Crumpet O’Reilly the Toast of Perth

The New Zealand-bred and sold galloper Crumpet O’Reilly (NZ) (O’Reilly) made it five consecutive wins as he accomplished the rise to stakes level in Perth with victory in the Listed A$100,000 Perth Ice Works-W.A St. Leger (2100m) at Ascot.

Crumpet O’Reilly (NZ) successful in the Listed Perth Ice Works-W.A St. Leger at Ascot.

The four-year-old gelding was having just his ninth raceday start and started as the race favourite. The son of O’Reilly was unplaced at his first three starts with former trainer Alan Mathews but since joining Adam Durrant’s stable he has finished second before winning five straight races since October.

The Karaka Premier Sale graduate was restrained to second-last early in the nine-horse field in a slowly run race, before leading Perth rider William Pike opted to make a mid-race move and travelled around the field three-wide to find the front at the 1400m mark.

Challenges came as the field entered the straight but Crumpet O’Reilly was able to fend them off and ran out to victory by half-a-length carrying 58kgs.

“It is a testament to his ability to come so far in his first long race preparation, he only had three starts last preparation with another trainer,” commented Durrant. “He is certainly heading in the right direction to be a better than average sort of stayer.

“For him to be able to come from a maiden to winning at stakes level in one preparation and to win five in a row, and it should have been six in a row he was a certainty beaten in his maiden, is no mean feat.

“I was asked to train the horse after his first preparation so I got lucky because the hard work was already done. His runs with his previous trainer were good runs, I actually won a race or two that he competed in. When they were getting beaten they must have taken notice of who was winning the race and that may have been part of the reason they came to me.

“Being an O’Reilly he was always going to need time so it would have been unfair to expect him to win early on but in saying that he is a nice type, a good strong type but being by O’Reilly out of a Grosvenor mare I think a bit of time will be right up his alley.

“He has got really good stamina. We saw first and second up that he was really impressive whereas at his last two runs he may have been a little bit over the top and had enough but he has still been good enough to win.

“He has gone to the paddock today. I don’t want to push him too far and he has done a good job. He is going to come back a more than capable stayer.”

Owned by Mr P D Sheppeard, Mr W S Pausin, Mr B J Hanson & Mr G J Ferguson, Crumpet O’Reilly has earned $123,790 in his short career.

Bred by Keltern Stud Ltd, Crumpet O’Reilly was purchased by Perth-based bloodstock agent John Chalmers for $70,000 at the 2011 Karaka Premier Sale from Esker Lodge. The son of last season’s Champion Sire O’Reilly is a full-brother to Group 1 Queensland Oaks runner-up Zumanity being out of the Grosvenor mare Zahn.

O’Reilly has 45 yearlings catalogued for the upcoming New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Premier Sale.

Later in the day at Ascot, Kincaple (NZ) (Pentire) nearly made it a winning double for the Karaka Premier Sale with a valiant second placing behind last start Group 1 winner Ihtsahymn (Ihtiram) in the Group 2 C.B. Cox Stakes after leading the field and being run down late to finish half-a-length behind the winner.

It was a gallant effort by the eight-year-old who had to carry 59kgs with the winner only having 51kgs, and the son of Pentire beat home many of Western Australia’s leading performers such as Group 1 winners Mr Moet (Mosayter) and Luckygray (Bradbury’s Luck).