O'Brien gains more of Peters' horses

The Danny O'Brien stable will train a sizeable team of horses for Perth owner Bob Peters in 2022, but only Cantala Stakes winner Superstorm looks certain to start next autumn.

Peters confirmed on Monday that seven horses owned by Peters Investments had been transferred from Perth to O'Brien's stables at Flemington and Barwon Heads following the recent arrival of a float containing five more horses.

Superstorm and Inspirational Girl, who had one run for O'Brien last spring, were already based with him and they were joined by fellow Group 1 winner Graceful Girl, pictured, among four others.

On Monday, Racing Australia also had comeback horse Showmanship listed as having been transferred to O'Brien, along with older galloper Zaratite and four-year-olds Roman Law (unraced) and Celebrity Man, who is a brother to Peters' Oakleigh Plate winner Celebrity Queen.

Such is the quality of the influx of horses for the O'Brien team that Superstorm (rating 112), Graceful Girl (110) and Inspirational Girl (110) are the highest-rated horses in one of Victoria's most powerful stables.

All seven of the transferred horses were originally trained by husband-and-wife team Grant and Alana Williams, who are expanding their operation and widening their client base as they work towards opening a satellite stable in Victoria.

Peters said that only Superstorm is certain to play a part in Melbourne this autumn.

"None of them are in work," he said. "They are spelling now and I think only Superstorm will get to autumn and maybe Inspirational Girl can get to the later part of autumn while the others enjoy their spells.

"A couple of them will appear during the winter as they need a bit of give in the ground."

The association between Peters and O'Brien only began during spring and it immediately yielded a big result with Superstorm taking the G1 Cantala Stakes at Flemington.

Peters also reported that his Railway Stakes winner Western Empire has pulled up from his shock Kingston Town Classic loss with an issue that will keep him off the track until mid next year.

"He pulled up sore over his back," he explained. "We are working on that now to get him right. That will take a while and then we will spell him."

Western Empire remains part of the Willliams stable at least for now, along with Kingston Town Stakes winner Regal Power, who has one more run to come this campaign.

"He's starting here on Saturday (Van Heemst Stakes)," Peters said of Regal Power. "I'll just get this one out of the way and give him a break.

"I didn't want to give him a lot of runs this time in, so this will be enough for him."

.Story by Andrew Eddy for Racing.com

Pic by Western Racepix