We are in the last month of our racing season in Australia, and our priority is to continue building on the momentum we have developed as a team and to ensure that we finish the season as well as we can.
We are in the last month of our racing season in Australia, and our priority is to continue building on the momentum we have developed as a team and to ensure that we finish the season as well as we can.
Looking back on the season -- my first year as head trainer for Godolphin's operation in Australia -- there have been many highs for the team. Winning the G1 BMW Stakes with Hartnell was fantastic, and Contributer proved a real star, with his two Group One wins.
We had 30 individual two-year-old winners throughout the season. This was very good as we didn't start in a hurry.
It was great to have both James Doyle and William Buick down here in Australia during the autumn. It gave them the opportunity to become acquainted with the different rhythm and style of racing in Sydney and Melbourne, and they were great to have around.
It is a privilege to be part of the Godolphin team. You quickly become aware of just how international the whole operation really is, and just how much expertise is housed under the Godolphin umbrella.
There has always been fantastic team support and this has helped enormously in maintaining the Godolphin strike rate throughout a very good season.
Our retained rider James McDonald has been over in the UK, getting more experience of the way things are done there. We are delighted to see he has been riding winners. He is a fine talent and a huge asset to Team Godolphin.
We are expecting James back in Sydney on July 15, which gives him just over two weeks to tidy up the jockeys' championship before the curtain drops on the 2014-15 season.
At present, James is five or six wins clear of Hugh Bowman and Blake Shinn. He had established a tidy lead before flying to Britain, but his two chief rivals have been eating into that advantage in his absence.
We are confident James will come out on top again. He deserves to win the title for the second time.
John O'Shea, a former top schoolboy Rugby League player in Queensland, started as a horse trainer in 1999, with just five horses but a wealth of experience in various facets of the racing game. O'Shea, 45, is just completing his first full season as head trainer for Godolphin's operation in Australia.
