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Horse racing: O’Meara gets on fast track to success
EXPERT ADVICE: Legendary trainer Phillip Hobbs, from whom David 0Meara picked up many tips into training a winner.
As a jockey, David O’Meara took around a decade to notch 100 winners.
As a trainer he has bagged a near ton in 18 months as Yorkshire’s fastest growing yard continues to go from strength to strength.
O’Meara is now a regular in the racecourse winner’s enclosure be it on the level or over jumps and it beggars belief that his Nawton training operation is barely a year and a half old.
Indeed, Irishman O’Meara admits that proof of the progress is indicated by him almost matching his number of winning rides as a jockey in around a fraction of the time!
Since taking out his professional trainer’s licence on June 12, 2010, O’Meara has sent out 89 winners and with the likes of Blue Bajan and new recruit Penitent spearheading the forthcoming Flat campaign, the Yorkshire handler will not be long in breaking the maiden ton.
with a small team of jumpers keeping matters ticking over, O’Meara admits that life as a trainer is shaping up to be somewhat better than his still respectable career as a jockey.
“I rode a few winners as a jockey and I was lucky in that I rode some nice horses,” O’Meara told the YEP.
“I didn’t have huge numbers of winners and each season I would have maybe 19 or 20 under my belt but I rode horses like Mister McGoldrick, Truckers Tavern and Turgenev – all nice chasers.”
Comparing his achievements so far as a trainer with his record as a jockey, O’Meara said: “It took me about 10 or 12 years to ride 140 or 150 winners and we are a year and nine months into it and I’ve nearly had 100 winners as a trainer.
“Things are going pretty well at the moment, we have some nice jumpers and they have been going really well.
“I think we have had 12 jumps winners this winter so they have been going well since they came back after the break last season.
“We have some nice horses on the Flat to look forward to as well, but we don’t really set ourselves targets as such.
Quality
“It’s just all about improving on previous years and getting better quality and so on but to sit down and say ‘we want to train X amount of winners’ is a bit impractical.
“It’s really about getting the next winner and you are just focused on that.”
It’s a fair bet that the next winner will not be long in coming with O’Meara becoming an instant success since taking to the training ranks.
The Irishman – who was a professional in the saddle for 13 years – took over from James Hetherton at Arthington Barn Stables midway through 2010 after first arriving in the yard at the back end of 2009.
Since then the operation, purchased by Roger Fell in 2008, has really taken off.
“It has grown at a tremendous rate,” admitted O’Meara.
“I took out my licence on June 12, 2010 but I actually arrived in the yard on October 5, 2009.
“I had nine months going through the necessaries to get the licence. when I moved into the yard I think there were about a dozen horses and only a handful were any good.
“Since October 2009 it has grown to 75 horses and since I took out my licence as a trainer we have had 89 winners.
“Hopefully it won’t be long until we get the hundred.”
Asked what has been the secret to the Helmsley yard’s rapid growth, the Yorkshire handler replied: “I have worked for some really good people for a start.
“Sue and Harvey Smith, the Easterbys, Phillip Hobbs in Somerset and Michael Hourigan before I came over and there was Jim Bolger as well when I was a kid.
“I worked for some really successful yards.
“Roger Fell, who set up the yard, invested a lot of money into developing some top-class facilities and we have had some good owners who have had some good horses.
“The main thing is the owners and the horses that they have brought in.”
Whatever the secret, the yard is progressing fast and O’Meara’s life away from the racetrack is also gathering pace with wife Sarah expecting their first child in April.
The only irony is the date on which fitness instructor Sarah is due to give birth.
Excited
“She is having our first baby on April 14 – Grand National Day if you can believe it!” laughed O’Meara.
“We’ll see about the National but we are both very excited!”
O’Meara said that Blue Bajan and Penitent, a former winner of the Lincoln, are two of his biggest hopes for the year.
“I’m very much looking forward to Blue Bajan coming back on the Flat again,” said the trainer.
“We’ve also got Penitent who joined us this year – a former Lincoln winner – and Pepper Lane and we’ll see what he can do this year.
“Penitent will be staying on the Flat and he has entered for the Lincoln and might have a campaign on the Flat in France as well.
“Then we have a sort of variety of horses that are just bubbling underneath their class like Mont Ras, who won three out of four last year.
“We’ve a nice horse from Ireland called Anderiego and are looking forward to him running and there’s plenty of other promising horses – too many to go through.
“We’ve also got a nice bumper horse in Chancery who is exciting.”
Exciting times full stop at what is quickly becoming one of Yorkshire’s most successful yards.
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