Former jockey Sam O’Malley will chase his first winner as a trainer this weekend after recently joining employer Bill Thurlow in partnership.
Based in the Central Districts, O’Malley had a successful career in the saddle despite battling with weight issues, guiding home 68 winners, including a Gr.2 Tauranga Stakes (1600m) aboard Justaskme.
He gave up riding professionally in 2022, and after a couple of years away from the sport, he took up a position as Thurlow’s stable foreman.
Thurlow had a season to remember last term, finishing 12th on the National Trainer’s Premiership with 35 winners, two at stakes level, and an enviable strike rate of 4.37. One of those winners was ridden by O’Malley himself, when he re-entered the jockeys’ room for a handful of highweights through the winter.
While he enjoyed his time riding, training had always been O’Malley’s intention, and Thurlow’s Waverley operation was the perfect place to fulfil that goal.
“I’ve been working for Bill for about two years, I went there with a partnership eventually in mind and it was the right fit,” O’Malley said.
“He’s pretty cruisy, we worked well together when I rode for him and we’re always on the same page with the horses, which makes it very easy and enjoyable. We’ve got good staff with us, so we’re pretty lucky.
“It (training) was something that I was always going to end up doing, I became a jockey while working out what I wanted to do in the industry, but training had always been my main focus.”
Their growing team of horses, which includes the likes of Group One performer Whangaehu and stakes winner No Rain Ever, are spread between Thurlow’s home stable and Waverley Racecourse, with plenty of youngsters also in the mix.
“We have a barn at the track in Waverley, which is predominantly pre-trainers and some of the younger horses,” O’Malley said. “We have around 25 horses at the home stable, we’ve got a 1300m track out there and good facilities to work with.
“We went to the sales last year and got some here, and some in Australia, predominantly fillies. They look quite exciting.”
Thurlow and O’Malley will present five runners across the region this weekend, with interest around the return of promising jumper Whiskey Tango at Woodville on Sunday.
The son of Proisir won two steeplechases in New Zealand before heading across the Tasman to join Patrick Payne’s barn at the end of 2023, where he added another two victories over staying trips on the flat.
After falling in a maiden hurdle in April, Whiskey Tango returned to Waverley and will step out over the bigger fences again when contesting the David and Ellen Oliver (4000m).
“He’s been back for a few months, he had a fall at Ballarat in April, so the idea was to bring him home after that and give him a bit of quiet time,” O’Malley said. “We have quite a similar set-up to Paddy’s in Australia, a lot of paddocks and open space, which he enjoys.
“He’s starting to get his fitness up now and hopefully he’ll be ready to go. We put him in both fields (maiden hurdle and open steeplechase) to see what the numbers were like, but he’ll start in the steeplechase.
“They’re probably a little bit slick for him over hurdles, but he should be a nice chance in the chase.”
Immediately following that race, stablemate Landman will step out on debut in the Buckley Contracting (1100m), off the back of three tidy trials this year.
“He’s a nice horse, he goes pretty nicely,” O’Malley said. “He had a gallop between races on Sunday at Hawera with Ladies Man and Ghazzah, and he accounted himself really well there.
“I’m hoping he’ll go a good race on Sunday.”
Making his first appearance to the races in nine months will be Crunchie Boy, who takes on the Cancer Society NZ (1400m) after a slick trial at Foxton at the beginning of the month.
“We gave him a good break after his last run, he just wasn’t right after getting stung up on a hard track,” O’Malley said. “We put him away and he’s come back really well, he’s a lot more mature and a stronger horse.
“Hopefully, he can show that and go well for his owners.”
Three-win mare Steal My Thunder will complete their representation at the Woodville meeting in the Dannevirke Carriers (1400m), while Our Lady Brooke will aim to cap off her ultra-consistent form at New Plymouth on Saturday.
The Derryn mare saluted with an apprentice jockey on board at Hawera in July, and O’Malley hopes that formula can produce a similar result after carrying a senior rider to second place last start.
“She raced really well last start, but we did have a claimer engaged and they got off last minute, so Gryllsy (Craig Grylls) rode her, and she carried the full weight,” he said.
“It was his opinion that she is a nice claimers horse, because she tries hard. I think with Sima (Mxothwa) on, who is a good young rider with a three-kilo claim, she should be right there.”
