O’HALLORAN’S FITTING SATURDAY CITY BREAKTHROUGH

STEVE O’Halloran was closely associated with a bevy of Gai Waterhouse’s Golden Slipper winners and another when Adrian Bott became her training partner.

So it was fitting that the Hawkesbury trainer’s Saturday metropolitan breakthrough yesterday should also be at Rosehill Gardens, the home of the world’s richest two-year-old classic.

That came when the affable Irish expat scored in the Benchmark 78 Handicap (1100m) with Mal Coupe ($15), having taken the lightly-raced gelding from a Bathurst Maiden victory in late May to now two city triumphs; the previous at a Canterbury midweek on July 23.

It’s been some sort of preparation – four wins and two seconds from six starts – and O’Halloran was guarded in his pre-race assessment of the four-year-old’s chances yesterday.

“I was more confident about Mal Coupe in a Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap over the same distance at Royal Randwick the previous Saturday, but the meeting didn’t go ahead because of the wet weather,” O’Halloran said today.

‘He was up against all-comers this time, and I said to his owners Gary and Kay Stevensonm beforehand that I was mindful this was his sixth start of the campaign.

“Mal Coupe hadn’t shown any signs at home that he might have had enough. He was feeling good and was a happy horse.

”But you can never be sure until they race, and he was taking on better horses.

“Now we know we have a nice horse.

“They had their chance to beat him in the straight, and he fought them off.

“He licked his bowl overnight and has pulled up well, but I think it might be best to send him for a holiday on a winning note.

“I’m still to get to the bottom of him. We haven’t found his ceiling yet.”

Ridden by Winona Costin, who has been his partner in all six starts this time in work, Mal Coupe defeated Godolphin’s $2.70 favorite Polyglot and another $15 chance Catch The Glory.

O’Halloran’s experience taught him a valuable lesson with Mal Coupe at the end of his last preparation when he ran fifth over 1400m at Canberra in mid-December.

“That was the longest race I had given him, and it didn’t work,” he said.

“I was determined to keep him to shorter races this time, and the results are there.”

O’Halloran spent more than a decade and a half as a trusted Waterhouse lieutenant, and was associated with five of her Golden Slipper winners (Dance Hero, Sebring, Pierro, Overreach and Vancouver).

It was the same with the Waterhouse-Bott duo’s 2020 winner Farnan and O’Halloran took him to the Gold Coast for the Magic Millions earlier that year, but left to train in his own right before the Slipper when offered a position by Waratah Thoroughbreds’ Paul Fudge at his state of the art facility (now owned by RacingNSW) at Bong Bong.

When Fudge took ill, O’Halloran was left in limbo little more than 12 months later and moved to Hawkesbury to set up shop.

He has worked hard to build his own team, and his Saturday city breakthrough came on top of a benchmark eight winners last season.

Coincidentally, Mal Coupe’s dam, the unraced Enter, is a daughter of one of those Golden Slipper winners, Pierro.

Mal Coupe was bred by his owners, mating Enter with Xtravagant, and became the mare’s first foal.

Miraculously, he made it to the racetrack after crashing through a fence on the Stevenson’s property near Orange.

He was cut from the shoulder to the fetlock joint and, whilst veterinary advice was that he should be put down, his owners wanted to give him every chance to be a racehorse.

Hence, Mal Coupe got his name as that is the French translation for “badly cut”.

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Leading Newcastle trainer Kris Lees won his fifth race in the new season when accomplished wet tracker Cloudland ($9) took the Benchmark 94 Handicap (1200m) at Rosehill yesterday.

Ridden by Dylan Gibbons, Cloudland was gutsy in overcoming the outside barrier in a field of eight to defeat Lord Penman ($8.50) and Bunker Hut ($4.60) to post his fifth metropolitan success, which included the annual greys’ race at last November’s Melbourne Cup carnival at Flemington.

O’Halloran’s fellow Hawkesbury trainer Fabio Martino kicked off the new season with a young mare who now has a 50 per cent win record (three from six starts).

But he had to travel a fair way to do it.

Martino left his base after trackwork yesterday morning for the five-hour drive to Gilgandra, where he won the Benchmark 50 Handicap (1200m) with $2.60 favorite Grande Bellezza, who led throughout.

Ridden by Kembla Grange apprentice Ryan Bradley, the four-year-old daughter of Doncaster Mile winner Brutal was having her first start since early January.

Martino has a goal to take her back to the annual Bong Bong meeting in November, where Grande Belleza broke her Maiden last year before also scoring at Dubbo the following month.

Kembla Grange trainer Mitch Beer continued his excellent start to the season by winning with $16 chance Tod at Moruya today.

Partnered by Angus Villiers, who was riding at a meeting for the first time in 14 months, Tod, having only his second start, defeated leading Kembla Grange trainers Rob and Luke Price’s $2.10 favorite Zoustrong to give Beer his fourth success since August 1.

Story John Curtis, August 17, 2025 - Pics Bradley Photos