Under The Radar: “She’s probably as good a horse as we’ve ever had"

Akecheta is well, her trainer tells you. In good form, and on track for the QuinnBet Emerald Mile Handicap at The on Saturday, all being well. A little bit of rain would be perfect.

The Sioux Nation mare is a five-year-old now, but she is lightly-raced for her age. She didn’t race for Paddy Twomey, and she didn’t arrive in Kevin Coleman’s yard until the spring of last year.  

She made her racecourse debut about six weeks later in a Median Auction Maiden at Tipperary on soft ground, and she won, delivered with a late run down the outside by Shane Kelly from well back in the field to get up and win by a half a length, springing a 40-1 shock in the process.

“We have always liked her,” says Coleman.  “She’s probably as good a horse as we’ve ever had. She moves like a filly who wants good ground, but Shane Kelly always said that she wanted a bit of cut. She ran at Gowran last year on good ground and she didn’t like it. She ran at Punchestown on good ground and she didn’t like that, either.”

Akecheta ran seven times last year, and she never finished out of the first four.  She has run just once this season so far, in a one-mile handicap at The Curragh in March and, on soft ground, she stayed on well to finish second behind Indigo Five in a race from which the fourth horse, Apercu, won next time out.

“We toyed with the idea of going to Newmarket with her, but the ground was too quick for her there," says Coleman. "We have an eye on Royal Ascot next month, the Kensington Palace could be a good race for her, and we might look at putting her in the Goffs London Sale the weekend before Royal Ascot. We’ll see how she gets on on Saturday.”

From Inishannon in County Cork, there were always horses around Kevin Coleman when he was growing up.

“My mother always had horses, and I lived close to Wayne Lordan, so that was part of it.  I don’t know, I just always loved horses.  My mother and father used to drive us all over the country for pony racing.  I started going into John Murphy when I was 12, and it went from there.  Aidan (Coleman) was a bit later. I’d be a bit older than Aidan and he was a bit later starting.”

Aidan is his brother, rider of Paisley Park, Put The Kettle On, Epatante and Jonbon, and finished second behind Richard Johnson in the British jockeys’ championship in 2015/16.  

Kevin spent his riding career closer to home. He rode Pom Flyer for Francis Flood to win the Horse and Jockey Hotel Hurdle at Thurles in 2005 and, famously, he rode Sir Frederick for Liam Burke to win the Galway Plate in 2007, when he had Paul Carberry on Ballyagran and AP McCoy on Cool Running behind him in second and third. 

He rode Silver Jaro for Tom Hogan to finish second in a hurdle race at Navan just before Christmas in 2007 but, when Silver Jaro ran again at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival two weeks later, he was taking on the John Kiely-trained Indian Pace. Kevin could only ride one of them. He chose Indian Pace and, it turned out, he chose correctly. They finished first and second, with Indian Pace scoring by a half a length.

As a result, understandably, he lost the ride on Silver Jaro, who went to Cheltenham two and a half months later and won the County Hurdle under Noel Fehily. Indian Pace ran a couple of times on the flat after that but, when he went to Galway for the Galway Hurdle, connections wanted to claim off him, and they put up a young 5lb claimer named Paul Townend, who drove Indian Pace home to record his first big-race win.

“In fairness,” says Coleman with the pragmatism that comes with the passage of time, “it’s not easy to compete with Paul Townend with a 5lb claim!”

Injuries curtailed his riding career, he broke his collarbone three times and he broke his leg in 2009. The training evolved gradually after that.

“We had a mare at home,” he says.  “And she had a few foals. Some of them weren’t sold, so we had to breeze them, and it just went from there.”

He completed a degree in Sport and Exercise Science at University of Limerick before the training started.  He bought his current place at Carrick-on-Suir and got going, and ran Allhallowtide in maidens at Dundalk plus at Navan in the spring of 2019, then sent her to Beverley for a six-furlong claimer, and she got up to win by a neck.

“It was only a small claimer,” he says of his first win. “But she wasn’t able to compete in maidens in Ireland, so it was nice to find a race for her that she could win.”

Britain has been a happy hunting ground since then. In 2022, he won two sprint handicaps at Musselburgh with Only Spoofing. In 2023, he recorded five wins from just ten runners in Britain, two of those wins provided by Derry Lad, who won two handicaps in the Sunday Series.  Last year, he had four winners in Britain from 14 runners, and Derry Lad didn’t have a lot of luck in-running when he finished a running-on third in a 10-furlong handicap at Epsom on Derby weekend.

This year so far, he has had just three runners in Britain, one winner, the evergreen Only Spoofing who got up late on to win another five-furlong handicap at Musselburgh in April.  His strike rate in Britain for each of the last four years now reads, respectively, 33%, 50%, 29%, 33%.  

“I suppose you don’t go all the way to Britain if you don’t think you have a chance,” he said.  “And the style of racing there seems to suit a lot of our horses.  Only Spoofing for example, they go fast from early, and he loves that.”

The season is gathering momentum now. Only Spoofing ran well again in the five-furlong handicap at Navan on Saturday and, 11 years old now, he retains all his enthusiasm for racing. Devil’s Angel won the six-furlong apprentices’ handicap on the same day.  

Coleman also has some nice two-year-olds, he says, three of whom will make their respective racecourse debuts at The Curragh this weekend.  Also, Black Storm goes in the seven-furlong handicap on Saturday, and Akecheta goes in the one-mile premier handicap.  

And Akecheta is well, her trainer tells you...

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