Under The Radar: O'Sullivan's Chally Chute plans and four to note

Usually, you get one shot at the prize. Ross O’Sullivan said so himself. So, when you get another go at it, you’d better make it count.

Chally Chute was at least a little unlucky in last year’s Irish Cesarewitch.  Well back in the field early on, he charted his way through traffic as they raced up the home straight but, crucially, he got checked in his run at the furlong marker. As he was busy trying to extricate himself from a pocket, Puturhandstogether swooped down the outside and went clear.  

By the time Chally Chute was into the clear himself, he had fully three lengths to make up on the leader, possibly a little more, so the fact that he was able to close to a half a length by the time they got to the winning line, pulling more than three lengths clear of the rest, tells you that, if things had worked out a little differently, it is not stretching it to say that he could have won.

“We thought that that was our chance,” says O’Sullivan now.  “He ran a big race, it just wasn’t to be.”

The handicapper raised the Fast Company gelding to a mark of 112 after last year’s run, initially too high for him to run in this year’s Irish Cesarewitch, with its ceiling of 110.

It expedited a move back into Pattern company.  Winner of the Listed Lenabane Stakes at Roscommon on his first run for O’Sullivan, when he sprang a 125/1 shock, Chally Chute won the Group Three Loughbrown Stakes on his final run last season.

Then, this season, he finished second in the Listed Martin Molony Stakes at Limerick on his first run and he finished fifth in the Lenabane Stakes back at Roscommon on his second.

The trainer said: “The winner just got first run on us at Limerick.  Then at Roscommon, the ground had dried out.  We went home disappointed.”

The silver lining was that the handicapper dropped him to a mark of 109 after that run, and that meant the Irish Cesarewitch was back on the table.  They prepared him for Sunday’s race and hoped for rain.

“I rang Richie Brophy (grounds manager at The Curragh) during the week, and he told me that it would be safe," he said. "Then they had 5mm of rain on Thursday night into Friday, and Richie rang me to tell me that the forecast had been updated, that they were due to have lots of rain on Saturday night and Sunday morning.”

All of it fell too: 9mm overnight turned the ground soft and 13mm more turned it heavy by 9.30am.

O’Sullivan said: “He grows a leg on soft ground. He’s by Fast Company, he’s got big feet. He relishes those conditions.”

The stars started to align.  They knew that they had him in great form, an eight-year-old, at least as well as they had him going into the race last year as a seven-year-old, possibly better.

“The last six weeks, he had been going better and better.  He was breezing at home here with smart horses and going well," he said.

"He did a piece of work at Naas 10 days before the race, and he went really well.  His weight was perfect.  Chloe Byrne rides him every day, and she said that she couldn’t hold him.  Donagh O’Connor rides him in a lot of his work, and he was delighted with him. Then the rain came.”

It was an easier watch than 12 months previously. Sam Coen was claiming 7lb when he rode him in the 2025 renewal, he claims only 5lb now, but, current leader in the apprentices’ championship, he is still big value for that.  He had his horse in a nice racing rhythm from early, and, in the end, he delivered him with a well-timed run to get him up to win by a half a length.

“You knew by Sam’s body language that he was happy the whole way,” says O’Sullivan.  “When he switched back in, you could tell that he knew that he had plenty of horse left.  And he didn’t really go for him until late.  He gave him a great ride.  And the horse is such a strong finisher, we always thought that he would get there.  It was some feeling when he hit the line.  Satisfaction, elation. Whatever you call it. Magic. It was brilliant for everyone at home, brilliant for the owners.”

Chally Chute races in the colours of Julie White who, together with her partner Dominic O’Neill, bred the Fast Company gelding.

“Julie and Dominic are fantastic," he said. "They have so much experience, they have such a deep understanding of racing and breeding. They’re brilliant people to train for.”

Chally Chute started life as a racehorse with Michael Halford, and then with Halford and Tracey Collins when they teamed up.  But when Halford drew stumps on his training career at the end of the 2024 season,  O’Sullivan was the person to whom Chally Chute’s racing career was entrusted.

He said: “I didn’t really know Julie before she rang me and asked me if I would train him.  Of course, I was delighted to get him, and there are so many connections. My mother and father both worked in Mick O’Toole’s, and Julie’s father was Micko’s head man for years. And Chally Chute, the man, he was a neighbour of ours on The Curragh when we were growing up.  We had no land, so he used to let me and my sister have our ponies with him.  He was an eccentric, a real character, and he was always very good to us.”

Plans for Chally Chute, the horse, are weather dependent, ground dependent.  He’s not really a horse for the Middle East because of his penchant for soft ground.  The Loughbrown Stakes could be on his radar again, back at The Curragh. Maybe the Prix Royal-Oak in France.

It has been a fine year so far for the County Kildare trainer.  Sunday’s victory took his prize money haul on the Flat beyond last year’s total, and last year’s was a career-best. Over jumps, he rounded off last season with a 1-2 in the valuable Connolly’s Red Mills Final at the Punchestown Festival, and already this season, he has 13 winners in the bag, more than half his best-ever total.  A man for both codes, he has lots to look forward to during the weeks and months ahead.

He was good in winning the Connolly’s Red Mills Final at the Punchestown Festival.  He won twice last winter on testing ground and he won on better ground at Punchestown. We’re going novice chasing with him now this season, and we’re looking forward to seeing how he goes.

We were delighted with his win on his debut at Naas two weeks ago.  We were really happy with how he did it.  He’s a horse we’ve always liked.  Katie has always had huge faith in him.  She put him up to three or four different people, and there were no real takers, but Amanda Torrens said that, if you have such faith in him, I’m happy to go with you.  She has been great to us, and I’m delighted that it looks like she has a very nice horse on her hands. 

He could go for the Killavullan Stakes now at Leopardstown over seven furlongs, or the Eyrefield Stakes over nine, both on the same day next month.  But he could be a real three-year-old, he’s not just a speedy three-year-old, he has the pedigree to be a three-year-old.  He’s exciting.

 She was obviously a classy bumper mare.  She won her maiden hurdle at Punchestown in May and she followed up back at Punchestown in June.  Both those wins were after the turn of the season, so she remains a novice for the whole season.  She could be interesting, a second-season hurdler in novice hurdles.

He won his maiden hurdle at Tipperary on the summer of last year, and he followed up by winning a novice hurdle at last year’s Galway Festival.  He hasn’t raced since last September, but he’s back now and he’s going well.  He’ll probably go chasing, he could start off in a staying novice chase close to Christmas when we get a drop of rain.