Horse racing has been life for almost as long as Dan O’Sullivan can remember. Tim O’Connor caught up with the popular Ballarat trainer to chat about the fun he’s had along the way, some of the tough times and what might be in store for the future…
Tim O’Connor: Thanks for taking some time to chat with us here, Dan. As you'd know, I just love my racing so I'm really looking forward to hearing a bit more about your journey. So let's start from the start - where were you born and where was early life for a young Dan O'Sullivan?
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Dan O’Sullivan: I’m the middle of seven children born to dairy farmers Brian and Violet in Glenormiston, which is just outside of Terang. I went to school in a little town called Noorat. There was always plenty to do on the farm and with seven of us, never a dull moment!
TO’C: Many people in the racing industry have grown up with horses in the family. Was this the case for you?
DO’S: No horses on our farm, but in my early teens my uncle Pat (also a dairy farmer) lent me his pony, Bozo. I would ride him to footy and cricket training and anywhere else the kids riding bikes went. Then my uncle Bernard (also a dairy farmer) asked me to help him take care of an injured racehorse that was spelling at his property. That was really the beginning of my love for horses.
TO’C: Tell us how the journey to being a thoroughbred racehorse trainer began and the progression it has made to see you now firmly established at Miners Rest...
DO’S: My first job with racehorses started when I was about 13, helping out John Sadler after school and during school holidays. In those days, John trained a few horses from his dad’s farm not far from us. John’s father Lindsay was – yes you guessed it – a dairy farmer!
By year nine it was quite obvious school wasn’t my thing so my father arranged a job with master and legendary trainer Jim Moloney at Epsom (the historic training track at Mordialloc). So at the age of 15 I left home and lived at the Moloney stables in staff quarters with a few other young lads. I spent five years with Jim, working seven days a week other than every third Sunday afternoon, which I had off. The Moloney family was fantastic to me. It was a perfect environment for a lad of my age and Jim was a brilliant mentor, both professionally and personally.
My next stint was with Colin Chandler at Warrnambool. Colin, another fabulous mentor, taught me the breaking-in side of the game and, in particular, the patience required for handling young horses. I spent 18 months with Colin and then it was arranged for me to work with John Sadler again, who by this stage had his own training facility on land just outside Colac and a barn at the Colac racetrack. I rode a lot of track work and John had a good team of horses which saw him win the south-western district training premiership. He was soon offered stables at Flemington, so I made the move with him to the big smoke as his foreman/track rider. He had many successful days here with horses like Jolly Old Mac, Lady Jakeo, Pressman’s Choice, Full At Last, Scandanavia and Bohemiath. I worked with John for 16 years so I think that in itself explains how well we worked together. And like Jim and Colin, he was an amazing teacher of horses and life.
In 1998, John was an original trainer at the Aquanita franchise, along with Russell Cameron, who was moving from South Australia to Victoria. That left an opening for a trainer at Aquanita’s Morphettville stables. With a recommendation from John, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity of filling that position. I had a really good amount of success in a short amount of time over in Adelaide. It was very rare if I didn’t get at least one winner at every meeting. I was regularly bringing horses over to Melbourne and winning here so the move to a new base at Caulfield was arranged. With a shuffle of trainers in the Aquanita group, I then moved to Flemington and eventually ended up in Ballarat in 2005. We purchased our property here at Miners Rest in 2006 and by 2007 I thought the timing was right for me to step out on my own. We set up a business plan – which hasn’t really gone to plan – but we have survived thanks to our great team, fantastic owners and the Ballarat training facility, which is outstanding.
TO’C: Despite group 1 success eluding you, you've had plenty of great horses over the years. So Gorgeous won a couple of group 2s, Lacey Underall picked up an Adelaide Cup and one of my favourites Tuscan Fire was a beauty, winning the Mornington Cup on the way to a start in the Caulfield Cup. What have been the highlights of your training career?
DO’S: Those two words – group one! So Gorgeous won the Ascot Vale Stakes when it was a group 2 and I can’t remember if it was a year or two later that it was upgraded to a group 1. And it was also only a year or two prior to when Lacey Underall won the Adelaide Cup that it was downgraded from a group 1….how’s my luck!?
So Gorgeous will always be a highlight as she made my first runner at Flemington a winner. She won the Tranquil Star, Ascot Vale Stakes, Quezette Stakes and Edward Manifold Stakes all in a row in that fabulous year of 2000. The same year a gelding called Newsflash won seven races straight – none of them were group races, but winning seven in a row is pretty impressive. Mr Selby was a horse with a big personality. He won 10 races for me over the years, including listed races at 1200m and hurdles at 3200m. Life’s a Bounty was our stable stalwart for many years, winning a group race in SA and the Seymour Cup. He was the quietest stallion you’d ever meet and everyone loved him. Lacey winning the Adelaide Cup was my first big success from our Ballarat stables. That meant a lot, especially after just missing out the year prior when beaten by Gallic and losing a controversial protest. Al Dietrich was a really good hurdler who won the Yalumba Classic at Oakbank. I love training hurdlers and that was a great day. Tuscan Fire still makes us all emotional… what that horse did for our team, his owners and their families can’t be described, especially considering we bought him to jump! British General is another amazing story. He escaped the Black Saturday bushfires as a yearling and then went on to be such a brave and successful racehorse despite his recurring leg injuries. That made us all really proud.
Overall, it’s not always winning the big races. A lot of the time we are really proud when a horse defies the odds of their confirmation or breeding/purchase price and defeats the “bigger guys”. My reward personally is delivering the excitement to owners.
TO’C: What about a horse from another stable you've loved to watch over the years?
DO’S: Black Caviar. My connection to her family made me cheer her on that bit harder than any other. I used to ride and take care of Scandanavia (her grand dam) at John’s place and I was given Helsinge (her dam) to train when we first moved to Caulfield. Unfortunately Helsinge sustained an injury when being broken-in so never made it as a racehorse. She was sold as a broodmare and the rest is history.
TO’C: Horse racing can be a tough industry at times. I'm sure there's been some really difficult periods in your training career. Can you open up about some of those?
DO’S: The most difficult period was actually just before the purple patch of Tuscan Fire and British General. We had a devastating amount of bad debts that year and I was struggling to get a winner. No winners means no new horses coming in. Things were that bad we were about to put our property on the market and we honestly thought we might have to close our business. Those two horses and the owners who never gave up on me saved us. Owners who don’t pay their bill hurt us the most, both financially and emotionally. We put our heart and soul into what we do and we constantly sacrifice time with our loved ones, so to be left in the lurch with someone’s debt really hits us hard personally.
When a horse dies I take it pretty hard. I question if there was something I could have done to avoid it. In particular losing Life’s a Bounty, Tuscan Fire and Near Queue on the racetrack was devastating to all of us on each occasion. Bounty and Tuscan were both real dudes and Queuey was complex, but so endearing and they all tried their hearts out on race day. They deserved a better ending.
TO’C: What does a regular day in the life of Dan O'Sullivan the trainer look like?
DO’S: We start at 5am these days, which isn’t extremely early. It’s straight into getting the boxes picked up, horses worked, groomed and fed. I’ve recently given the riding away (for now) which means I’m around to annoy the stable staff a bit more and supervise the track work. The vets arrive to inspect and treat any patients and race acceptances need to be lodged by 9am. The morning’s work with the horses is usually complete by 9.30am so then it’s phone calls and/or arranging transfers to and from spelling farms or heading off to the races for the day. Nominations need to be lodged by lunch time and then there’s usually communications to be sent to owners – this could be pre or post race reports, trial/jump-out reports or just a general update. Thankfully we have smart phones and iPads to help with the communication! The afternoon shift starts at 2pm and it’s time to pick up the boxes again, swim and/or walk the horses and feed up. Following the afternoon shift or when I return from the races, I plan my work list for the next day and make more phone calls. I also head back out to the stables just before dark to make sure everyone is settled and to rug up if it was too warm to do so when the staff finished. I usually get to sit back around 8pm, which promptly turns into nodding off! Sometimes if I’m lucky I get a little nap in the middle of the day. When you work with animals, the day can be very varied and unpredictable!
TO’C: The number of people and horses that work at the Ballarat Turf Club is growing every year and the place is a hive of activity each and every morning. What has the change been like here in Ballarat since you arrived all those years ago?
DO’S: You’re right, Tim. There seems to be people and horses everywhere. I’ve been here 13 years now and when we first moved it was probably regarded by many as a punishment! The success and expansion of Darren Weir’s business in that time is astonishing and the most obvious change in my time. The facilities offered by the Ballarat Turf Club and the environment in which we train our horses have made it attractive to good, young, marketable trainers such as Archie Alexander, Matt Cumani, Mitch Freedman and Michelle Payne. The success of the area and the increase in profile trainers seems to have made it a bit more popular for job seekers in our industry, which is a good thing. Another really noticeable change is the number of people involved in big syndicates and the access they have to track work and jump-outs by either personal attendance or video footage.
TO’C: While there's plenty of hard work, I'm sure there's lots of laughs out there on the track in the early mornings or at the races. Got a funny moment that sticks in the mind?
DO’S: There’s not one outstanding moment that comes to mind. Obviously, there’s a fair bit of banter that goes on around the stables and in the trainer’s hut, but a lot of those moments are “you had to be there” situations. And some of them I shouldn’t repeat! The old favourite prank with new staff would be to send them to the neighbouring stable to ask to borrow the left-handed whip or photo finish bridle.
TO’C: There's plenty of us that love a bet and I love a good plunge coming off. Got a memorable day on the punt?
DO’S: In my foreman days I played a part in a number of successful plunges, which I shouldn’t elaborate on! I rarely have a bet and if I do, it’s never big. Without sounding too old, it is hard to pull off a plunge these days because everything is documented or filmed and then published for anybody to access online.
TO’C: Your lovely wife Mel has been by your side for a long time now. How did you meet?
DO’S: That is a very long story! But in brief, we first met at the 1986 Oakbank Easter Carnival when Mel was 14 and I was 24. One of her brothers, Simon, is a jockey so we would cross paths regularly. Then when I moved to Adelaide in 1998 we became good mates just by socialising in the same circle. It was Christmas 1999 when my relationship with Mel began and we were married in 2002. Give her a couple of glasses of bubbles and she’ll tell you her very animated version!
TO’C: What do you, Mel and your son Alex love to do when not around the horses?
DO’S: With racing being seven days a week, getting time away is very rare, especially when you live where you work. We try really hard to avoid dragging Alex to every race meeting with us, so Mel often takes Alex on his weekend adventures. He is fascinated by just about every animal other than the horse! He is also footy mad like most nine-year-old boys. We get to a few footy matches together – I’m the odd one out barracking for the Bombers. Mel has brainwashed Alex into barracking for the Power! Most of all we really appreciate time together and love catching up with friends and family when we can.
TO’C: One about the future before we finish... what's the dream for Dan O'Sullivan the racehorse trainer?
DO’S: That group 1 you mentioned earlier. I have quite a few I desperately want to win for those people who have stuck solid with me through the years. And the Galleywood Hurdle has always been on my radar. That and any or all other feature jumps races.