O’Brien jnr maintains winning run at Dundalk

JOSEPH O’Brien’s start to his training career has been nothing short of extraordinary. He has held a licence now for less than twoand-a-half years but has already sent out 180 flat winners in Ireland and 150 over jumps, his Irish successes including an Irish Derby and Grade One chase.

Of course, he has also won a Melbourne Cup, Australia’s flagship race, the ‘Race That Stops A Nation’.

Those totals include two jumping winners on Friday afternoon at Limerick and then three in the evening at Dundalk. His Dundalk hat-trick took him to a new record of 34 winners in a calendar year at the County Louth venue.

Winner number one came in the opening race, the Irishinjuredjockeys.com Nursery, when King’s Vow (7/2), a strongly-made son of Frankel, scored in the hands of Kevin Manning.

Next it was the remarkable Too Precious (11/4f) in the night’s feature, the €25,000 Irishinjuredjockeys.com Handicap, who defied a ten-pound rise in the ratings in the hands of Niall McCullagh to register a fourth-successive win.

Too Precious was the second leg of a double for Niall, who had earlier won the card’s mile handicap on Lunastar (6/1) for trainer Paul Flynn.

Then, in the card’s finale, Shadow Seven (2/1f) battled well under apprentice Alan Persse to record a second win at Dundalk in the last nine days.

Not to be outdone, the Orr brothers also landed a five-timer. Firstly, Conor rode three winners at Limerick and then Oisin registered a double at Dundalk.

Oisin’s opening winner was Thebeastfortheeast (7/4 joint-fav) in the second division of the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden for trainer Richard O’Brien and was followed by Alfredo Arcano (7/1) for David Marnane in the card’s six-furlong handicap.

That’s two winners and two seconds from his last eight runners for David, whose horses are clearly running well.

Better known for his hugely-successful jumping yard, Gordon Elliott made it 41 flat winners in Ireland in the last five seasons when the strongly-supported Pensylvania Avenue (11/8f), a half-brother to a Dundalk winner called Solar Benny, edged out Sky Seven in the first division of the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden.

The winning jockey was Declan McDonogh and the winning owners, the Nick Bradley Racing Club, who enjoyed good success last season with chaser Doctor Phoenix, winner of the Dan Moore Memorial Handicap Chase at Fairyhouse and a Grade Three chase at Naas earlier in the year, also for Gordon.

The card’s remaining contest, the six-furlong Irish Stallion Farms Maiden, was won by That’s Not Me (7/1), owned by Emlyn Patterson and ridden by Danny Sheehy.

The daughter of Dandy Man, who was giving Anthony McCann his first two-year-old winner as a trainer, was gaining reward for consistency as she had finished second three times and third once in her four runs leading into this race.