Oulaghan at his dominant best with Grand National double

In typical Mark Oulaghan style, the Awapuni horseman describes it as “a bit of an unusual statistic” that he holds the record of eight Grand National Steeplechase wins with just four horses.
Last Saturday at Riccarton Park, West Coast contributed to the race’s legacy as the fourth Oulaghan-trained horse – and the 13th in its near 150-year history – to complete a Grand National double. On top of that he set a metric weight-carrying record of 72 kg – and still made it look easy.
West Coast is yet another in the string of outstanding jumpers prepared by the laconic Awapuni trainer. The stamina-laden eight-year-old had been joined just an hour or so earlier by stablemate Berry The Cash when he won the Grand National Hurdles in just his fifth start over brush.
That was another record for Oulaghan, one that he now shares with Kevin Myers, who had become the first to take his Grand National Hurdles tally to five when Happy Star won 12 months ago. The ironic twist was that on Saturday Berry The Cash won at the expense of Happy Star, the hot favourite after his Sydenham Hurdles win a week earlier, but this time denied extending his trainer’s stand-alone record by the record-equalling winner.
For both Oulaghan and Myers, records go with the territory rather than being something they set out to hang their respective hats on. In the case of the Grand Nationals, year after year they’ve crossed Cook Strait with the right horses and the results speak for themselves.
The first of Oulaghan’s 13 Grand National wins came in the 1997 steeples with Deecee Seven, while Myers tasted his first of seven Grand National victories with Lucky Tip in the 2002 hurdles.
Both men let their actions do the talking and on Saturday Oulaghan was his usual reserved self as he accepted the accolades for both big wins with well-meant but minimal words. There’s no secret formula to Oulaghan’s success, something he portrays with a shrug if you should try and force it out of him, but which at the end of the day is based on good old-fashioned horsemanship.
Back in his day, former leading jumps jockey Tommy Hazlett would often say that the one thing you could be assured of when legged up on a Mark Oulaghan-trained jumper was its fitness. Grand National Hurdles winners Yourtheman (2006) and Counter Punch (2007) were testament to the Hazlett mantra and on Saturday as he roamed the birdcage with the Love Racing microphone in hand, nothing had changed.
“He’s a bloody freak, how many times has he come down here and pulled it off?” Hazlett asked without expecting – or needing – an answer.
On the same page was Canterbury Jockey Club CEO Tim Mills, a long-time jumps racing fan who this time was able to fully immerse himself at the receiving end as a part-owner of Berry the Cash.
“I shake my head at just how he keeps doing it,” Mills said. “Would you believe months ago Mark said to me ‘You wouldn’t mind winning the National would you? I think we’ve got the horse that can do it’.
“That horse only had his first hurdle start in May, yet Mark had seen enough to know he could do it. He’s been staying with me and Wendy while he’s been down for the carnival and you’d hardly know he’s there, he just goes about his business and tells you only as much as you need to know.”
While Mills ambitiously planned to “drink the Racecourse Hotel dry of the sponsor’s product” once his job was done after the final race on Saturday, Oulaghan was on a late afternoon flight back to Palmerston North.
“They didn’t need me to make a party, I’m sure Millsy and his mates would manage that perfectly well,” Oulaghan reflected when RaceForm caught up with him again on Monday.
There had been one important person missing from birdcage celebrations on Saturday – South Canterbury enthusiast Ron Williamson who was confined to hospital after taking ill a fortnight earlier. For decades the octogenarian has supported racing as an administrator, benefactor and owner and over the past two winters has been having the time of his life as the part-owner of West Coast with his wife Jennifer, son Henry and his wife Gaby.
Emotions were already running high before West Coast lined up on Saturday as the hot favourite to defend his Grand National Steeplechase crown. That was mostly down to Williamson’s regretable absence, but exacerbated by the news of the passing of Lorraine Anderton, the matriarch of one of southern racing’s iconic families and a great friend of the Williamsons.
West Coast’s successful defence in the trusty hands of regular pilot Shaun Fannin was far from straightforward. Carrying the maximum impost of 72 kilos, he was posted three-wide outside the leaders at the winning post second time round. But Fannin, to be fair, was unflustered as he slotted in for some cover commencing the final lap.
Then near disaster at Cutts’ Brush heading into the back straight country, as West Coast somehow got it wrong on landing and dipped severely. The combination of his own strength with long-legged Fannin’s stickability, and the big bay was quickly back into stride as he made up several lost lengths to be in second place stalking the new leader Carnaby.
At least two factors still stood in the way of victory – another poor jump or the six-kilograms he conceded his rivals. Neither came to bear as West Coast took the lead at the carriage paddock, went clear and put the issue to bed with a jump over the last that defied his exertions through the 5600m contest.
“I would probably have stayed down in Christchurch if Ron had been there, but I think for most of us the occasion was missing something important,” Oulaghan reflected on Monday. “I spoke to Ron on the phone later in the day and it was great to hear how much of a thrill he still got from what was a great performance by the horse and Shaun.”
The Grand National Hurdles win with Berry The Cash contrasted directly with the lack of experience of both the horse and his rider, stable employee Portia Matthews. It’s little more than 12 months since the English-born 25-year-old rode her first winner, Keyboard Warrior, in a maiden steeplechase at Te Rapa. How she reached that point and her progression to Grand National winner is a story in itself.
The daughter of a Kiwi mother and English father brought together in that other horse sport of polo, Matthews spent her formative years in the United Kingdom, where her father Crispian was a professional polo player. She was nine years old when the family returned permanently to New Zealand, settling in the western Waikato.
“Mum’s uncles were John and Jimmy Watson, from the Cambridge polo family, and Mum first went to the UK as a groom for Kerry Packer’s polo team,” Matthews said. “That’s how she met Dad, then when we moved back to New Zealand horses continued to be a big part of family life.
“When I was young I never had my own horse, I learnt to ride by exercising the polo ponies, but then I went through pony club, where I got my A Certificate as well as doing heaps of coaching – I ended up Waikato Young Coach of the Year.
“Eventing and showjumping gave me a good grounding, then after high school I studied for a degree in Sports and Exercise Science.”
Matthews’ introduction to racing came as a trackwork rider for trainers Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman in Cambridge, where became acquainted with former jumps jockey Shelley Houston.
“Shelley encouraged me into jumps riding, but it wasn’t easy getting started. Before I got my licence I would turn up at point-to-points hoping to get a break.
“That’s how I first got to know Mark (Oulaghan), at a point-to-point at Levin, when he actually put me on Berry The Cash after the rider he had booked didn’t turn up.
“I eventually got my licence and rode my first winner on the last day of the (2021-22) season at Te Rapa. Mark realised I was pretty determined to make a go of it, which led to him offering me a job and I’ve been there ever since.
“I owe him so much – there’s no way I would have got this far otherwise – and winning the Grand National was just the best way to repay him as well as the other owners for putting their faith in me.
“It was great to be part of a huge day for the stable with two horses like that, and also to finish second on Kentucky Boy for West Coast’s owners. West Coast is a bit of a dude, he’s the stable favourite with everyone. Berry The Cash is different, he’s quite sensitive and is still getting there mentally.”
Along with Oulaghan and Mills, Berry The Cash’s ownership group is made up of long-time Wairarapa enthusiasts Ray Southey and John and Gaye Meyer. They have a lot to look forward to with the still untapped son of Jakkalberry, but his jumping career is likely to go on hold until next year.
“He’s still got his share of flat ability,” says Oulaghan, “so depending on how he is over the next little while I might look at running him in that two-mile race at New Plymouth next month. It’s a Jericho Cup qualifier and if he was to really step up I suppose we’d have to consider taking him over to that race at Warrnambool.”
The two rating points that West Coast accrued with his Grand National win took him to a steeplechase rating of 96, three more than the country’s other outstanding jumper The Cossack. The prospect of the pair clashing for just the second time in the Great Northern Steeplechase at Te Rapa on September 17 is tantalising to say the least.
Their first meeting, in last month’s Wellington Steeplechase, was inconclusive as West Coast strode to victory while The Cossack rallied for third after copping interference at a crucial point in the race.
The Cossack carried half a kilogram more then, but assuming standard ratings-based handicapping protocols should they both line up in the Great Northern, the tables will be turned with a two-kilogram differential in The Cossack’s favour – 72kg versus 70.5. What that might mean over the final telling stages of the 6400m race is at this point academic, and will depend on a decision to be made in the West Coast camp.
The Cossack hasn’t been seen out since the Wellington Steeplechase, but will have a run on the flat at Rotorua on Sunday ahead of next Saturday’s Great Northern dress rehearsal in the Pakuranga Hunt Cup at Te Rapa.
“We haven’t ruled out a start in the Great Northern, but we’ve got think about whether he’s done enough for the year,” Oulaghan said with regard to extending West Coast’s season.
“He seems to be fine after getting home from Christchurch, but a lot will depend on how he does in the next week or two. He’s very fit and he wouldn’t need another run, and while we’ll give it some thought at some stage, it’s not a decision we have to make just yet.”