NEWCASTLE TRAINER BACK IN WINNING LIST WITH A “FREEBIE”

ALBERT O’Hearn took some convincing to resume his training career even when he was offered a horse for FREE!

Eventually he relented and more than eight years after training his first winner and pulling up stumps, he was back in the winning list at Wyong yesterday with six-year-old gelding Devious Mind.

Ridden by Sydney apprentice Molly Bourke, Devious Mind ($5) defeated leading Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup’s Gladstone Grande ($4.80) and Wyong trainer Kristen Buchanan’s $2.45 favorite Hard Jakka in the Provincial Maiden Handicap (1100m).

Gladstone Grande was a $100,000 yearling, and Hard Jakka fetched $60,000.

O’Hearn, who brings Devious Mind to Newcastle for morning gallops, was satisfied enough to train his first winner Snitz Kiss at the Cessnock Anzac Day meeting in 2017.

“That was it,” he said this morning. “I was happy to get my first winner and decided not to continue.”

O’Hearn wasn’t planning to train again until a friend Wendy Platz told him she knew of a horse which the owner didn’t want to continue with.

“Devious Mind (a $35,000 Inglis Classic yearling purchase in 2021) was trained at Hawkesbury by Kevin May,” O’Hearn explained.

“I spoke with Kevin and wasn’t really interested about taking the horse.

“He had given him five starts (and three trials – he ran second in two of them), and said he had enough ability to win in town, but just couldn’t get him to show it in races, so perhaps that is how he got his name.

“The owner apparently didn’t want to keep going with Devious Mind after he ran last of seven at Nowra on New Year’s Eve 2022.

“Kevin spoke with me again, and I still wasn’t interested until I looked at his breeding a week later and found out he was a grandson of Lady Jakeo (who won the 1993 Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes for two-year-olds at Caulfield).

“I have a property at Maitland and thought why not give it a go, especially as the owner didn’t want any money for Devious Mind.

“Kevin said he would buy me a drink if I could win a race with him.

“You don’t get anything for free these days, and I really wasn’t expecting anything flash.

“But I got a nice surprise when he walked off the float at my place. He was a good sort.”

O’Hearn, who helped out his father-in-law, well-known former trainer Cec Herne, when he was preparing his small team, at first had trouble getting someone to ride the son of Headwater when he began bringing him to Broadmeadow to work.

“Eventually Kacie Adams, who has since moved to Taree, helped me out by riding Devious Mind in his gallops,” he said.

O’Hearn had started Devious Mind 14 times without a placing before he took him to Wyong yesterday, and explained that the gelding wasn’t a good traveller.

“He was a lather of sweat when we arrived at Wyong yesterday,” he said.

“I gave him a good spell after he ran on the Beaumont track in December, and his two runs back at Newcastle last month (fourth at $151 and sixth at $8.50) weren’t bad at all.

“Molly (Bourke) gave him a beaut ride out in front yesterday, and everyone was thrilled to get a win with the horse.

“I was more relieved. I still haven’t worked him out yet and I don’t think Devious Mind has worked himself out either.”

Devious Mind earned $21,000 for breaking his maiden status. A very nice result for a lot of hard work on O’Hearn’s part with a horse who cost absolutely nothing.  

HOOFNOTE: Devious Mind’s nickname is “David”, and O’Hearn hopes to find another suitable race for him now that he has a benchmark rating (54 after yesterday’s victory).

Interestingly, yesterday’s beaten favorite Hard Jakka is the last foal of the now retired Miss Jakeo, whose dam was in fact the Blue Diamond winner Lady Jakeo.

Devious Mind’s dam Lady Diva (also now retired from breeding) is also a daughter of Lady Jakeo.

O’Hearn is training only two horses. The other is Ocean Shores, a Fastnet Rock gelding which Cec Herne bought online with a random bid of $600 in May 2023.

The seven-year-old gelding, who started out with Chris Waller and won a 1550m Maiden at Canterbury in 2022, after Herne bought him went to Leo Clapham at Casino, who won a race with him at Lismore in December 2023.

He has had five unplaced starts for O’Hearn, and is currently having a let-up.

Story John Curtis, September 1, 2025 - Pics Bradley Photos