsored by Connolly’s Red Mills, and that same horse went on to finish second in the following month’s pointtopoint.co.uk Champion Novices’ Hunters’ Chase at Stratford. The mare Executive Benefit won 12 races for the stable, while Cottage Oak won 11, raced until he was 14 and at the age of 20 is living out retirement at O’Shea’s stable.
O’Shea’s ability to convert a horse with modest form into something special was encapsulated by Road To Rome, who won a maiden race on the opening day of the 2018/19 season, quickly added restricted and intermediate race victories before landing four straight hunters’ chase successes including O’Shea’s third Walrus. He then ran a superb race to finish fourth behind Hazel Hill in Cheltenham’s Foxhunters’ Chase before finishing fifth at Aintree.
Road To Rome winning under Will Biddick in Graham Briscoe's colours at Ludlow in the 2018/19 season
Two years later a similar preparation saw Cousin Pascal win a restricted race in December, and five months later beat Latenightpass when landing Aintree’s Foxhunters’ Chase under James King.
Peter Clifton's Cousin Pascal, seen winning his first point-to-point, a restricted race at Chaddesley Corbett - within months he had won at Aintree
Retirement will not come easy after so many highs, but O’Shea says: “I’ve always enjoyed cruising, and now I’ll have more time to do that. I’ve been on cruise ships up the Nile, in the Caribbean and around Europe, and I’ve got another trip in mind. I’ll be back for the start of the new season, just to make sure things go smoothly when Hannah saddles her first runners.” |
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Post by SALFORD GIRL on Jul 7, 2023 22:11:11 GMT
All the very best for the future 'JJ'
From The Rowley's
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Post by GRUNDY on Jul 8, 2023 5:38:23 GMT
Enjoy your retirement JJ.
From a young kid in Salford you have not done bad in this world.
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