On May 6 2020, I received an email from Richard’s granddaughter, Maureen in the United Kingdom , enquiring about Richard O’Connor, a Moorefield horse trainer. She had found my Moorefield research on the internet.
I had found Richard in the Sands Directories as being located in French Street, Kogarah in 1911. No number was given in French Street. His house, according to Maureen, was at 8 French Street, and the property was called “Sunnyside”. His brother-in- law was Moorefield trainer, Hugh Roarty, who was believed to have married Catherine Campbell, a sister of O’Connor’s wife, Margaret.
On taking up training, he trained Pendant at Moorefield with whom he won the 1902 and 1903 Carrington Stakes , the 1903 Oakleigh Handicap and the 1906 Newmarket Handicap. Pendant later became the dam of the 1920 Melbourne Cup third placegetter, Queen Comedy. He also trained the 1908 Newmarket Handicap winner, with Scotland after having won the 1907 Oakleigh Plate with Beresina. He won the 1907 Doncaster with Istyria.
Richard trained the winner of the 1912 Melbourne Cup, Piastre, which was ridden by his Newcastle based jockey, Albert Shanahan. He is believed to have supervised the training of the 1913 Melbourne Cup winner, Posinatus when the horse owner/trainer based at Morpeth, Hunter Valley had refused to be vaccinated against the raging plague .This prevented him from crossing the NSW / Victorian border.
He moved to Randwick in possibly 1912, and took the name Sunnyside Stables name with him. Richard was held in high esteem for his integrity as well as his success. When he retired in 1934, the AJC held a testimonial for him and allowed him to keep his silver badge of admission to Randwick. He had been known to secretly keep a second stop watch in his pocket as a check on crafty trainers who claimed erroneous time for their horses at morning trials.
Before becoming a trainer, Richard had been a jockey and won the Sydney Cup on Darebin in 1883 when he would have been about 20 years of age. He was given a diamond tie pin to acknowledge this win –he went duck shooting in the swamp at Moorefield to celebrate his Sydney Cup win and the pin fell off!
Jockeys and often trainers were only sometimes mentioned in the records of the day until the 1880’s. References exist but they are scant and minimal. Only the leading jockeys received sketches.
Information from fellow racing historians, Graham Caves and John Payne. A thankyou to Maureen, Richard’s granddaughter for information.
