Julie Camacho interview: Norton trainer on star sprinter Shaquille and her trailblazing season

Julie Camacho’s stable star reared up at the start losing a lot of ground, ran freely for four furlongs and then when it seemed likely he would be swamped by the field, ran on strongly to pull off a second top level victory in succession.

What made his Newmarket win even more incredible was that he had done pretty much the same thing a few weeks earlier in the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot.

Again he blew the start for Oisin Murphy but the jockey didn’t panic, letting the horse settle and find some cover before producing him perfectly to defeat the highly-fancied Little Big Bear and pull a first Group 1 out of the hat for the Norton-based handler and husband Steve Brown.

“He’s good at that isn’t he?” said Camacho. “Ascot was wonderful, being our first Group 1 winner, our first Royal Ascot winner was absolutely brilliant.

“Oisin gave him a brilliant ride, he didn’t panic, he gave him time. He didn’t chase him up let him find his feet, came on the bridle and in the end it worked out well.

“Coolmore thought Little Big Bear was their certainty of the week so it was nice to beat the big boys for a change.

“There was a little more pressure for Newmarket. We weren’t really expected to win at Ascot but at Newmarket he was the ante-post favourite.

“It wasn’t ideal as Oisin was banned, James [Doyle] couldn’t ride and Rossa [Ryan] became the fifth jockey to ride him, but it doesn’t seem to bother him.”

Camacho continued: “He’s a bit of a freak. It upsets me a bit that people think he’s a big, ignorant sod and he probably is a bit at the races and that is probably why he is decent. He’s got a very competitive streak in him and they ain’t going past him.

“But at home he is great to deal with. He's happy to wander round his box while you muck him out, feed him and so on which makes our lives easier.”

Today marks the first anniversary of Shaquille’s track debut at York where he ran out the one-and-a-half length, 20-1 winner of the Ire-Incentive It Pays To Buy Irish EBF Restricted Novice Stakes at York.

Since then the three-year-old colt has gone on to win eight out of his nine races – the only blot being his second run, again over seven furlongs, when he finished stone last in the Acomb Stakes at the Ebor Festival. “Even as a two year old cantering up he didn’t show a lot and even now you wouldn’t pick him out on the gallops he just plods up. He’s not a bad workhorse but he wouldn’t be our best,” she said.

“That said, it is what he does on the track that matters, not what he does at home.

“In the Acomb he was too keen and ran himself into the ground.

"Someone said it wasn’t a great Acomb but the 2,000 Guineas winner Chaldean won it, so it wasn’t a bad one.”

Yorkshire race fans will have to wait a little longer to see their hero run again in the Broad Acres again with connections deciding not to drop Shaquille in trip for the Group 1 Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes next month.

Camacho explained: “We are not opposed to trying him over five but we just feel going to five at York, one of the fastest fives in the country against older, hardened horses so we have decided, no, he will got to Haydock all being well and then probably Champions Day at Ascot.”

If he can win the Betfair Sprint Cup Stakes at the Merseyside track he will complete a hat-trick of Group 1 successes just like his neighbour and Yorkshire Horse of the Year, Highfield Princess, did last season, albeit in different races.

The pair train on the same gallops and it would be a brilliant shot in the arm for Yorkshire and northern racing if he could complete the hat-trick, too, and almost certainly follow her as the county’s top horse.

The All Weather Championships at Newcastle on Good Friday proved to be the other blot on the star sprinter’s copybook when he refused to go into the stalls for the six-furlong renewal.

Camacho decided to call in Craig Witheford, who does a lot of stalls work with horses and explained: “We put him in at Newmarket last season and he has run ever since. Craig thought he’d be better with a rug on because he does not like touching the sides in the stalls, so whether it is now the rug that is causing him not to jump out we are not sure.

“We are going to have another meeting with Craig and see what to do with him going forward but we will leave it to the experts.

“It would be better if he just jumped and settled and made life easier for everyone.”

Shaquille, a big consumer of Polos and Mint Imperials, is named after US basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal, while his mother is Magic, dubbed after another hoops legend, Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

He has been at the yard since he was a foal having been bred by co-owner Martin Hughes who also owns Magic and two other mares at the yard.

"There have been plenty of offers for him to go to stud but Steve and I are not involved in that side,” she said. “Martin and my brother Matthew deal with that and they will probably make a decision at the end of the season. But I think Martin is just enjoying the racing at the moment.

“He’s a horse of a lifetime. Martin has put a lot into racing and he’s been very lucky to be rewarded with a horse like him.”

Camacho, who has 50 horses in the yard and who became the first woman to win £1million in a season thanks to Shaquille’s exploits, has been equally as lucky to drop on another superstar having enjoyed great success with 18-time winner Judicial – who has amassed £365,000 in career earnings.

“He will always be number one, Judicial. He’s helped us to get better owners and horses,” said the trainer who had a career-best 47 winners last season.

“Its my name on the licence, but Steve does the majority of it so he should get the credit,” said Camacho, who took over from her father Maurice.

Camacho was speaking during the Go Racing In Yorkshire Summer Festival week, sponsored by Sky Bet, which sees meetings at Ripon this afternoon, Doncaster later today and Redcar – where she has three runners – Easter Island, Climate Change and Bowleaze – tomorrow.

She said: “We have got some wonderful tracks in Yorkshire which produce some good ground and we are more than happy to run.”

But the final word belongs to Shaquille whose languid attitude at home is the opposite of his antics at the track.

“Paige Harrison rides him out every day and absolutely dotes on him. We have had two brilliant days with him and it is very exciting, especially as we have had him here since a foal,” said Camacho.