O'Connell delivers a rose to Richardson

By Jordan Gerrans

Trainer Cameron H Richardson applauded the ride of young apprentice Reece O'Connell to lift mare Diamantina Rose to the second victory of her career at Warwick on Thursday afternoon.

Jumping from the widest barrier of 10 in the 800 metre dash around Warwick’s Allman Park surface, O'Connell was able to pinch the lead in the early exchanges without burning too much petrol.

Richardson’s four-year-old daughter of Worthy Cause had enough left in the tank in the concluding stages to score by a tick over a length.

In nine career trips to the races, Diamantina Rose has only missed the money on one occasion.

The victory on Thursday was the 25-year-old O'Connell’s first sit on the mare under race conditions and Toowoomba trainer Richardson was full-of-praise for the ride he delivered.

“The young fella, he's a good rider and he listens to what you want to do,” Richardson said.

“He knew that he was probably going to lead, but there's leading and then there's going too hard.

“He got her back underneath him after going a furlong, sat on her very nicely and just got her in a good rhythm.

“She was just too fast for them after she was left alone there in front.”

Clifford Park trainer Richardson has raced his speedy mare up to 870 metres in the early stages of her career and he is hopeful she can get up to 1000 metres in the near future.

“I think as far as she'll go, it'll be 1000 metres as she's not the best winded horse,” he said.

“She has got a slight issue there, so we just keep her fresh and keep her feeling well.

“Ideally, I want to try to find her a 1000 metre race, so we'll just see what's about, but she'll eventually go to 1000 metres and we will see how she goes.”

After debuting in September of last year, apprentice O'Connell has already racked up 15 career victories.

Indentured to the Geran stable at Toowoomba, O'Connell has a busy few days ahead with mounts at Deepwater, Gatton and Kilcoy.

Richardson also heads to Kilcoy on Monday with Kentucky Rose in the Benchmark 55 Handicap over 800 metres.

Richardson – who is the son of veteran conditioner Harry Richardson – also has high hopes for stablemate Madame Cody.

Madame Cody broke maiden ranks at Ipswich earlier this month at her third career attempt.

The three-year-old filly is the half-sister to Richardson’s former stable star Pope Cody who won three of his first five efforts before being sold to Hong Kong.

While obviously disappointed to lose a classy galloper in Pope Cody, Richardson thinks Madame Cody may be able to fill the void and plans to step her up to city company on Saturday of next week.

“I think she's definitely a Saturday class horse,” the 41-year-old Richardson said.

“She'll go to Eagle Farm next Saturday in a three-year-old mile.

“She's a lovely horse; she's a really nice filly.

“Obviously when you're getting up every morning to train horses, you want to go in there and have a good one or a couple of good ones, if you're lucky enough.

“Hopefully she can replace Pope Cody to some extent.”

The QTIS Three-Year-Old Handicap over 1600 metres on Saturday looks to be a suitable race for Madame Cody after she won over 1350 metres at Ipswich.

“A mile looks perfect for her. She might even want further, but we'll just see what happens next Saturday and go from there,” the trainer said.

“The other day when she won, Sean Cormack jumped off and said, “she's looking for the mile.” 

“We'll go down there, pretty open minded and if it doesn't come next Saturday, I'm sure she's got the ability there. 

“It's just a matter of when we see the best out of her, really.”