Following the end of his 10-year riding
career, O’Meara completed all the courses necessary to become a
trainer and, after a brief flirtation with property development, took
over the training licence from James Hetherton at Arthington Barn
Stables in Nawton, North Yorkshire in June 2010. He saddled his first
winner, Simple Jim, ridden by Silvestre De Sousa, in a lowly 0-60
handicap at Redcar the same month and finished the season with a
respectable total of 25 winners.
Since then, it’s fair to say that his
rise through the training ranks has been nothing short of meteoric.
In 2011, O’Meara saddled 48 winners, including his first success at
Group level, Blue Bajan in the Henry II Stakes at Sandown. In
2012, he saddled 69 winners, including Penitent in the bet365 Mile at
Sandown and the Nayef Joel Stakes at Newmarket. In 2013, he saddled
100 winners in a season for the first time and has repeated that feat
every season since.
O’Meara has developed a reputation
for improving horses joining him from other yards. Indeed, his first
Group 1 winner, G Force, in the Betfred Sprint Cup at Haydock in
2014, was a 25,000 guineas castoff from Richard Hannon Snr.. Other
notable winners include Amazing Maria, a one-time Classic hope for
previous trainer Ed Dunlop, whom O’Meara saddled to win the
Falmouth Stakes as a four-year-old in 2015 and Suedois, acquired from
French trainer Christian Baillet as a five-year-old in 2016, who won
the Shadwell Turf Miles Stakes at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky in
2017.
In August 2015, it was rumoured that
O’Meara was taking over from Aidan O’Brien at Ballydoyle, but he
scotched the speculation, saying, “I have never been approached by
anyone at Coolmore regarding Ballydoyle. There is no substance to the
rumour.” Nevertheless, in January 2016 he did move, to Willow Farm,
a multi-million pound training facility in Upper Helmsley on the
outskirts of York, to accommodate his growing number of horses.
Possible ‘dark’ horses to look out
for in 2018 include the three-year-old colts Consequences and
Safrani. The former, by Dandy Man, was found wanting in Listed and
Pattern company last season, but signed off with an easy win in a
small conditions race at Newmarket, while the latter, by the
excellent young sire Lope De Vega, was well beaten, at 66/1, in a
valuable maiden at York in August, but was subsequently gelded.
