By Brian Sheerin
There are few people in this industry that you'll never hear a bad word spoken about. Ross O'Sullivan is one of those people. That is just about the greatest compliment that you can give a man who competes as fiercely, and successfully, as the trainer does.
But something tells you that O'Sullivan would trade winning popularity contests for taking out big race prizes all day long and Royal Ascot would be a good place to start. The trainer has Warrior Brave (GB) (Twilight Son {GB}) and Follow Me (Fr) (Shalaa {Ire}), two horses with contrasting profiles, to look forward to next week.
Warrior Brave is the definition of a fun horse. He has provided his American owner Eleanora Kennedy with some big days out and won three on the trot in Ireland last term. His odds of 50-1 for the Wokingham Handicap accurately reflects the lottery nature of what he faces in next Saturday's race.
Follow Me is a slightly different proposition. For starters, he has three years on his stablemate and is very much a colt on the up, having won both starts for his new connections since joining from France last year.
A €170,000 purchase at Arqana last November, Follow Me is by far the most expensive horse that O'Sullivan has ever been sent, and a solid showing in the Britannia Handicap at the royal meeting would confirm the long-held theory that the trainer is well capable of maximising the potential of these higher-calibre horses.
“Tom Malone bought Follow Me at Arqana,” O'Sullivan explains. “In fairness to Tom, he sold a couple of jumpers belonging to [owner] Amanda Torrens last year and she just told him to keep an eye out for a nice Flat horse for her. Tom came back to her about six months later with this horse. He said Follow Me was a really nice horse and that he was worth trying to buy so we did. He had been placed in all five of his starts in France-and at good tracks as well-so his form was rock-solid as a two-year-old. He was still a maiden, which was great, because we could start off in a maiden and keep building with him, which thankfully we have been doing.”
Follow Me: is super progressive | Racingfotos.com
Follow Me couldn't have made a better start for his new connections when landing a Curragh maiden. But it was his victory on handicap debut back at Irish racing's HQ on Guineas weekend that marked him down as being potentially above average.
Trapped behind a wall of horses entering the business end of the race, it appeared as though he was going to finish an unlucky loser. However, Billy Lee spied a gap down the inner deep inside the final furlong and the response was immediate.
O'Sullivan recalled, “Jesus, everything that could go wrong did go wrong for him in the handicap but he still managed to win. He's got a progressive profile going into next week.”
He added, “We have given him an entry in the Jersey Stakes and the Britannia but I'd say he's more likely to go for the Britannia. You've got Haatem (Ire) (Phoenix Of Spain {Ire}) going for the Jersey and I see Aidan O'Brien mentioned that River Tiber (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) would probably go there as well. The Britannia looks as though it would be the better option.
“Even though it can be a bit of a lottery with 30 runners coming up the straight, it's a race that is usually won by a progressive horse and I think Follow Me is exactly that.”
Just two trainers, Aidan O'Brien and Joanna Morgan, have managed to win the Britannia for Ireland since 1988 and O'Sullivan revealed that he received a recent pep talk from the latter.
“Joanna came up to me the other day at the races to wish me luck,” O'Sullivan explained. “She told me that she managed to win the race in 2013 with Roca Tumu (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}). She told me all about it-the horse had won two races and they just wanted to have a Royal Ascot runner. He went and bloody won the race and didn't they get a million quid for him to go abroad afterwards. Joanna talks about that as being one of her best days in racing. So there you go. That's what it means to people.”
While the stats might say the Irish raiders could be up against it in the Britannia, the trainer says having Shane Foley in the saddle could work out to be a massive advantage. Foley has already partnered 35 winners this season which is one less than reigning champion Colin Keane. Jessica Harrington has supplied 25 of those but the Kilkenny native has struck up a good relationship with O'Sullivan, with the pair combining to three victories from 10 runners. What's more impressive is that nine of those 10 starters finished in the money and O'Sullivan describes the rider as a massive asset to the stable.
He said, “Shane Foley has ridden Follow Me in all of his work from the word go. Billy won on him the last day but that was only because Shane had to ride one for Jessica Harrington. Shane is riding like a man possessed at the minute. He was riding sore for the past couple of years but, since he got the hip operated on, he's come out all guns blazing at the start of this season.
“I've never seen a man with work ethic like Shane. He came to me during the winter and he said, 'Ross, I am around this season. If you need me to ride work, I'm there. Sundays. Whatever. I'll be there.' He could text me on a given evening, saying, 'I'm around at 6.30 in the morning if that's any use?'
“He'd ride one for me then into the car and down to Jessica Harrington's for four lots. Then maybe head back to the Curragh to ride more work for a few trainers and then off to the races that evening. Jesus, he's driven. He's been a big help to us this season. I'd say his wife never sees him!”
O'Sullivan doesn't lack for effort, either. In the 15-minute dash from his base in Kill, County Kildare to the famous Old Vic gallop on the Curragh, there are declarations to be made, jockeys to be booked, owners to be rung. It's full on.
And while this was the last away day for Follow Me, arguably the most important runner in O'Sullivan's career to date, you wouldn't think it. Here is a man who never seems to get flustered and goes about his day with a smile and a joke.
Whatever he's doing behind the scenes, it seems to be working. The stable sent out 12 winners on the level last season and, with six on the board already this year, O'Sullivan is well on course to enjoy his best year on the Flat in 2024. Of course, success comes naturally in this household.
O'Sullivan is married to Katie Walsh, whose Greenhills breeze-up consignment continues to go from strength-to-strength, and on Thursday celebrated 525,000gns Craven Sale graduate Anno Domini (GB) (New Bay {GB}) make a winning debut for Godolphin.
The two operations are run completely separately and, while big results in the ring are good for business, it's winners on the track that makes O'Sullivan tick.
“I saw an interview with Katie McGivern the other day after she sent out a winner and I thought she summed it up brilliantly. She had a brilliant year with the breezers and only has two horses to run on the track but says she gets more of a buzz out of them than anything else. Willie Browne is the very same. He could have a winner up at Dundalk over the winter and would say nothing else would compare. Not to sound like they don't appreciate getting good results with the breeze-up horses, of course they do, but nothing beats having a winner. I know Katie [Walsh] feels the very same. It's something very special. So much goes into getting a horse ready for a race and when it does go right it's an amazing feeling.”
So what would victory with Warrior Brave or Follow Me at Royal Ascot mean to Ross O'Sullivan and those closest to him?
“It would be a career-defining moment. It would be brilliant for the yard and something that you could look back on in years to come.”
He added, “I mean, our biggest winner came with Baie Des Iles (Fr) (Barastraight {GB}) in a Grade 2 Chase in France. That was six years ago now and we still talk about it regularly. Those are the achievements and memories that stick out forever and it's why you do the job in the first place. If it was to happen next week, it would be absolutely magic.”
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