Three rising stars for Joseph O'Brien: 'Likely to feature in some of the major handicaps' By Enda McElhinneyJoseph O’Brien has most of his attention focused on the Flat these days, but he always has a small but select squad of jumpers that do well. He has a happy knack of finding Cheltenham Festival winners, a trait which many trainers will be envious of. Solness and Banbridge were the yard’s leading lights last season, with the pair winning three Grade 1s between them and the latter came out on top in the King George. He’ll be hoping that some of his younger horses will be able to carry the torch and develop into future stars. We’ve picked out three of his most promising horses, who could be up to winning some decent prizes over the next couple of seasons. Galileo Sand It took a while for the penny to drop, but once it did, Galileo Sand took his form to a new level over the summer. Defeated in his first three bumper starts, there were signs of improvement at Killarney in May and he produced a much better effort to finish second. Clearly, the four-year-old likes Killarney as he battled to victory on his next start at the track. He was prominent throughout the race but briefly lost his position before keeping on again to hit the front and score by half a length. The third has since boosted the form by winning next time and O’Brien’s gelding managed to do the same, despite carrying a penalty. He won more comfortably this time around and the second has also won since. Connections might be forced to step him up in grade now but if that’s not the plan, they can always switch to hurdles. Jordans French import Jordans was a smart novice chaser last term and could well have a big pot or two in him this season. The son of Coastal Path won a Grade 3 at Punchestown in October last year and the runner-up went on to take a big pot at the Dublin Racing Festival. Jordans ran a nice race to finish second to Impaire Et Passe in the Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick over Christmas. There were some good horses in behind that day and it’s very hard to knock the form. Finishing fifth in the TrustATrader Plate at Cheltenham, the six-year-old backed that up with an excellent second to Caldwell Potter in an Aintree Grade 1. He’s likely to feature in some of the major handicaps throughout the season and should be winning one or two. Talk The Talk Talk The Talk was previously trained by Stuart Crawford and he ran well on debut in a valuable bumper at Newbury in March. Making his first start for O’Brien in October, he got the job done over hurdles at the first time of asking. Improvement was on show at Fairyhouse next time and he was an impressive winner of a Grade 3 event, pulling seven-and-a-half lengths clear of the runner-up. Another step up in class is surely on the agenda and it’ll be interesting to see where he ends up next.
