Hannah Roach was at an airport waiting to fly home from a holiday with her mum, when she received a call from her boss. Joe O’Shea is invariably unorthodox, and the offer he wanted to put to his young groom, aged just 21, could not wait.
A version of this article first appeared in the Racing Post on Friday 1st December.
In Roach’s words, he said: “I want to retire and I want you to take over [at the yard he ran in Cheshire].” She replied: “Joe, I’m at an airport in Cyprus!” but he said: “It’s something to think about.” That was in June, a meeting was arranged with Roach and her parents, and the plunge was taken.
O'Shea - handed over reins
Until that point, Roach’s goal for this season was to gain her first ride in a race, but now she is in charge of ten pointers. O’Shea’s owners have kept their horses in place, while owner/rider Tom Greenwood has added four-year-old Maltese Joe to the party.
Roach and O'Shea with Iskandar Pecos
O’Shea rides out three days a week, but Roach is in charge, and just a few weeks into the new point-to-point season she has saddled ninerunners, with two winners, a second and two thirds.
Creadan Rogue (Huw Edwards) - opening weekend winners for Roach
One of Hannah’s five Chaddesley Corbett runners was Time Leader, who is being aimed at Aintree’s Randox Foxhunters’ Chase. The nine-year-old was fifth in that race last season, a solid effort that split four hunter chase victories.
Chaddesley Corbett runners Time Leader (Huw Edwards) and the grey Mexican Boy (Ruth Hankey)
Two months later, O’Shea announced he was ‘retiring’ at the age of 66 and handing the reins to his young prodigy, adding that winning Aintree’s big hunter chase with Cousin Pascal in 2021 had satisfied his ambitions. In more than 30 years of training greyhounds he had reached the top tier, handling some 60 dogs at one time, before switching to pointers and becoming a noted trainer of hunter chasers. He finished last season as champion hunter chase trainer and decided it was time to hand over, but has he?
I journeyed to Cheshire to find out, meeting Roach at a public gallop from where O’Shea, with a string often in single figures, trained 102 winners over 12 seasons. Her former mentor was there to ride out, but very keen to promote Roach, saying: “No one works harder than Hannah. She deserves this opportunity. She has her own ideas, but she’s very good at feeding horses and knows how to get them fit.”
Top of the gallops
Roach lives with her parents – Jill and Steve – ten minutes from the yard. Jill works at a Macmillan cancer unit, Steve is a retired college head of department who trains gun dogs, but they had ridden for pleasure when younger and bought
Hannah her first pony. At 15, Steve took her to a riding school where she hoped to pick up some weekend work, but they met O’Shea who rented boxes at the yard. His pointers were of more interest than the riding school hacks, and she began working for him on a part-time basis.
She says: “At first I was unpaid, but when I asked for money he agreed, because he knew I was a grafter. After I finished school, I joined Joe but did an 18-month horse care apprenticeship at Reaseheath College. Joe had some amazing horses at the time such as Cottage Oak, Road To Rome and Lilbitluso.
“I’ve been involved in this sport for six years now, and I’ve learned a lot. This is the next step in my career. I used to be Joe’s little puppet doing all the work, but now I have my say. We have our disagreements, but I’m still learning and would be foolish not to listen to Joe given his experience. You love him or hate him, but he’s a great guy, he’s a done a lot for me, and if I need help he’s there to give advice.
Roach with O'Shea at the lorry park by the gallops - "a great guy"
“I’ll see how this season goes. At the end of it I might decide I don’t want to be a trainer, but I’m enjoying it so far.”
