O'Halloran's fitting Saturday City breakthrough

STEVE O’Halloran was closely associated with a bevy of Gai Waterhouse’s Golden Slipper winners and another when Adrian Bott became her training partner.

So it was fitting that the Hawkesbury trainer’s Saturday metropolitan breakthrough yesterday should also be at Rosehill Gardens, the home of the world’s richest two-year-old classic.

Image Courtesy of Bradley Photos

That came when the affable Irish expat scored in the Benchmark 78 Handicap (1100m) with Mal Coupe ($15), having taken the lightly-raced gelding from a Bathurst Maiden victory in late May to now two city triumphs; the previous at a Canterbury midweek on July 23.

It’s been some sort of preparation – four wins and two seconds from six starts – and O’Halloran was guarded in his pre-race assessment of the four-year-old’s chances yesterday.

“I was more confident about Mal Coupe in a Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap over the same distance at Royal Randwick the previous Saturday, but the meeting didn’t go ahead because of the wet weather,” O’Halloran said today.

‘He was up against all-comers this time, and I said to his owners Gary and Kay Stevenson beforehand that I was mindful this was his sixth start of the campaign.

“Mal Coupe hadn’t shown any signs at home that he might have had enough. He was feeling good and was a happy horse.

”But you can never be sure until they race, and he was taking on better horses.

“Now we know we have a nice horse.

“They had their chance to beat him in the straight, and he fought them off.

“He licked his bowl overnight and has pulled up well, but I think it might be best to send him for a holiday on a winning note.

“I’m still to get to the bottom of him. We haven’t found his ceiling yet.”

Ridden by Winona Costin, who has been his partner in all six starts this time in work, Mal Coupe defeated Godolphin’s $2.70 favorite Polyglot and another $15 chance Catch The Glory.

O’Halloran’s experience taught him a valuable lesson with Mal Coupe at the end of his last preparation when he ran fifth over 1400m at Canberra in mid-December.

“That was the longest race I had given him, and it didn’t work,” he said.

“I was determined to keep him to shorter races this time, and the results are there.”

O’Halloran spent more than a decade and a half as a trusted Waterhouse lieutenant, and was associated with five of her Golden Slipper winners (Dance Hero, Sebring, Pierro, Overreach and Vancouver).

It was the same with the Waterhouse-Bott duo’s 2020 winner Farnan and O’Halloran took him to the Gold Coast for the Magic Millions earlier that year, but left to train in his own right before the Slipper when offered a position by Waratah Thoroughbreds’ Paul Fudge at his state of the art facility (now owned by RacingNSW) at Bong Bong.

When Fudge took ill, O’Halloran was left in limbo little more than 12 months later and moved to Hawkesbury to set up shop.

He has worked hard to build his own team, and his Saturday city breakthrough came on top of a benchmark eight winners last season.

Coincidentally, Mal Coupe’s dam, the unraced Enter, is a daughter of one of those Golden Slipper winners, Pierro.

Mal Coupe was bred by his owners, mating Enter with Xtravagant, and became the mare’s first foal.

Miraculously, he made it to the racetrack after crashing through a fence on the Stevenson’s property near Orange.

He was cut from the shoulder to the fetlock joint and, whilst veterinary advice was that he should be put down, his owners wanted to give him every chance to be a racehorse.

Hence, Mal Coupe got his name as that is the French translation for “badly cut”.

HOOFNOTE: O’Halloran also has Mal Coupe’s three-year-old younger half-sister (by Peltzer), who is so far unnamed and yet to race.

Unfortunately Enter missed to Xtravagant the following year, and has since foaled a Peltzer colt (on September 16 last year).

*Words by John Curtis for hawkesburyraceclub.com.au