Vince Curry Graduate Set For Winning City Debut

YAMANTO trainer Peter O'Reilly is a quietly spoken man.

But there's nothing quiet about the form of his kennel at the moment fresh off four winners at Bundaberg on Monday. Add to that a third placing recently in the Group 3 Vince Curry Maiden and a track record run and it's fair to say his dogs are doing the talking for him.

Well respected at the Ipswich Club for his training prowess and character, O'Reilly sits on the committee and recently had the thrill of seeing his young pup Flying Jet almost go all the way in the Vince Curry.

"I had an opinion of him going into the series but being around the Vince Curry for so long you know how tough it is to win," he said.

"And his box draws of seven in the heat, six in the semi and six again in the final did him no favours. To finish third was a big result.

"The final run was a real standout, he was back near enough last in the early stages and up until then we'd only seen him race on the speed, he ran past some very handy dogs.

"He's owned by my daughters syndicate which also includes Barry Kitchener, Mick Emery, Andrew Monaghan and a few other members of the family, it was great to get an early result for them."

O'Reilly has big plans for the Fernando Bale-Aeroplane Cindy pup which doesn't turn two until May.

His next task is to break his novice at Albion Park this Thursday night.

"I trialled him at Albion Park about six weeks ago and he went well without breaking the clock, but with three hard runs under his belt I'm expecting him to be hard to beat on Thursday," O'Reilly said.

"His trump card is his box manners, he can really spring the lids and run a straight line. Coming up with a better draw in the three this week I'd like to see him get to the rail and show what he can do."

O'Reilly has already had a close look at the calendar and has locked Flying Jet in for a couple of suitable races at his home track.

"We've got a good program set up for him in the next couple of months, we'd love to knock his Novice off this week and head to the Ipswich Young Guns in a fortnight's time," he said.

"He's an auction dog himself so we'll make sure he's in the 520-metre series for some serious money in April, he's already paid up so we're all waiting for that one."

Enjoying a stellar run with his kennel, O'Reilly admits to having a soft spot for Shakey Diesel, his number one performer recently breaking the $100,000 prize money mark.

"He's given us plenty to cheer about since coming back from a spell late last year," O'Reilly said.

"He won first up over the shorts at Ipswich and we got him back to the 520 at Albion Park on a Thursday night where he came out and brained them by seven lengths and then won again from the eight the following week.

"Before I took him up to Bundy I gave him a post to post at Ipswich and he went 24.60, so I had a fair idea he was going to come out and run time, but to set a new track record (25.94) wasn't in our thinking.

"With not much on for him in Brisbane or Bundy we thought we'd take him and Blue Jillem down to Maitland. They'll run there next Thursday and if everything goes well the (Maitland) Cup heats the following week."