O’Leary hat-trick capped by Kelly Coe
Dennis Ryan - Raceform • December 20th, 2024 3:00 PM
Three major wins in as many weeks to horses carrying their red and white racing colours by no means make Humphrey and Fiona O’Leary believe that winning comes easily.
The Wanganui couple’s latest roll of success began on their home track with Whangaehu in the Listed Steelform Wanganui Cup on November 30. At Trentham a week later it was the turn of a horse they part-own, Ladies Man, to add the TAB Mufhasa Classic to his Group One tally, and on Saturday at Te Rapa Kelly Coe completed the hat-trick with an upset win in the Gr. 3 J Swap Sprint.
Winning races is nothing new to members of the O’Leary clan, a Wanganui family most famous for Humphrey and his brothers Dan, Michael and Shaun’s mighty stayer Who Shot Thebarman. In a career spanning seven seasons, the tough gelding opened his feature race record in the Avondale and Auckland Cups, then in Australia added the Sydney and Moonee Valley Cups (the latter as a nine-year-old), contesting four Melbourne Cups along the way and retiring sound as a 10 year-year-old with stake-earnings of just under $5 million.
But as with most involved at a certain level, Humphrey and Fiona O’Leary are familiar with the other side of the equation – the disappointments that are part and parcel of racehorse ownership. Those fluctuating fortunes provide balance and an appreciation of the satisfaction to be had when fortunes swing in a positive direction.
“We all know about bad luck in racing – it goes with the territory – but when you have runs like we’ve had just lately you have to stop and pinch yourself,” Humphrey O’Leary told RaceForm earlier this week. “My father had horses for years and years, but I don’t think he ever got to have a runner in a black-type race.
“It’s been fantastic, winning another Wanganui Cup on our home track and on the same day that we sponsor the fillies’ race (the O’Learys Fillies Stakes). Then a week later seeing Ladies Man back in form in a Group One at Trentham, and to top it off with Kelly Coe up against such a good field of sprinters at Te Rapa!”
Trials and tribulations apply in varying degrees to all three horses. Whangaehu began his career for Waverley trainer Bill Thurlow with a win and two placings in his first three starts, which led to a transfer to Who Shot Thebarman’s trainer Chris Waller.
He did win two benchmark races in Sydney but when he progressed no further, he was sent home and resumed work with Thurlow. He was back winning in his first start, last month’s Wanganui Cup win was his third since, and he will look for a double in Saturday’s Manawatu Cup at Trentham.
Ladies Man, who is raced in partnership with Humphrey’s brother Michael and his wife Lynette along with Taranaki’s Stanley family and trainer Allan Sharrock, had been out of the winner’s stall since his October 2023 Livamol Classic victory.
That win led to a Melbourne campaign that ended in frustration when he just missed the cut for the Melbourne Cup and on his return home, the best result from three starts last autumn was a third in the Gr. 1 Bonecrusher NZ Stakes.
Now that the Zed gelding is back in form, further weight-for-age features beckon, beginning with the Gr. 1 Zabeel Classic at Ellerslie next week.
Last Saturday’s Te Rapa win by Kelly Coe – like Whangaehu a home-bred by Proisir – came in her second start for Matamata trainers Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott. She found her way north after her first six wins had been for Awapuni horseman Ashley Meadows, with the intention to combine her racing career with mating to a stallion.
“That was the plan as we thought her racing days were coming to an end, but she found a new lease on life, so we decided to concentrate on racing for now,” Fiona O’Leary explained.
After an encouraging first-up run in October, plans to start in last month’s Gr. 2 Auckland Breeders’ Stakes were undermined by a cold and it was back to the drawing board – but only temporarily.
“We weren’t really sure what to think going into Te Rapa,” says Humphrey. “Lance and Andrew are good communicators and they did tell us she was very well. She had the inside draw and she ended up getting a perfect run – what a good ride and what a dividend!”
Further exciting targets lie ahead for the O’Learys’ current trio. On top of Whangaehu’s Manawatu Cup mission this weekend and an Ellerslie Boxing Day mission for Ladies Man, Kelly Coe will now go to the Rich Hill Mile at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day.
Along with operating a dairy farm, the O’Learys also run a small broodmare band which this year produced five foals – three from the last full crop by the sadly deceased Grangewilliam stallion Zed and two by Letham Stud’s Unusual Suspect.
After buying Kelly Coe’s dam Floridita for just $3,500 when in-foal with their future big winner, the O’Learys were unable to get any further produce from her. However, they still have Florita’s older daughter Penelope Cruise, an earlier $10,000 Karaka yearling purchase who retired untapped after four wins and has since produced consecutive foals by Zed.
Whangaehu, the valley made famous for its racehorses going back to 1961 Auckland Cup winner Ruato and more recently by those connected to the O’Leary and Connors families, was an easy name by which to register a racehorse.
Kelly Coe’s naming was at a different level, however, taken from the Auckland fashion designer well known for her Augustine label.
“That’s mostly down to Humphrey,” says wife Fiona. “One day a few years ago he was reading a Woman’s Weekly – of all things – and he said to me ‘Here’s a name for that Proisir filly – Kelly Coe! It has a ring to it’.
“Normally you wouldn’t be able to name a horse after an actual person, especially one who’s in the public eye, but as it turns out Kelly’s husband Nathan is Humphrey’s cousin, so when we went to name the filly, we were able to supply NZTR with the necessary permission.
“So Kelly Coe it was and yes, you could now say it’s a name that definitely does have a certain ring to it!”
Picture at the Top of the Page: Humphrey and Fiona O’Leary celebrate the third leg of their feature hat-trick after Kelly Coe’s J Swap Sprint win at Te Rapa. Photo: Supplied
