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Sports correspondent & historian with |
Legendary New Zealand thoroughbred horse racing trainer David John O'Sullivan OBE, who passed away late last week at the age of 90, founded a racing dynasty that remains to this day.
Dave O’Sullivan trained in excess of 1900 winners worldwide, the vast majority in partnership with son, Paul, from his Wexford stables in Matamata.
Today, the Wexford training establishment winners continue to flow under the tutelage of another son in former champion jockey, Lance.
O’Sullivan senior trained many of the very best from the 1970s through to the start of the 21st century.
Horses such as Mr Tiz, Waverley Star, Surfers Paradise, Oopik, Shivaree and Blue Denim, plundered the Group 1 races in both New Zealand and Australia.
Known universally by his initials, DJ, he won his first New Zealand trainers premiership in the 1978-79 season and added another 11 titles in partnership with son, Paul.
However, it was a mare named Horlicks who would take the O’Sullivan name to world racing. Already the winner of several Group 1 races in Australasia, including the time-honoured McKinnon Stakes in Melbourne, Horlicks set out to take on the world's best in the 1989 Japan Cup.
Trained by the O’Sullivan partnership and ridden by Lance O’Sullivan, the Kiwi representative held on to win one of the world's richest races in world record time.
I had the privilege of meeting DJ O’Sullivan on two occasions some forty years apart.
The first was a 1967 Young Farmers Club meeting just outside Matamata, where DJ O'Sullivan, who was in the early stages of his training career, was our guest speaker.
We wind back time to 1927 to find the reason for my second meeting with the legendary trainer.
The most prestigious Boxing New Zealand trophy is the Jameson Belt awarded to the most senior scientific boxer at each BNZ National Championship.
The 1927 Nationals held in Invercargill saw Dave's father, Jack O’Sullivan, win the first John Jameson Belt in the bantamweight division.
The Jameson Belt list of winners is littered with the names of the true greats of the sport of boxing in the country, such as Ron and David Jackson, Billy Meehan and the only two heavyweights to win the big prize in Shane Cameron and David Nyika.
The 2007 Nationals held on Auckland's North Shore was the 80th anniversary of the first presentation of the Jameson Belt to Jack O’Sullivan.
The Boxing New Zealand stakeholders on hand at the Action Centre in Glenfield welcomed special guest in Dave O’Sullivan, to present the Jameson Belt that his father had won eighty years prior.
It was my privilege as Nationals ring announcer to introduce and welcome Dave to the ring to present the tournament big prize.
Dave came through the ropes with an extra bonus for the 2007 Jameson Belt winner, in middleweight champion, Joe Blackbourne.
The Wellington/Hutt Valley Association representative received, from Dave, a large framed photograph of Jack O’Sullivan holding the Jameson Belt.
For a short moment in time, excellence in thoroughbred horse racing and boxing were brought together.
RIP David John O'Sullivan.