Newmarket trainer wins $2m Dubai race

LOS Angeles-based Newmarket-on-Fergus race horse trainer Carl O’Callaghan trained Kinsale King to win the $2m Group 1 Golden Shaheen at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai last Saturday.
Ridden by Garrett Gomez and owned by Dr Patrick Sheehy from Cork, Kinsale King became the ninth American-based horse since 2000 to win the race.
The race unfolded exactly as O’Callaghan predicted last week. Garrett Gomez kept Kinsale King behind the Japanese horse Laurel Guerreiro for the first quarter-mile, engaged the leader on the turn and took the lead in early stretch before holding off Rocket Man to win by a half-length. Kinsale King ran about six furlongs in 1.10.89.
On December 6, 2009, Kinsale King won the $100,000 Vernon Underwood Stakes Grade 3 at Hollywood Park, LA.
“He had a lot of issues with his feet, a lot of quarter-crack problems. My blacksmith, Robert Guest from England, is a real talent. I worked him on the turf at Del Mar to save his feet and got him straightened out,” O’Callaghan told The Clare Champion last December, when talking about Kinsale King.
O’Callaghan, whose father Shay is a well known singer throughout Clare, left Newmarket at the age of 16 in 1990 to pursue a career in racing.
“I started riding at Burke’s riding school in Ballycar. I learned to ride there with Kevin Burke at about four or five. At about seven or eight, Dad started taking me over to Ballyhannon stud in Quin to John Hassett’s place. Mucking stalls and riding out horses.
“It kind of took off from there that I wanted to be in the racing business. I was absolutely useless at school. Useless. It was always horses,” he explained.
O’Callaghan’s determination to work in the equine industry led to him moving to New Platz, north of New York, where he worked for Dr Jon Fackler and his wife Sue.
Later he was employed for eight years by Todd Pletcher, before relocating to Los Angeles, where he has been based for the past three years.
Away from the yard and the racetrack, O’Callaghan sings at weddings and various social events, although the guitar isn’t being strummed as much recently.
“I play the guitar, the same as my father. But it’s on the back burner at the moment with the horses being so busy,” he laughed.