When lowly rated cast-off Aisling Oscar stepped onto Tapeta for the first time at the end of November, few could have predicted that his achievements inside two remarkable months would turn him into the unlikely headline act of the All-Weather season.
Plucked from obscurity by co-owner Dan Astbury for just 3,200gns back in the autumn, the gelded son of Rajasinghe had barely been sighted in 18 months of underwhelming performances in basement grade Irish handicaps.
But when he arrived at Adrian Keatley’s Malton yard back in September the now five-year-old began a transformation that saw him complete an unthinkable seven-timer at Newcastle on 22nd January, thanks largely to his trainer’s meticulous placing.
A hat-trick of wins in December secured him the Horse of the Month award and scooped Astbury’s syndicate Barry and The Chuckles the £30,000 Monthly Bonus, but the horse that keeps on giving provided his owners with yet another pay-day when his January treble guaranteed him a share of the latest monthly prize of £40,000.
That wasn’t all, however - the honest bay’s exploits in 7f and 1m handicaps propelled him to the top of the charts in the Horse of the Year competition which will scoop the winning owners a whopping £100,000 come Good Friday. Now Aisling Oscar will attempt to extend his lead by winning for the eighth time in a row at the beginning of February, possibly in a 0-75 grade 1m handicap at Southwell – a race that will present him with fresh challenges.
“That race on 5th February is his most likely target,” reveals Keatley, a Classic-winning trainer in his homeland before re-locating to North Yorkshire in 2020. “He’s won all his races at Newcastle, which is where I’d prefer to go, but we must run where the most suitable races are and I can’t see why he won’t be effective around the bends at Southwell. He handled them at Dundalk earlier in his career and should enjoy the long straight.
“The handicapper has pushed him out of 0-70s by raising him 6lb to 71 so it’s obviously going to get harder for him now but he owes us nothing. I’d have been super-confident going back to Newcastle for another one of those handicaps but he’s out of that grade now.”
Discussing the gelding’s attributes, Keatley adds: “He has such a high cruising speed which I think can make him even more effective in a better race where they go a stride quicker. When he won that Class 5 at Newcastle last time everything went wrong. He was too keen and had no cover up the centre of the track in a strong headwind but still found a way.
“He’s gaining confidence with every run. He’s uncomplicated, as he’s shown by winning for an amateur and two apprentices. I love the way he sticks his neck out and just keeps lengthening. He has a great attitude and never leaves a nut after his races.”
Keatley’s main objective is to maintain the horse’s lead at the top of the Horse of the Year table which is why he won’t take him back to the racetrack until the beginning of next month. “It makes no sense to run him a fourth time in January as only the first three each month count for points.
“If I do my job properly and put him in the right races he will hopefully keep on picking up enough points to hold onto his lead. “I’m not going to shoot myself in the foot by saying how far he can go but I’d like to think there’s more to come,” he reasons.
Aisling Oscar was no stranger to the winners’ enclosure in Ireland, winning back-to-back handicaps off lowly ratings of 47 and 51 for Kildare trainer Craig O’Neill and claimer Danny Sheehy in the winter of 2024. However, he never made the frame again in 12 subsequent starts on Polytrack and turf before being listed in the Tattersalls on-line sale in September.
That’s where agent Dan Astbury, who buys horses for Keatley and other trainers including Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero, spotted his potential. “I was looking for a lowly rated horse to target the bonus scheme with and he caught my eye. As it was an online sale I had him vetted in Ireland and decided to bid for him,” he recalls.
“I knew he was a good moving horse with winning form so to get him for that price was a steal, as it’s turned out. Adrian liked him and soon had him thriving. He put on about 50 kilos and quickly got into a good working routine. I think that change of scenery was the making of him,” adds Astbury, who shares the horse with six friends.
Aisling Oscar’s first outing for Keatley was his only defeat but a promising third place in an amateur riders’ handicap at Wolverhampton on 25th November, nevertheless. But for an interrupted run off the home turn, he would have finished closer to previous winner Dingwall and multiple subsequent scorer Francesi in that extended mile event.
However, there were no such problems at Newcastle two days later when he readily defied a basement mark of 46 for Oisin McSweeney, cruising home in a 7f apprentice handicap at cramped odds. Then, five days later, Keatley took him back to Gosforth Park where - without a penalty - he duly doubled up, this time in a 1m handicap under Barry McHugh at the expense of consistent course performer Concert Boy.
Aisling Oscar was only back at Keatley’s yard for three more days before lining up for another amateur riders’ race at Newcastle with Brown’s 5lb claim negating a 4lb rise in the weights to a modest mark of 50. Despite finishing behind him a few days earlier, Concert Boy was sent off favourite to turn the tables and looked to be in with every chance of justifying the market support as he cruised to the front on the climb for home, but Aisling Oscar had every move covered and got the verdict by three-parts of a length.
One more win before the turn of the year would guarantee the gelding at least a share of the £30,000 Monthly Bonus for December and that arrived five days before Christmas when McHugh climbed back in the saddle to guide him to another narrow success, this time off a 6lb higher rating, and claim the prize outright.
Aisling Oscar was operating off a new mark a stone higher than the one he first won off when returning to Newcastle on 13th January but, with the promising Conor Whiteley (nephew of the great Mick Kinane) taking 5lb off in another apprentice race, he eased to possibly his most comfortable success.
Keatley’s intelligent placing meant the five-year-old could return to Gosforth Park a week later without a penalty for the second time and with McSweeney answering the call the six-timer was never under threat as he eased clear of last season’s Horse of the Year Tasever.
A two-day turn-around against better class opposition off a career high rating of 65 raised questions as Aisling Oscar went in pursuit of an unlikely seven-timer but Whiteley, this time back on top claiming 7lb, found a determined response to James Owen’s dual course winner Goldmoyne’s late challenge to bravely shrug off another penalty.
The victory guaranteed Aisling Oscar a share of that £40,000 Monthly Bonus for January but also propelled him to the top of the Horse of the Year chart, with that six-figure bounty up for grabs to the leading horse come the season’s finale on 3rd April.
“It’s going to be tough to hold onto the lead for another couple of months as it’s so competitive but when you have a horse who never knows when he’s beaten you have to think you have a good chance,” adds Keatley, who himself completed a sequence of seven straight winners with Aisling Oscar’s latest success.
Never before will a Class 5 handicap on the All-Weather have created so much interest and anticipation as the contest on 5th February at Southwell that will see this redoubtable gelding go for an eight win in a row, and few would doubt his prospects.
