O’shea puts troubles behind him to focus on Slipper

RANDWICK trainer John O’shea saddles up three Golden Slipper runners today, only weeks after his career was threatened by a drawn out legal case.

Since the judgment against him of more than A$500,000, O’shea has remained on task.

However, there is still the cloud of the huge payout to a former owner.

“I really don’t want about it,” O’shea said.

“We are still working some things out with it, but it has been four years and it’s over.

“There was a lot of negative energy that went into it and that just drains you. I’m still going to be around and I’m not going to let it beat me.

“I have worked too hard to get

to

talk to where I am and I have a Golden Slipper to win.”

O’shea and his team have been able to bank a Group I with stallion prospect Foxwedge and win a plethora of other races, but today is the big league.

The pot of gold at the end of the 1200m juvenile dash around Rosehill for Ashokan, Faustus and Shelford is not just the prizemon- ey or trophy but a future stud deal, worth tens of millions.

It is something O’shea and his owners know well. Foxwedge, who was seventh in last year’s Slipper, is set to become the second stallion that has passed through O’shea’s hands, after Charge Forward.

O’shea’s growing reputation has attracted some big clients and for two successive Golden Slippers he will have been represented by the most expensive yearling buy in the race.

Both colts are owned by Dr Edmund Bateman, firstly Foxwedge, a A$925,000 buy, followed by James Mcdonald’s mount Ashokan, who sold for A$810,000 at Easter last year.

“The Doc is great to train for because he gives me quality horses to work with,” O’shea said.

“We thought we had the right horse [Foxwedge] last year and things didn’t work out, but Ashokan is the sort of horse you want going into a big race.

“He has really developed in the past month and goes into the race on the up – we don’t know what his best can be.”