It was a special thrill for Stephen Sheehy when Oxbridge won at Listed level at Ascot in January and he’s desperate to relive those memories on his home deck at Albany on Sunday.
It was as good as it gets for Stephen Sheehy on New Year’s Day in Perth, he couldn’t have scripted it any better with Oxbridge, an 8YO, reaching a career peak when storming past hot favourite, Bopping Blue in the Listed Summer Scorcher (1000m).
The cherry on top in what was an already memorable day for Sheehy, Oxbridge, a veteran of 57 race starts, secured the 62-year-old former jockey turned trainer with his first metropolitan and stakes related victory.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Sheehy said to Racing WA.
“I aimed him up at it, but it’s just unbelievable to win it.
“I got very excited.”
Oxbridge has flourished in his new bush environment and has given owners a lucrative financial return after he was sold for a relatively cheap $10,000.
The City Place gelding has done his best work under Sheehy’s direction, progressing to win nine of 13 races joining the stables in 2022.
Even though Oxbridge is in a career renaissance, Sheehy deflects the role he’s played and says a family approach has been behind the horse’s revitalisation.
“When I first took him on, he just kept on improving and improving,” Sheehy said.
“He was happier and happier with how I work him away from the track.
“I was sort of confident he hadn’t been able to show his best.
“To maintain it until his eight and nine is very surprising.
“But. there’s another story to it, the farrier is my son, in the third year of an apprenticeship in Perth.
“He started shoeing that horse (Oxbridge) 18-months ago and a horse called Agent Jay.
“Both those horses with their feet, the boy has improved them out of sight.
“He’s been a big part of it, because in the past 18-months the horses have gone boom.
“I’m not just blowing the kid’s trumpet; he has helped them a lot.”
Oxbridge will a have to climb the mountain again in a big race against a crack sprinting field in the Wellington and Reeves Bluff Knoll (1099m), headed by classy Steve Wolfe-trained four-year-old Rope Them, a Colonel Reeves (1100m) victor in November, but Sheehy says he’s been working like a winner.
He’s been off the scene just briefly, ready to launch again since his third start and only loss of his present campaign in the Miss Andretti Stakes (1100m) when he faded to fifth after leading and finished 1 ½ lengths behind Man Crush.
High in optimism, Sheehy said he would be disappointed if Oxbridge didn’t play a part in the finish.
“The way he worked last Saturday morning, he will be very, very hard to beat.” Sheehy said.
“If nothing goes wrong between now and then, they’ll know he’ll be right there, top three, I reckon.”
Oxbridge can fly the flag proudly for the locals after Perth sprinter, Gemma’s Son, for young trainer, Embroja-Lee Altieri, took out last year’s inaugural Bluff Knoll.
Named after the highest peak of the Stirling Ranges in the Great Southern region, the Bluff Knoll slot race, at $400,000 in prize money, is WA’s richest country event.
Jockey, Holly Watson, such an integral partner in Oxbridge’s Summer Scorcher triumph at the beginning of the year, has the ride again.
