JONJO HITS THE BIG TIME AT 16/1
David Yates
JONJO O’NEILL JNR seized the big-race limelight once so familiar to his dad as Big Time Dancer galloped to a 16/1 victory in the Lanzarote Hurdle at Kempton Park.
O’neill Snr secured his place in jump racing’s Pantheon with two jockeys’ titles and a Cheltenham Gold Cup triumph aboard Dawn Run in 1986. And he captured chasing’s blue riband as a trainer 26 years later with the AP Mccoypartnered
Synchronised.
O’neill Jnr, 20, who rode the 25th and most valuable winner of his fledgling career aboard the Jennie Candlish-saddled six-yearold here, said of his father: “He is my sternest critic, for sure, but that’s my biggest help.”
The 5lb- claimer spent eight months of 2018 on the sidelines with a back injury.
He said: “I’ve been off for so long and you’re dreaming of these kind of days. For it to happen is brilliant.
“You need these big winners to put yourself in the paper and on TV, so I’m very thankful for them and hopefully I can search for many more yet.”
Impulsive Star and OK Corral scored at Warwick to set up a shootout in the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham in March.
Sam Waley- Cohen slimmed down to do 9st12lb on Impulsive Star (below), who denied Calett Mad in the Mccoy Contractors Civil Engineering Classic Chase.
The victory earned the Neil Mulholland trainee a 10/1 quote for the amateur riders’ four-miler, for which JP Mcmanus’s OK Corral, who came out best under Irish-based Derek O’connor in the Listed Hampton Novices’ Chase, heads the market at 3/1.
“The point of Derek O’connor coming to ride him was that we were thinking about the four-miler – and we still are,” said OK Corral’s trainer Nicky Henderson.