DANSILI PUTS SPRING INTO O'GORMAN
A small Newmarket-based consigning team were
responsible for the first significant sale of the session,
a 120,000gns Dansili colt (Lot 118) out of a sister to Champion
Filly User Friendly. Run by former jockey Emma O’Gorman and her
partner, Armando Duarte, Seven Springs Stables hit the jackpot when
Hong Kong-based clients of agent Anthony Stroud signed for the
youngster, a 17,000gns purchase at the October sale.
The same vendors had one of the key successes at last year's
breeze-up when selling the subsequent Gr 1 winner of the
Criterium de Saint-Cloud Paita for 32,000gns. O’Gorman, whose
father Bill is a trainer in Newmarket, rode 150 winners on the Flat
until her retirement from the weighing room six years ago. She
said: “I’ve always looked at yearlings, but the only way to get
into them was to go through the Breeze-up route. “I didn’t have
orders from trainers, so I had to look for cheap yearlings I could
prepare and ride myself. The aim is to prove we can select a good
horse.” O’Gorman shares a yard on the Hamilton Road with her
brother, P J, who is close to taking out his own trainer’s licence.
Her boyfriend, Duarte, is an amateur rider
who comes from Portugal.
Of the Dansili colt, O’Gorman said: “We’re putting eight horses
through this sale, six that I own and two for other people, and we
always thought he was our best hope. He was really correct and very
handsome. The pressure’s off now.”
Date:
15 April 2005