A long-awaited return to the track for O’Faolains Boy in Saturday’s Welsh Grand National could, it is hoped, be the beginning of a turnaround in the fortunes of the Pembrokeshire trainer Rebecca Curtis, for whom this is a transitional season in more ways than one.
A high flyer from an early stage in her career, Curtis split last summer from her long-term partner, Gearoid Costelloe, who had brought many talented young horses into the yard. That is among the reasons she has made much less impact than usual this winter.
“I’m just getting this season out of the way and I’m trying to gather a good few people together and make quite a big investment into buying 20 or 30 three-year-olds next spring and build the yard back up to what it was,” Curtis said on Thursday.
“We got rid of a lot of horses last year, older things, but one thing we haven’t done for the last few years is buy in any young horses as stores, which I think has really, really affected the yard.”
O’Faolains Boy is one of the hardy steeplechasers for which Curtis has become known, along with Grand National third Teaforthree and Irish Cavalier, all three of them winners at Cheltenham Festivals.
He has been a fragile beast at times, which is why he has had no prep-run for Saturday’s contest, but he has slipped down to beatable rating and a recent breathing operation has made a difference, the trainer believes.
“He’s been really good,” Curtis reported. “We gave him a tie-forward operation coming into the winter of this year, which seems to have really helped. He seems in really good form, back to his old self hopefully.”
While Curtis concedes it is “a big ask” for a horse to have a race as testing as the Welsh National on his first outing since April, O’Faolains Boy had the benefit of a racecourse gallop about a month ago. She hopes the ride will be taken by Barry Geraghty, who won the RSA Chase on him back in 2014.
Should Saturday prove to be beyond O’Faolains Boy, he may yet have another big day in him this season. “If he can win something in the next month or six weeks it’d be nice to give him another shot at the Grand National,” Curtis said.
In the longer term, she hopes to leave behind the frustrations of a season that has yielded only five winners. “We’re down from normally 50 or 60 horses and I’ve only got 20 this season, so we’re just trying to do the best with what we’ve got. I know what I’ve got to do now, going forward, get lots of young blood in and start again in the spring.
“That’s what I always did well with: young horses, nice, big chasing types which I’ve been lacking the last couple of seasons to bring along. I’ve got a few nice ones but nothing compared to what I’ve had over the last five years.
“And I know why that is, we’ve stopped buying the young stores and the ones that [Gearoid] did buy obviously didn’t stay with me, they went to Ireland, point-to-pointing and things, which has been a big loss to the yard, with nothing new coming through. I’ve got to start afresh. I’d always have heaps and heaps of bumper horses and lots of bumper winners and I’ve literally just had nothing to run like we used to.”
O’Faolains Boy also has an entry for Sandown on Saturday, in case Chepstow’s card is lost to the weather once more, having been held over from last week because of waterlogging. Keith Ottesen, the clerk of the course, expects racing will go ahead but warned that the course was “saturated” after the latest drop of rain on Wednesday night.
There may be further rain until 9pm on Friday night, possibly as much as 10mm. Ottesen believes his course can absorb it, so long as it does not arrive in one prolonged downpour.
Wetherby: 12.40 Aardwolf, 1.15 Pennywell, 1.50 Very First Time, 2.25 Jammin Masters, 2.55 Joseph Mercer, 3.25 Up To No Good.
Southwell: 12.55 Magic Pulse, 1.30 Heather Lark, 2.05 Aiya (nb), 2.40 Ghaseedah (nap), 3.10 Declamation, 3.40 Alternate Route.
Kempton: 5.45 Inuk, 6.15 Mistry, 6.45 Deer Song, 7.15 Night Of Glory, 7.45 Erinyes, 8.15 Temeraire, 8.45 Happy Escape.
