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David O'Meara: Horses to follow ahead of the 2022 season including Lord Glitters, Escobar and Summerghand
We paid a visit to Willow Farm to get the lowdown from trainer David O'Meara on his 2022 team headed by the popular veteran Lord Glitters.
Older horses
We gave him a run on the all-weather a while ago and he ran a nice race having not run for the best part of two years. He’s won at York before as a two-year-old and we were looking forward to bringing him back there to run in the five-furlong handicap on Thursday. We were delighted with his first run back, he looks a good fast horse at home and we’re looking forward to getting him going on the grass.
He won a Listed race at Redcar last year, but it took him a while to settle into things with us, so you’d hope there might be a bit more to come from him this year. He’s an exuberant, free-going sort and he might be seen to best effect going round a bend. I suspect we’ll be looking for similar Listed and minor Group races for him, perhaps the odd top-end handicap as well because his mark would be suitable for those.
He was one of our horses who got a bit sick early on in the year, so he was just held up a bit. He goes very nicely and he was moving really well and looking like a very nice horse earlier in the year. He still is really and he’s just going to take a bit of time to get up to fitness. He’s looking like a horse who will be seen at some of the big tracks around here in some decent quality handicaps.
He ran well at Lingfield last time. He is a half-brother to Prince of Arran and Makawee and having those two horses in his pedigree suggests time and distance is what he wants. It is looking that way and that race was over a mile and five furlongs at Lingfield. He’s run well on both starts so far this year and you’d just hope that he continues improving. He should have races in him off his mark – he’s a nice horse and very consistent.
I thought he’d run better in the Lincoln, his work going into that had been really good. It’s just taken a couple of runs for him to warm up and he’s getting better with racing through the early part of the year. He’s already had a few goes and his run in the Victoria Cup was very good the other day. You’d certainly think he can be competitive in those good handicaps and it seems like a big field and a strong pace suits him well.
He was improving on the all-weather and then he got sick which is why he hasn’t run since. He’s working his way back now. He got booted up a long way for winning what probably wasn’t the most competitive race at Lingfield, but he won it very well and he’s a horse who has done nothing but improve since he started here. He’s going to have to run in some of those good races over a mile given his mark, but there’s no real reason why he won’t be effective on the grass. A decent one-mile handicap at Ascot or York is probably something that we’ll look towards.
He got sick in early-February and was probably run down for about three and a half weeks with a high temperature and a snotty nose. We had quite a few who did that and he’s going to be a bit later starting. I suspect he might be making his seasonal debut in early-June. We’ll get him back for Goodwood for their big handicap and ultimately the Balmoral Handicap at Ascot. He’ll take in a Listed race or a Group Three as well if the timing was right, that’s his sort of thing.
A bit of ease in the ground would suit him well, not that he necessarily needs it. The run of the race probably didn’t suit him at Ripon, they didn’t go that quick. He’d obviously won the time before that at Thirsk. We’d be looking towards Royal Ascot. He could go right up in trip for one of the long-distance races there, but equally we could look at the one-mile-and three-quarter handicap.
He’ll run in a lot of similar races to what he has done in the past. He’ll probably have a run somewhere just to sharpen him up and then we’ll look at races like the Wokingham and the Stewards’ Cup at the big meetings through the season. He’s won the Coral Sprint Trophy at York a couple of times at the end of the season on easy ground. It will be a very similar programme to what he’s followed in the past and they’re hard to win those races, so you just hope that one day it falls right for him and he hits the target. He’s probably best suited by a bit of give in the ground.
It was a deserved win for him at Ripon last time. He’s tough, consistent and tries very hard. He’s had a busy start to the season already, but he seems to thrive on his racing. Given the mark he is on now, he’ll be looking at good quality handicaps. He ran down at Epsom at the Derby meeting last year and I imagine that we might look there again.
She’s a nice filly and you’d think that she’s probably going to improve again this year – she’s got a pedigree which points towards that. It was a tough ask at Newmarket first time up, but she acquitted herself pretty well. She’ll be sharper for it and she doesn’t need to be running in races quite so deep as that. She’s got a mark in the mid-80s and there’s a fair chance she’s a bit better than that. Obviously, with a filly with a nice pedigree you’re looking for a bit of black type somewhere down the line, but maybe we’ll progress through handicaps into that. You’d think she might get a bit further on her pedigree, but she doesn’t work like a slow horse.
He won the Bahrain International Trophy in November and the Singspiel Stakes for a second time in Dubai in February, so it was a good winter. I think that showed us that if he’s not as good as ever, then he’s not far off. In Bahrain he gave a penalty to the likes of Barney Roy and beat them. It’s good form and he won the Singspiel pretty well, so I think he retains a good deal of his ability. He had a sprained joint which kept him out of World Cup night, which was unfortunate, but he’s back training and hopefully he’ll appear in early-June, maybe in the Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown. He’s a hard horse to place with his Group Two penalty. I think in the Sandown race he’ll carry a fair bit extra because it’s a Group Three. In the past we’ve gone down the Queen Anne route, but we feel that he probably wants a touch further nowadays. Races like the Strensall Stakes later in the year should be on his agenda.
We gelded him during the winter and that’s settled him down a bit – he used to get quite stressed. He ran a nice race at Ripon on his first run of the year a couple of weeks ago over five furlongs. He was a bit unlucky, he was locked up with little room to get out. It was only his first run of the year, so hopefully he can build on it. He’s versatile and the flat six at York suits him well.
He won at Beverley coming from a good way back and finishing his race off strongly. He was a good-quality horse in France before that and we’re hoping that he can get back on the up – it was certainly looking that way with his first two runs this season. You wouldn’t be afraid to go up to 10 furlongs the way he’s been running, either.
He ran well on his reappearance at Thirsk and I thought he ran a nice race at Sandown as well when third in the Group Two Mile. I don’t really know what went wrong at Haydock, it was a below-par effort. We’re still none the wiser why he did that, it’s unlike him, but I’m sure he’ll bounce back. I think we’ll mix handicaps and pattern races with him. He falls somewhere in between seven furlongs and a mile – he likes an easy mile or a stiff seven. I can’t imagine a race like the Balmoral would be his bag, but Goodwood might be.
He was proving very consistent and just not finding a winning opportunity before he went to York in October and absolutely bolted up with the cheekpieces on for the first time. They clearly did a bit of something for him and he then ran extremely well when he went to the Balmoral Handicap at Ascot from a 6-lb higher mark. He’s one for whom you’d have to be thinking of top-end handicaps and maybe a pop at a Listed race along the way. He’ll have to improve again in order to win off the mark he’s up to now, but he’ll run in those big handicaps and hopefully he’s good enough to win one.
He was in Dubai through the winter, but the flat six furlongs there doesn’t necessarily suit him that well. He seems to love Newmarket, he was only just touched off in a Wokingham at Ascot and he’s won a Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood. It will be all similar targets again this year. Last year he won the Abernant Stakes, the All-Weather Final and the Hopeful Stakes, so he had a great year. The year before he won the Stewards’ Cup, so hopefully he can bag a nice one again.
She’s a pretty smart filly and she’s already got a bit of black type from before she came here. She got Group-placed black type at Lingfield, which was another really good run. She’s come back in good form and that was her first start of the season, so she’s entitled to be a bit better for it. She hasn’t been here too long, that was only her third start for the yard. She’s a talented filly and she’ll continue on the hunt for a Listed race win because she does look like she’s well capable of getting one.
Three-year-olds
He’s started the season really well. He’s a horse who got handicapped over the course of the winter on the all-weather and the all-weather perhaps didn’t suit him particularly well. He’s improved for being gelded, switching to the turf and going into handicaps. It was a good run at Ripon the other day and it suggests he’ll remain competitive off his handicap mark. There might be a bit of scope to squeeze another win or two out of him.
His third behind Flaming Rib on his nursery debut at Thirsk in July is a really good bit of form. He is probably a nicely enough handicapped horse at the start of the season and I suspect that he should have a race or two in him. He won at Ayr last year as well, but the Thirsk run behind Flaming Rib obviously catches the eye. I think he’s probably a horse who is going to improve this year.
He ran a really nice race at Thirsk the other day and that was just his second start. He’s by New Approach and you would think that he’s going to stay at least a mile and a quarter, although he’s not a slow horse by any means. It’s still early days with him and he’ll have another run in a maiden or a novice back on a straight track if we can find the right race. Then he’ll probably go up in trip and into handicaps. He’s got the potential to do really well this year – he’s a really nice horse.
She carried a penalty and was only just collared for second at Haydock behind a winner who looked pretty smart. She’s unexposed, she’s got a nice pedigree and she looks like she’s done well from two to three. You would say that she’s likely to improve again this year.
She got better with each of her runs last year. She finished second on her reappearance at Chelmsford and that was probably an improvement on her winning form at Lingfield in December. She is entitled to come on again for that run and she’s another filly for Clipper Logistics who I’d think will keep on improving. She hasn’t gone on the grass yet, but there’s no reason why she won’t handle that.
She was disappointing in the Nell Gwyn, we thought she would run better than she did. She was a filly who came from the breeze-up sales last year and she was just a little bit hot when she arrived. She would train on her own rather than in the main string, so we maybe didn’t have the handle on her that we did on the others going into the reappearance run. She was just a bit rusty and she should be much better than she showed there. She probably should have been third in the Oh So Sharp Stakes at Newmarket at the end of last season and she does look like a filly who should be black type quality. She’s back with the main string now having relaxed better over time. She’ll have another go at Listed races and can hopefully pick one of those up.
She’s a really good-looking filly with a nice pedigree. She was bred by her owners and they did well with Great Scot before they sold him. She won at Beverley the other day and overcame a little bit of trouble. She was probably value for winning a little bit further than she did. She’s physically done really well from two to three and you would say that she’ll keep on improving. We’ll probably try and move her up through handicaps and again she’s a filly who you’d hope might have the possibility of nicking a bit of black type at some point.
Two-year-olds
You’d have hoped for a little bit better from STAR OF LADY M at Chester, but that was a much tougher ask than she’d had previously and she was just found out on the day. Her first two starts she won quite nicely and at Redcar she beat Primrose Ridge who has come out and won well at Beverley. She started the season really well and we’ll keep on looking for conditions races until there’s an option to do something else because she’s got two wins on the board already.
Of the others, FAMILY TIES has looked a really nice filly at home. She hasn’t quite delivered that on the track yet, but I’d say at some point she probably will. NOBLE TITLE has got a good pedigree and again looks a nice horse. A filly called JUST JANET is also well worth a mention. She ran at Yarmouth on her debut where she was a bit green. She’ll be better when she gets up to six furlongs and she could be one to follow. She looks like she could be quite a smart filly.
ADVANTAGE is a nice type for later in the season. He is by Profitable out of Dutch Rose, a mare we used to train.
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