It’s taken two years, and a return to square one after a mixed stint with the world’s largest racing empire, but there’s a horseman rebuilding into a familiar force in the Sydney training ranks.
John O’Shea is back.
After time bolstering his stable, the 50-year-old has started 2020 in scintillating style, with a 30 per cent strike rate from 16 wins - which ranks him 14th in that time, nationwide.
And, back in the environment he loves after three years of training for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin juggernaut, and supported by the meticulous Champion Thoroughbreds syndication team, O’Shea looks set for another upward drift on the Sydney trainers’ premiership.
John O'Shea during his time working for the Godolphin operation
That would mark a return to successes like his four-straight top-five Sydney premiership finishes before joining Godolphin; and earlier, when the deeds of Private Steer (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), Racing To Win (Encosta De Lago), Charge Forward (Red Ransom {USA}) and others heralded their conditioner’s abilities.
Born and raised in Mareeba, Queensland, O’Shea came from a “passionate” racing family and knew his calling from an early age.
“There were owners, bookmakers, etcetera in my family,” O’Shea tells TDN AusNZ. “My dad Bernie was a bookie then, and racing was always front and centre.”
"Racing was always front and centre.” - John O'Shea
O’Shea began training in Cairns in his early 20s, living by his wits and natural gifts on the far north Queensland circuit.
Early career
“There were no superstars,” the straight-talking O’Shea recalls. “You’d get ‘em ready, have a bet. If they won it was good, but if they didn’t, you wouldn’t get paid, so you needed a bit of luck.”
In 1995, the 25-year-old cold-called Gai Waterhouse asking for a job, and got one.
“It was hard to get strappers. I think they were giving anyone a job, to be fair,” O’Shea recalls with a smile. He was serious about his work, however. Before long he was one of Waterhouse’s foremen.
After two cherished learning years at fitness-frenzied Tulloch Lodge, O’Shea had six months with “meticulous” Bart Cummings, before 18 months with another Randwick trainer in Gary Moore. In 2000, he struck out on his own, to Warwick Farm, with five horses.
Within a year he celebrated G2 Villiers S. success, with the gelding Grey And Gold (Danehill {USA}). And after moving to Randwick, O’Shea became a Group 1 trainer when Shot Of Thunder (Thunder Gulch {USA}) took the 2002 Toorak H. at Caulfield. For the matter-of-fact Queenslander, it seemed all too simple.
“I went to the races thinking I could win my first Group 1, and it won,” he says. “It was pretty uncomplicated really. A few of my mates from up north, I told them to come down. They came down, we got the choccies, they got on a plane and went home. You wish it was always so straightforward!”
“I went to the races thinking I could win my first Group 1, and it won." - John O'Shea
Of course it wasn’t quite, but still the highs came with a comforting frequency. He claimed 18 Group 1s, five to Racing To Win and three to his fellow Doncaster victor Private Steer.
That heady era ended when Godolphin came knocking, seeking a trainer at their Warwick Farm base. O’Shea saw opportunity, but didn’t quite leap at it. That was, in fact, redolent of a “pros-and-cons” atmosphere that would mark his three years there.
“To be honest, my wife Isabelle never wanted to go,” he says. “We’d worked so hard, built a really good business, 150 horses, a great lifestyle. Was that going to be compromised by starting again?”
Success is a double-edged sword
As is the Godolphin way, success soon came. From 2014 to 2017 O’Shea trained 10 Group 1 winners for “the Blue”. He came into contact with Hartnell GB) (Authorized {Ire}) – “an absolute dude of a horse who was ready to go to war for you”. Immense resources lay at his fingertips. He finished second three years straight behind Chris Waller on the Sydney premiership.
“I loved every minute of it. I loved working for the boss (Sheikh Mohammed), the job, the people around me,” he starts off by saying.
Then comes closer reflection.
Jarringly, he had to share decision-making with other cogs in the Godolphin empire, and work with people he didn’t appoint, though he had brought a few with him.
Most of all, an operation so huge can bring a double-edged sword. There’s success, but that’s the expected routine.
“It’s hard not to succeed, but it was a bit of a hiding to nothing,” he says.
It’s Somewhat (USA) (Dynaformer {USA}) gave O’Shea another Doncaster in 2017. It was a turning point, but not one you’d expect.
“I’d won Doncasters before and the euphoria was unbelievable. You walk around on Cloud 9 for a couple of weeks,” he says.
“I said to my wife that night, it didn’t feel like it should feel. It was no one’s fault, but that was just the impact the job was having on me. Success was expected as the norm, whereas conversely, when you weren’t having a good run, there was a fair bit of criticism.”
"Success was expected as the norm, whereas conversely, when you weren’t having a good run, there was a fair bit of criticism.” - John O'Shea
O’Shea then landed in hot water after the stable (managing director Henry Plumptre later accepted the blame) failed to report a strangles case in the gelding Polemic (Street Cry {Ire}). By the time a $30,000 fine was imposed on the trainer, he was gone, three years into a five-year contract, with James Cummings taking over.
O’Shea took up the Randwick stables of Anthony Cummings, who moved into those vacated by his son James. But other than getting several members of his old “band” of staff back together, he had little in place for his return to public training with around a dozen gallopers.
Starting again
“I took the stables over in August. In terms of yearlings, it’s the wrong time of year,” he says. “I mucked around with some old tried horses for the first couple of months before the yearling sales came along in January (2018). We’ve ended up with some nice horses, but it takes time.”
James Cummings has eclipsed O’Shea’s 10 Godolphin Group 1s with 16, three months short of matching his predecessor’s three years with the Blue, however O’Shea says he doesn’t read social media or pay mind to comparisons. He prefers to look ahead, to what might come from his current 50-horse team (it was 75 at his pre-Godolphin peak).
Some “lovely young horses” are emerging from his post-Godolphin sales forays, chiefly Golden Slipper aspirant Tommy Gold (Sacred Falls {NZ}) and 3-year-old gelding Opacity (Ocean Park {NZ}), who’s won two from three at the provincials.
“It’s great. It feels very good,” O’Shea says. “I love what I do – training horses – and I love the people I’m working with.”
Jason Abrahams, John O'Shea and Emma Guymer are the Champion Thoroughbreds team
One is long-term friend Jason Abrahams from Champion Thoroughbreds, which currently has 20 horses with O’Shea, who, after years of multiple stables, is their sole trainer.
“John’s a very good trainer across the board, and has a good knowledge not only of horses but breeding,” says Abrahams of O’Shea, who dabbles in breeding himself with a band of around eight broodmares, and some stallion shares.
“John’s a very good trainer across the board, and has a good knowledge not only of horses but breeding." - Jason Abrahams
“From a training point of view, John’s very consistent. He can pick a horse from a yearling stage, knows how to train them, and if he tells you to move them on they don’t come out and win Group 1s for someone else.
“He’s got a good understanding of what they require, where they’re going to get to. You can have a lot of confidence in the information that comes from John.”
Under O’Shea and Abrahams’ expert eyes, Champion operates within careful budgets, $150,000 is their typical yearling maximum. Standouts to race in Champion silks have included 2010 Rosehill Guineas winner Zabrasive (Zabeel {NZ}), million-dollar winner Target In Sight (Nadeem) and consistent smart horses Liteinthenite (Galileo {Ire}) and Kuro (NZ) (Denman).
It’s still early days for the post-Godolphin O’Shea. But amid this, the end of his new beginning, he’s looking forward to turning back the clock, to reaping rewards back in this trainer’s comfort zone.
