Tag Archive for: Dane O’Neill

Monday Musings: Emollient

At any time over the past 20-odd years you would never have believed it possible, writes Tony Stafford. But when Tower Of London came with a breathtaking run from the back under Ryan Moore to win the Dubai Gold Cup, there was a beaming Michael Tabor on hand to welcome the Aidan O’Brien-trained colt into the winner’s enclosure.

Back home in the UK, I needed a second take as Nick Luck came across to interview him. “Congratulations”, said Luck. “Thank you, it’s my first time here”, replied Tabor.

“Your first time at Meydan?”, continued the interviewer. “Not just at Meydan, my first time ever in Dubai. It’s fantastic, not just the racecourse, the whole of Dubai!”

Whether Michael would have been quite as amiable following a third career bomb from Auguste Rodin in the £2.7milion to the winner Sheema Classic just over three hours later is immaterial. He said it and if the £400-odd grand victory for Tower Of London was chicken-feed in relation to the riches on offer later on, it still made the journey a success for Tabor and a number of elated fellow travellers celebrating the victory in the unsaddling enclosure afterwards.

For those two decades at the start of the millennium, Coolmore, especially Michael Tabor, had been sworn racecourse adversaries of the men from Dubai, largely in the person of Sheikh Mohammed Al Rashid bin Maktoum, Ruler of that Emirate.

Their mild-mannered if ultra-competitive trainer Aidan O’Brien would never have viewed the rivalry with anything like the fierceness of his owner, but I think we should applaud one man for the emollient qualities that made Saturday’s moment possible.

Step forward Charlie Appleby, the always-amiable Devonian who took over the training of half of Godolphin’s UK team. This occurred as a result of the misdeeds of Mahmood al Zarooni and his proven use of illicit means to propel his already formidable horses even further forward. Saeed bin Suroor was, and remains, supervising the other gradually shrinking portion.

One of the horses found to have been doped – but not at the time of his biggest success – was the 2012 St Leger winner Encke. It was in the spring of the following year that the eight-year punishment was handed down to the Dubai national. Ban served, he started to train again domestically with a much smaller team.

Appleby was al Zarooni’s assistant at the time of Encke’s St Leger and the biggest effect of that victory was that it denied Camelot, winner of that year’s 2000 Guineas and Derby, of what would have been the first Triple Crown in the UK since Vincent O’Brien and Nijinsky in 1970.

Al Zarooni’s ban came following a BHA inspection the following year after the St Leger found 11 horses testing positive to the presence of anabolic steroids in their systems. The steroids, he said, were brought back in his suitcase from the UAE, adding he “didn’t know they were prohibited”.

By the time of the ban, al Zarooni had won three races, two at the 2013 Craven meeting and another in the same week at Wolverhampton. Appleby took over soon after and sent out 80 winners that season. After almost two years off the track after his Classic success, Encke, still an entire, had three placed runs under the Appleby banner before disappearing without a trace.

The Appleby-Coolmore thawing of relations began with the mutual respect that Charlie and Aidan O’Brien invariably showed each other for their respective successes in major races. Also, Appleby’s and Ryan Moore’s children know each other very well. Charlie had no qualms about regularly congratulating Aidan and the owners, most often Michael Tabor, for their successes and Aidan responded in kind. Images of their mutual celebrations at Santa Anita and the like are still fresh in the memory.

Last year, there was the usual triumphal season for Coolmore and Aidan with yet another Derby, and other achievements, for Auguste Rodin. Contrastingly, it was the first time for a while that Appleby’s Classic generation had been below par. Last year’s two-year-olds will need to step up in the major races in 2024.

It didn’t take long though for Appleby to enjoy himself on his own terms. Despite struggling with periodic absences through his career, the Dubawi gelding Rebel’s Romance had proved himself a high-class performer, making the Breeders’ Cup Turf race in October 2022, his ninth win in only 12 starts.

After three disappointing performances last year he got back on track in a Listed race at Kempton in December and even though he followed up with a £1 million-plus pot in Doha last month he was allowed to start at 25/1. So now it’s 12 wins in 18, and £6.173m in prizemoney. Not bad!

While Auguste Rodin languished at the rear, reminiscent of his Guineas and King George meltdowns from last year, William Buick always had Rebel’s Romance in touch behind the front-running duo of Point Lonsdale, Auguste’s pacemaker, and the Japanese Stars On Earth. That Point Lonsdale, a 100/1 shot, could finish 6th, picking up almost £100k, shows just how far below expectations the favourite ran.

Hopefully, as last year, that first comeback run will be forgotten when he gets fully into stride. Nowadays it’s more a case of what a potential stallion has won rather the times he has lost that govern his marketability and, as a son of Deep Impact, there’ll always be room for him in Japan. They can afford him too!

Back in the Sheema Classic, Buick merely had to go past the front pair and wait for the expected late runners, but none came. Then a half-hour later, Charlie was just as delighted when the former Bob Baffert-trained Laurel River, now handled in Dubai by Bhupat Seemar made a mockery of the £10 million Dubai World Cup, never looking like relinquishing the long lead jockey Tadhg O’Shea initiated early in the ten-furlong dirt race.

The first prize of £5m should equate to about half a million quid for the rider who a decade or so ago regularly came to ride work for Brian Meehan at Manton, ostensibly in his job as he recalls it as number two (or more accurately surely three behind the late Hamdan Al Maktoum’s first jockey Paul Hanagan and recently retired Dane O’Neill). I always found Tadhg a friendly young man. It was a surprise at the time when he decided to go – like so many other fringe jockeys – to Dubai. He’s Beyond the Fringe now.

Laurel River was allowed to start at 17/2 amid a deluge of money for the Kazakhstan entry – sounds more like one of the heats of the Eurovision Song Contest – Kabirkhan, winner of 11 of his previous 12 starts.

A son of California Chrome, the 2014 Kentucky Derby and 2016 Dubai World Cup victor, Kabirkhan was a $12k buy from bargain basement Book 5 at Keeneland yearling sales in 2021. Sent to Kazakhstan where he went unbeaten at two, he was similarly never finding anything remotely to test him in his three-year-old season in Russia.

Now in the care of legendary locally based American handler Doug Watson and ridden by another of the long-term second-string jockeys Pat Dobbs, he was perfectly poised on the rail as Laurel River took off.

While Laurel River just went further and further away, the favourite faded and it was left to last year’s winner, the Japanese Ushba Tesoro, who came from miles behind to take second. Not quite the riches from 2023, but still worth nigh on £2 million for connections of the seven-year-old entire.

Frankie Dettori was back in ninth on Bob Baffert’s Newgate but, earlier, restored to the Godolphin blue, because amazingly he, unlike Buick, can ride at 8st5lb – given a few weeks’ notice, of course – he rode Appleby’s filly Star Of Mystery into second place behind six-year-old California Spangle, trained in Hong Kong by Tony Cruz, in the Al Quoz Sprint.

It wasn’t all gloom for Baffert. His colt Muth, by Good Magic (2nd Kentucky Derby) won the Arkansas Derby comfortably at Oaklawn Park. That race was worth £620k and Baffert used it successfully as the prep back in 2015 when his American Pharoah became the first US Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.

Justify in 2018 is the most recent of 13 horses to achieve that feat. He, like American Pharoah, is based at Ashford stud in Kentucky, Coolmore’s US base. Justify’s sons and daughters are already showing extraordinary ability, led of course by City Of Troy.

The winter 2000 Guineas favourite had his first look at a racecourse in 2024 at Leopardstown (re-scheduled from waterlogged Naas) a week ago. From the time he did what he did to his useful opponents in the Superlative Stakes at Newmarket last July, I’ve been convinced he’s the best two-year-old I’ve seen.

The Dewhurst win was just as emphatic, his all-the-way near four-length margin earning a 125 rating. Roll on May!

Talking of the Derby, there was a hark back to another time when an old-style “chalk jockey” won the race. Back in the height of Covid, the 2020 running was won by Serpentine, 25/1, ridden by the unknown, possibly even to his parents, Emmet McNamara, to the quietest ever reception for a Derby winner. I’m sure Bernard Kantor would have been quite bemused, consulting his race card as he supervised formalities after the race.

Serpentine, now a seven-year-old, won a 10-furlong Group 3 race at Rosehill, Australia, over the weekend. By Galileo, he was having his 18th race and first success since his Derby triumph, the last twelve following a gelding operation in March two years ago. He is now trained by close Coolmore friend Gai Waterhouse and joint licence-holder Adrian Bott.

  • TS


Try Tix for Better Tote Returns

Dane O’Neill calls time on career following injury battle

Dane O’Neill has announced his retirement having failed to recover sufficiently from injuries suffered in a fall at Wolverhampton in July.

O’Neill, 48, had his first rides in 1992 and enjoyed a long association with Richard Hannon senior, before taking the job as stable jockey for Henry Candy until in 2012 he landed the role of second jockey to Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum behind Paul Hanagan.

He remained in that position when Jim Crowley replaced Hanagan in 2016 and while it meant he was often on the second string in big races, he has ridden many of the great horses that sported the famous blue and white Shadwell colours.

O’Neill won the inaugural Commonwealth Cup on Muhaarar, the September Stakes on Mostahdaf and guided Baaeed to his first two victories.

In the fall, O’Neill broke seven ribs and fractured his T6 vertebra.

“I’ve given it a good go but unfortunately it is just not healing. There’s quite a significant gap between the vertebra and there was damage to the other vertebra as well,” said O’Neill.

“It’s filled in a little bit, but not enough and it is mainly filled with scar tissue, so it wouldn’t take another impact.

“But on a positive note, because I broke seven ribs as well, once I healed and it stabilised, I’ve never really suffered any pain and I’m leading a normal life, so I’ve got to be thankful for that.

“I got 32 years out of it, so while it isn’t the way I wanted to end it, it’s a good chunk of time. I was watching some old races back the other day and there’s only John Egan still going now.

“The writing has been on the wall, I’m 48 so I wasn’t going to get another 10 years or anything, but 32 years has been a fair chunk of my life, so I’m thankful.

“I only had three jobs in all that time. I started out with Richard Hannon and I still ride for young Richard now. Henry Candy then made me his stable jockey and he was the first person to congratulate me after I won the Commonwealth Cup on Muhaarar, which was nice – especially as he was second with Limato!

“Then I moved on to Sheikh Hamdan and Sheikha Hissa, who was kind enough to leave things as they were, even when they downsized the operation and they probably didn’t need a second jockey. I was pleased to ride her three Grade Ones in Dubai.”

Muhaarar and Dane O'Neill in the Commonwealth Cup
Muhaarar and Dane O’Neill in the Commonwealth Cup (Steve Parsons/PA)

O’Neill rode his fair share of speedsters throughout his long career, the aforementioned Muhaarar, Candy’s Airwave and out in Dubai Danyah. But one stands out above all.

“I rode Battaash before he got a bit more sensible, I had the early pleasures of him!” joked O’Neill of Charlie Hills’ headstrong sprinter.

“He was exceptionally fast. I rode some fast horses but he was freakishly fast. In the early days, it was just a case of hang on and set him off in the right direction. Don’t fall out with him and you’ll win. He was different.

“Winning the first Commonwealth Cup on Muhaarar came at a nice point in my career for Shadwell and that day he came of age, it was nice to give something back to Shadwell and repay that faith. Unfortunately, I didn’t get back on him!

“I rode Mostahdaf before he hit the heady heights he went on to achieve but another horse I didn’t have a long association with was when Mohaather won the Summer Mile for Marcus (Tregoning).

“He was very good. He was probably the best I rode because when I rode Baaeed he was at a different stage of his career. That day I rode Mohaather, he was exceptional.

“He’d run at Royal Ascot when things didn’t work out, which shows how much luck you need. I went to ride him work and after it I thought the hardest part for me was to make sure Jim’s plans didn’t change and he went to Ascot! I remember ringing Angus Gold (racing manager) and saying he was an aeroplane.”

O’Neill has nothing in the pipeline as yet but expects to stay in the industry.

He said: “I don’t know what I’ll do next but I got my money’s worth out of it. Racing is all I know, there’s not many routes when you leave school at 16, but I’ll be involved in some capacity, I’d hope.”



Try Tix for Better Tote Returns

No immediate return in sight for sidelined Dane O’Neill

Dane O’Neill is making progress from injuries sustained in a fall at Wolverhampton earlier this month, but looks set to miss the rest of the domestic season.

The veteran rider was unshipped from the Charlie Hills-trained Eagle Eyed Tom in the extended nine-furlong Sky Sports Racing Sky 415 Handicap on July 11, just after the stalls had opened.

The race was abruptly halted and voided, while O’Neill was attended to by paramedics on the track before being stretchered off and taken to Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Shadwell’s number two rider suffered a fractured thoracic vertebra and broken ribs, and is “frustrated” according to Angus Gold, racing manager for Sheikha Hissa’s powerful racing and breeding operation.

O’Neill’s misfortune has been exacerbated by Shadwell’s number one rider Jim Crowley incurring a 20-day ban for overuse of the whip aboard Hukum, when winning a thrilling King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.

Crowley will be ruled out of the Juddmonte International at York in a fortnight’s time and with O’Neill sidelined, the plum ride on the John and Thady Gosden-trained Mostahdaf is now up for grabs.

Gold said: “Mostahdaf, as far as I know, is well, although I haven’t spoken to John yet. We’ll get Goodwood out of the way first.”

Asked if either Frankie Dettori or William Buick may be considered for the ride, Gold added: “I’m not being perverse, but I’ve not even mentioned the subject. Obviously those are two possibilities, but we have literally not had a chat about it.”

Dane O’Neill is recovering after a horror spill at Wolverhampton
Dane O’Neill is recovering after a horror spill at Wolverhampton (Mike Egerton/PA)

O’Neill is on the mend, but he is not likely to return to the saddle in the immediate future.

Gold added: “Dane is mending. I spoke to him on Tuesday. It is frustrating, it’s a long process. Seven ribs (broken), he’s obviously very uncomfortable, poor man.

“Obviously, A – there’s the physical side and then, B – it is fantastically frustrating for him, when the whole point of being second jockey, when the first jockey is hurt or suspended, you want to make the most of the opportunity.

“But the poor fellow is not going to be able to be in a position to capitalise on it. It is very frustrating.

“I doubt he will be riding again this season. I haven’t asked him the question.

“It is the beginning of August and it is going to be another month mending them. I don’t know. He might be able to ride in early October, but that’s when he heads off to Dubai normally. I doubt he will be back here (this season).”



Try Tix for Better Tote Returns

O’Neill set to undergo surgery but full recovery expected

Jockey Dane O’Neill is expected to make a full recovery despite sustaining fractured vertebrae and ribs in a fall at Wolverhampton on Tuesday.

The veteran rider was taken to hospital after a fall from Eagle Eyed Tom in the opening race.

The gelding, trained by Charlie Hills, appeared to stumble and clip heels when leaving the stalls in the Sky Sports Racing Sky 415 Handicap, unseating him.

The race was abruptly stopped and voided, while O’Neill was attended to by paramedics on the track before being stretchered off and taken to hospital.

An update on the Facebook account of O’Neill’s wife Laura, read: “Following his fall at Wolverhampton, Dane was treated on the track before being transported by the racecourse ambulance to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

“He had a prompt assessment including scans where a fractured thoracic vertebra and some fractured ribs were discovered.

“Dane is likely to have surgery in the next few days and the expectation is he will make a full recovery after a period of rehabilitation.”

The post added: “Dane and his wife Laura would like to thank the medical staff for their care and are grateful for all the best wishes received from his friends and colleagues in racing.”

O’Neill is a key member of the Shadwell operation and racing manager Angus Gold was relieved about the prognosis.

He said: “That’s fantastic. That’s the only important bit – that he makes a full recovery.

“From our point of view, you hate to see that happen to anybody, but from a Shadwell perspective, he is a huge part of our operation.

“We are certainly going to notice his absence very strongly, but all that matters is that he gets better.

“We just wish him the speediest of recoveries and hope they operate soon, and get him back on track.

“As long as he’s all right, that’s all we care about – and we can’t wait to get him back as soon as he is mended.”

O’Neill has ridden 23 winners in Britain so far in 2023 and landed two Group One races at Meydan earlier this year, including Danyah in the Al Quoz Sprint on Dubai World Cup night.

“He is a massive part of the operation, not just on the racecourse, but he rides a lot of work, all around Lambourn for us in particular, and is hugely helpful to all of us,” Gold added.

“He has a good relationship with (head of Shadwell) Sheikha Hissa, and obviously she is very concerned about him. Hopefully, it will all go smoothly for him and we all send him our best wishes.”



Try Tix for Better Tote Returns

Race voided at Wolverhampton following fall for Dane O’Neill

Dane O’Neill has been taken to hospital for further assessment after his fall from Eagle Eyed Tom in the opening race of Wolverhampton’s Tuesday card caused the contest to be voided.

The gelding, who is trained by Charlie Hills, seemed to stumble and clip heels when leaving the stalls for the Sky Sports Racing Sky 415 Handicap and unseated O’Neill in the first few moments of the contest.

The race was stopped abruptly before it could be completed and O’Neill was attended to on the track before being taken off on a stretcher.

There was an 11-minute delay to the following race, the Follow @AtTheRaces On Twitter Fillies’ Novice Stakes, as O’Neill was taken to hospital for further assessment.

Fergus Cameron, clerk of the course at Wolverhampton, said: “Dane sustained a fall after leaving the stalls in the first race, which was then voided.

“He was treated on track by our paramedics and was conscious throughout. He was then taken in an ambulance to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for further assessment.”

The stewards inquired into the incident and their report said: “The clerk of the course and the jockeys who had ridden in the race excluding Dane O’Neill, were interviewed.

“The clerk of the course explained that as the injured jockey was being attended to on the course in the home straight, and that it was not possible for the rest of the field to safely pass, the decision was made in conjunction with the head groundsman to initiate the ‘stop race’ procedure and deploy the ‘stop race’ flag. The stewards declared the race void.”

The next race on the card was won by Richard Hughes’ Value Added, owned by the King and Queen and ridden by William Buick.

The three-year-old was the 11-8 favourite and duly delivered when making almost all of the running to score by a length.

“We’ve always liked her but we’ve had one or two issue with the stalls,” Hughes told Sky Sports Racing.

“The last day she ran a good race at Windsor, it doesn’t suit all of them and she was a little bit lairy.

“She went around today lovely and I loved the way he kicked on her and she opened up, that’s important.

“I just loved the way she quickened today, she got her head down and she ran to the line good.”



Try Tix for Better Tote Returns