O’Reilly Filly A Star In The Making

22 January 2012

Pussy Willow looks another potential headline act for WS stallion O’Reilly following her brilliant victory at Trentham on Saturday. The two-year-old displayed a stunning turn of foot to claim the Gr 2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes and maintain her perfect record.

A winner on debut at Ruakaka earlier this month, she came from well off the pace with a cracking final 200 metres on Saturday to win with ease. “She’s still very raw and green,” trainer Stephen McKee said, “She got a bit lost, but she’s absolute top class.”

Out of the multiple winner and Gr 1 performer Octapussy, Pussy Willow is a sister to the promising Pussy O’Reilly who is also raced by her breeders Sir Patrick and Lady Justine Hogan and Peter Walker. Pussy O’Reilly has also been a winner for Cambridge trainer Don Sellwood and in the spring finished fourth in the Gr 3 Gold Trail Stakes.

O’Reilly completed a notable juvenile double when his son Shamexpress was successful at the first time of asking at Flemington. The Danny O’Brien-trained colt is out of the Volksraad mare Volkrose and was bred and sold, for $130,000 at Karaka, by Beltana Stud’s Richard Rutherford who has been a staunch supporter of O’Reilly.

The Corner with Garry Chittick

I keep on proposing my retirement from the burden of a weekly Corner. I make the excuse it is hard to be credible, hard to let the two of you know about anything in our sport that hasn’t been covered before.

27 October 2025

WS-bred On The Lash scores at Sha Tin

Twenty-four hours following the final WS Cox Plate meeting run on the Moonee Valley track of old before it shuts for two years to make way for a new precinct, the race’s 2004 winner, Savabeel, continued his roll of runners, and this time it was via five-year-old On The Lash (ex Candelabra) at Sha Tin.