The Club bought Onefitzall, when he was four, in 2014, from Tom Cooper, father of Bryan Cooper, now retained as first jockey by major owner Alan Potts for his horses trained this side of the Irish Sea. Onefitzall was recommended by Robbie McNamara and, although he had not raced, Mick and Shane were very impressed with his potential when they saw him at the Curragh.
He is by Indian Danehill who was a top flat horse over 8-10 furlongs, winning the Group 1 Prix Ganay as a four year old. He has sired seventeen horses who have achieved Racing Post Ratings of 130+ over jumps, including Shanahan’s Turn, who won the 2015 Galway Plate for Henry De Bromhead. Onefitzall is out of Company Credit, a mare by Anshan, who has been a successful National Hunt sire, getting the very talented Asian Maze and, more recently, Last Instalment, Power Station and Quantitativeeasing.
In December 2014 Onefitzall won his bumper very easily and then followed up with a convincing victory in a novices hurdle the following October, both races taking place at Uttoxeter. Under a penalty at Leicester in November 2015, he ran a little disappointingly to finish third and then ran poorly at Market Rasen.
Onefitzall has not been easy to train. He is a big horse who has been slow to mature physically and appears to be a worrier. He is talented but fragile with tendency to lose quite a lot of condition in his races.
He began the 2016/17 season making his handicap debut in a 2m4f hurdle race at Carlisle. He finished second, making a strong, sustained challenge from the back of the field but failed to overhaul Definitely Red, who has since won the valuable Rowland Meyrick and Grimthorpe handicap chases at Wetherby and Doncaster.
Onefitzall then went to Newbury, where he landed the £23,000 purse awarded to the winner of the bet365 Handicap Hurdle on Hennessy Gold Cup day. However, a month later at Wincanton on Boxing Day he ran no sort of race and appeared distinctly out of sorts.
He then developed a trapped epiglottis and, after surgery to correct it, he lost condition quite alarmingly and contracted a bad case of stomach ulcers. Since then he has spent many months being cossetted by Chloe Fitzgerald, who loves him. He is now back in the Hobbs yard and looks in fine condition. He will have to be handled with great care and, probably raced lightly but, he is a very talented horse and there is much to hope for when he tackles fences.