Sheik-up at Godolphin
O’Shea walks away from role CR
AN “exhausted” John O’Shea will take six months away from racing after his surprise split with Godolphin just three years after taking on the role as their Australian trainer.
The Mareeba-bred O’Shea is looking to spend more time with his family, including his four children, after parting ways with the world famous racing giant in the past few days.
The former North Queensland trainer was not on course on Saturday to watch his runners at Hawkesbury with rumours swirling the trainer had split with the stable.
O’Shea’s father, Mareeba’s Bernie O’Shea, said he was proud of his son, who has trained 168 winners during the 2016-17 season with stable record prizemoney of $15.6 million, but said he was keen to take a break.
“A great deal of this is related to exhaustion,” Bernie said.
“He is a father of four children and looking after 400 horses, with 250 in work, and with yearlings and spelling horses, it is an enormous task.
“Working 85-100 hours a week does take its toll.
“Having said that, the exhaustion is not the only thing that has caused this and that is currently tied up in legalities which will be worked out this week. In one way there is a sense of regret he is leaving and another sense of exhilaration for him to have some time to spend with his family.”
O’Shea took over the international racing network of Sheik Mohammed’s Godolphin empire in 2014 when Peter Snowden stepped down.
O’Shea has trained more than 500 winners for Godolphin’s world famous royal blue colours, including 10 Group 1 winners and total prizemoney of nearly $45 million.
Bernie said he expects his son to return to training.
“He has had some offers already with clients keen to train his horses,” Bernie said.
“That might become an option after he has a spell.
“He has never hidden from the hard work but this has taken its toll.
“It is an immense amount of work.
“He said he would try to have six months off. We will see how that works out.”
After completing high school in Mareeba, John went to the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba, graduating with a degree in journalism before learning his trade under legends of the game such as Gary Moore, Tommy Smith and Bart Cummings. 6&7 2&3 5, 6 & 7 4, 5, 6 & 7 ALL RACES ALL RACES 13 14
Emergencies: (in order) MY COUSIN RHETT SHANNONBROOK MISS 54 94 26.00 54 94 21.00 s036 LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER 54 94 26.00 5s68 DANZ THE MAN 54 94 26.00 PUSH THE SKY AWAY 1, Heroism 2, Thermal Unit 3, Bringit 4. 5 G Creighton Fertiliser Spreader 1106m 3.15 15 16 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 432s IMMORTAL MISS 2 s338 CREAM OF THE CROP 3 7s33 LICITRA 4 2122 MY LITTLE DIVA 5 650s FIGHTING BELLE 6 0618 LOWANNA LASS 7 0170 MADAM KATE 8 30s4 MISS ZODIAC 9 38s9 GOD I’M HOT 10 9137 RUBY TWO SHOES 11 0080 BITTY 12 607s ONE MORE TISHA 13 07s8 MORINGA’S TOOTSIE 14 0852 DEFROST 15 1489 0764 5s12 ALATORA 28s1 LEAP OF LEGEND 21s0 DEVLANN s00s DIGGLER 8971 RAMAWAY 887s AMULETO 9s1 COLLINS CREEK 317s TAN TAT NOVA 620s DAGGA BOY s90s SNIPETRON 4s46 PAT KASH 9689 BRANDY BALLOON 59 59 58.5 58.5 58.5 58 58 58 57.5 57.5 56.5 100 96 81 85 91 94 87 91 94 94 3.60 *2.60 26.00 17.00 8.00 — 8.00 13.00 17.00 10.00 13.00 54 89 26.00 19s2 MANSALE 54 91 34.00 ALATORA 1, Leap Of Legend 2, Pat Kash 3, Collins Creek 4. Solahart Grafton Handicap 1106m 3.55 7402 FABRY s215 HYDRAZINE s821 DANTGA 4231 STEVE’S SURPRISE s793 MY COUSIN BOSSY 460s CURLEY MAC 024s NOT WANTED 2519 HESCO GOLD 216s ZOMBIE QUEEN 5610 KNIGHT TEMPLAR s295 TYRANNIZE 2087 STRAWBERRYCHAMPANE 62 60 58.5 58.5 56.5 54.5 54.5 54 54 54 54 90 96 92 93 91 90 84 92 84 91 100 54 87 TYRANNIZE 1, Hydrazine 2, Dantga 3, Fabry 4. Inspirations Paint Grafton 1106m Emergency 61 59.5 59 57.5 56 56 56 56 55.5 55.5 54 54 54 54 6.00 13.00 *3.60 7.00 7.00 17.00 15.00 8.50 17.00 11.00 6.00 26.00 4.35 6.50
— 99 *4.00 95 6.50 100 7.50 94 10.00 94 8.50 100 13.00 96 17.00 99 13.00
— 17.00 31.00 15.00 92 92 94 94 089s MISS TRISTY 54 88 31.00 FIGHTING BELLE 1, Ruby Two Shoes 2, Miss Zodiac 3, Licitra 4.