O’SHEA HAS ANOTHER LONG-TERM AINTREE HOPE

Cheshire trainer Joe O’Shea took four horses to the opening point-to-point of the British season at Knightwick on Saturday 4th November and went home with a treble.

This article first appeared in the Racing Post on Friday 11th November.

The horse who did not win, Legostar, a maiden after nine races in Ireland, finished a well-beaten second but it is likely to be a matter of time before his new trainer unlocks hidden force in the horse. O’Shea, who has saddled one winner of Aintree’s Foxhunters’ Chase and four of Haydock’s Walrus Hunters’ Chase, has raised the form of countless horses.

An example is Cousin Pascal, who joined O’Shea’s yard with a record of one win in 21 Irish races, mostly point-to-points and hurdles. Any other trainer would have plotted a few steps up the ladder, namely a restricted then an intermediate race, and perhaps a novices’ hunters’ chase to finish the season. No one but O’Shea could envisage the horse being a candidate for Aintree in five months’ time, let alone winning the race.

Note the name Envious Editor, who, like Cousin Pascal, carries the colours of farmer Peter Clifton and is likely to be O’Shea’ Aintree candidate in April. The horse won impressively when forming the middle leg of his trainer’s treble.

After that win O’Shea said: “I give horses TLC and time, I turn them out, work them hard and give them the best food – and I love beating big yards.

“This horse [Envious Editor] is a bit special. I’ve trained some good horses and this is the best of them. We don’t have gallops and horse walkers, we just have sheer graft.”

Ellis and Andrews key team

When it comes to big yards in point-to-pointing, Tom Ellis’s horse head count is numerically the largest.

Ellis has some 58 horses on his books, including 22 unnamed three- and four-year-olds. When he married Gina Andrews in 2015 his father, Tony, built the couple a wedding present in the form of a large barn to house the string. He did not envisage two more being erected within seven years.

During that time, Gina has won the women’s championship every season, yet she is nursing a long-standing sore knee and may not ride in a point-to-point until after Christmas. Her brother Jack, who has regained amateur status after a brief and successful stint as a conditional, acts as chief breaker-in and, since unraced youngsters are likely to be the only runners from the yard until the New Year, he will ride on race days. On Sunday he partners Ellis’s first runner of the season, unraced Vinnie Sparkles, at Badbury Rings.

Tom Ellis, flanked by Gina and Jack Andrews at their open day on Sunday (Carl Evans)

Gina being Gina, there will be no resting with her feet up, and short of sawing her leg off any chance she might let her title go gently is slim to none. A ride in Cheltenham’s amateurs’ chase tomorrow was too good to turn down, and we can expect full throttle on the point-to-point circuit in the New Year.