Jonjo O’Neill is one of the names of trainers in the world of National Hunt that is as well-known to even the most average of punters as the likes of Nicky Henderson and Willie Mullins. Although he hasn’t enjoyed quite the level of success that the two of those have managed, that is much more to do with them being amongst the best-ever as it is to do with any failing on O’Neill’s part.
Having started life as a jockey, the natural progression for the Irish-born racing personality was to move into training, enjoying wins in many of the same races out of the saddle as he’d enjoyed in it.
About
Jonjo O’Neill was born on the 13th of April 1952 in Castletownroche, County Cork, in Ireland. He soon took to the saddle in order to become a jockey, being so successful that he was twice given the British Champion Jockey title, first at the end of the 1977-1978 season and then again two years later. As a jockey, O’Neill won more than 900 races, with arguably his most noteworthy being the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which he won in both 1979 and 1986. In fact, Dawn Run, his Gold Cup-winning horse, became the only horse to do the Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle double.
Eventually, O’Neill decided that the time had come to hang up his saddle and whip in order to become a trainer. As driven in that discipline as he had been as a rider, he first served notice to the rest of the National Hunt field when he trained Danny Conners to win the Pertemps Final in 1991, following it up four years later when Front Line won the National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup. That was the start of a glorious relationship between O’Neill and the Cheltenham Festival, where he would go on to win practically every race that there was to win, doing the same at other National Hunt courses.
Major Successes
When you are as successful as Jonjo O’Neill has been during his career, it is probably easier to discuss the major events you haven’t won than it is to talk about the ones that you have. Even so, both in and out of the saddle, O’Neill has been successful in races up and down the country. Obviously, the Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup both come in at the top of the pile, but events such as the Punchestown Champion Hurdle, the Irish Grand National and the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Chase also stand out in terms of big-name races he’s trained the winners of.
It isn’t just the big, well-known races that you need to win if you want to make a name for yourself as a trainer. Everything from the Christmas Hurdle and the Golden Miller Novices’ Chase to the Irish Grand National and the Melling Chase have been added to O’Neill’s trophy cabinet over the years. There was a time when the sight of O’Neill’s name next to a horse in the National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup at Cheltenham was enough to make other trainers think twice about entering their own horse into the event, with the Irishman winning it in 1995, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2016.
Here is a look at just some of the big-name races that Jonjo O’Neill has been responsible for training the winners of at least once:
- Cheltenham Gold Cup
- Grand National
- Ryanair Chase
- Triumph Hurdle
- National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup
- St James’s Place Foxhunter Chase
- Champion Four-Year-Old Hurdle
- Sefton Novices’ Hurdle
- Irish Grand National
- Punchestown Champion Hurdle
Horses Trained
Who remembers this special win? 🏆
When AP McCoy finally won the National aboard Don’t Push It 💚💛 pic.twitter.com/QrDhujkO3n
— Aintree Racecourse (@AintreeRaces) December 29, 2024
Trainers like Jonjo O’Neill very quickly earn the respect and admiration of owners, so it didn’t take long before some top-class horses were sent to his yard. The likes of Iris’ Gift, Albertas Run and Wichita Lineman were all successful at the Cheltenham Festival for him, for example, whilst Rhinestone Cowboy, Refinement and Shutthefrontdoor won him some well-known races in his native Ireland. Intersky Falcon won the Christmas Hurdle in both 2002 and 2003, whilst Exotic Dancer enjoyed success in the Betway Bowl. That is before we even get on to the horses that won him the big two.
Don’t Push It
If you’re going to talk about a horse associated with a trainer, it makes sense to put the one that won the most exciting race in British National Hunt racing at the top of the list. Don’t Push It was sired by Old Vic out of She’s no Laugh Ben and born in Ireland on the sixth of June 2000. The bay began his career in a National Hunt flat race at Warwick on the fifth of December 2004, winning his next race nearly a year later. It will always be the Grand National for which the horse is best remembered, however, taken across the finish line first by Tony McCoy in 2010, having begun the race as the 10/1 joint-favourite.
Synchronised
If Don’t Push It will always be remembered thanks to the fact that he handed Jonjo O’Neill a win in the Grand National. Synchronised makes the list on account of the horse’s success in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which many consider to be jump racing’s most prestigious event. He had already won both the Midlands Grand National and the Welsh Grand National in 2010 before being entered into 2012’s Gold Cup, in which he was given odds of 8/1. As with Don’t Push It, it was Tony McCoy in the saddle as the J. P. McManus-owned horse finished more than two lengths clear of The Giant Bolster.
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