Jonjo's fast show tops Festival bill

Lydia Hislop13 April 2012

Conversation with Jonjo O'Neill is straight off

The Fast Show.

His new yard Jackdaws Castle, its freshly installed polytrack gallops, the pristine staff accommodation - all brilliant. The fact he's provided with all the latest training gizmos - brilliant. Ditto having strong chances in a handful of next month's Festival events, rather than an outside squeak in just the one.

As for millionaire Manchester United shareholder JP, he's a brilliant man and a "bloody brilliant" landlord.

Two things could be a bit more brilliant, though. First, O'Neill's top novice hurdler, Miros, could still be alive. The German-bred was second favourite for Cheltenham's Gerrard Supreme Novices' Hurdle, having won his last three races, but dropped dead of a heart attack on the gallops last week.

Second, his strike rate for the great man leaves a little to be desired. Not that he hasn't already - with two months yet to go until term ends - improved significantly on his tally in previous seasons. Not that JP would mention it anyway.

"People say he's a lucky owner, but I wouldn't entirely agree," says O'Neill. "He is in the sense that he's got Istabraq and Aidan O'Brien has trained that horse to win three Champion Hurdles - hopefully a fourth on Tuesday week. But JP gets his share of bad luck and I just can't seem to win for him at the moment.

"We lost one of his horses, Par Three, at Sandown earlier this month and he's just heard that Siberian Gale, who's a devil to keep sound, has fractured his cannon-bone and won't run again until next season.

"Yet he feels more sorry for me than himself. That's how well he understands this game."

O'Neill need not worry - he's delivered for McManus where it matters.

All three of his Cheltenham Festival winners to date - Danny Connors in 1991, Front Line in 1995 and Master Tern in the 2000 Vincent O'Brien County Hurdle, the most recent Festival race staged thanks to the intervention of foot-and-mouth disease in 2001 - carried McManus's famous green-and-gold-hooped silks.

O'Neill himself often wore them during his 14 years and 885 wins as a jockey.

But despite two riding championshipsa then-record 149 wins during the 1977-78 season and that glorious 1984 Champion Hurdle/1986 Cheltenham Gold Cup double on brave mare, Dawn Run, training was always the aim.

Cancer nearly ended that dream before it started on his retirement from the saddle in 1986. But, when after two years he got the all-clear, McManus sent him horses to train. From a ramshackle farm in Penrith, O'Neill built a thriving stable.

Yet his eye was always on a place down south, somewhere suitable to have a pop at Martin Pipe's stranglehold of the jump-trainers' championship. When he saw Jackdaws Castle, the base for thentrainer David Nicholson's two-term title takeover in the early 90s, his enthusiasm for the place infected McManus.

Jackdaws Castle was designed as a state-of-the-art facility. But that was 10 years ago and, with 'The Duke' Nicholson's retirement looming in 1999, it slid imperceptibly into neglect. Young trainers - Alan King, then Richard Phillips - succeeded him, but yard owner Colin Smith was already considering selling. When, after much speculation, McManus bought and O'Neill moved in last May, it was a property in need of some renovation.

"I didn't say anything about the problems to JP - I didn't want him changing his mind about buying," said O'Neill. "But I didn't have to, he knew more than me. Safety of the horses and comfort of the staff are most important to him. That's why he immediately had the gallops relaid and new accommodation built."

Other mod cons are in hand. "If JP thinks something is a good, sensible idea, it gets done - but you'd better not be slow about it. He's been here three times since he bought, only for about half an hour each. He just looked at the horses and didn't say much. He's a busy fella."

Unusually for a trainer changing premises, results have been instantaneous.

Despite his yard's bout of coughing in November, O'Neill overtook his previous best of 58 winners the very next month. Only Somerset big three - Martin Pipe, Paul Nicholls and Philip Hobbs - have trained more than his current total of 87.

He boasts a Cheltenham team of more than a dozen, including professional cripple Legal Right in the Gold Cup, and leading Triumph Hurdle duo, Giocomo and Quazar. But, gun to head and soft ground allowing, O'Neill reckons Keen Leader in the Royal & Sun Alliance Hurdle is his best shot.

"I've got better horses and this place gets more from them. It's also the kind of facility that attracts big owners with good horses," he explains.

It's more than that: it's what happens when an exceptional will is nurtured. Make no mistake, O'Neill will have the last word.

"How do you become champion trainer? I don't know the answer, but I'll get there.

"I didn't know how I'd get to be champion jockey in the time of John Francome, but I did it. You just keep working away."

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