Champion jockey Derek O’Connor made a winning return from injury when steering John Kiely’s Kilbarry Beauty to success in the bumper at Cork on Monday evening.
O’Connor had been on the sidelines since suffering a broken leg in a horror fall at Musselburgh back in mid-February and the Tubber genius showed he has lost none of tactical awareness when bringing his mount with a perfectly timed challenge on the wide outside to score an emphatic success.
A market drifter from 7-2 out to 6-1 in light of the very testing conditions at the Mallow track, Kilbarry Beauty was given a peach of a ride by O’Connor, who produced the daughter of Saffron Walden from well off the pace to beat Val O’Brien’s 20-1 outsider Clar Na Mionn by nine-and-a-half lengths.
Dungarvan-based winning trainer ,Kiely, who has been a great ally of O’Connor’s over the years, commented, “I’m delighted Derek was back from injury to ride this filly and there is no better man to hold her together on bad ground like that. This mare ran well when third on her debut at Clonmel and I hope she can go forward from here now.”
Naturally, O’Connor, who celebrated his engagement to long-time girlfriend, Carol O’Donnell from Crusheen over Easter, was thrilled to be back in action having been forced to sit out major festivals such as Cheltenham, Fairyhouse and Aintree due to his injury.
“It’s fantastic to be back in action, especially with Punchestown on this week,” said O’Connor.  “It has been frustrating watching all the action over the past two months but, thankfully, that’s all behind me now. I’m back as hungry as ever and I’m really looking forward to the last six weeks of the point-to-point season,” concluded the 29-year-old who, despite his forced absence, remains on course to be crowned champion point-to-point rider for the ninth year in a row when the season draws to a close over the June Bank Holiday weekend.
Meanwhile, it’s been a rewarding few weeks for East Clare trainer Ronnie O’Leary and his good run continued as his recent runaway Carlisle bumper winner, Fascino Rustico, turned a huge profit when topping the Brightwells Sales at Cheltenham racecourse on Wednesday of last week.
Purchased for just €23,000 at last year’s Goffs Land Rover sale, this grey son of Milan, who impressed greatly in his bumper win, achieved a record price for the sale when knocked down to bloodstock agent, Aiden Murphy for £310,000.
Fascino Rustico will be trained by champion trainer,Paul Nicholls for leading owner, John Hales – whose colours were carried to success by Neptune Collonges in the Grand National – thus continuing Hales’ long association with grey-coloured horses.
Other horses to sell well at the sale were Horse and Jockey four-year-old maiden winner Old Kilcash, who made £300,000 when purchased by bloodstock agent Gerry Hogan for leading owner, Barry Connell.  This horse now returns to Ireland, where he will go into training with well-known Kilkenny handler, John ‘Shark’ Hanlon.
Jonjo O’Neill was active at the sale and the master of Jackdaws Castle went to £215,000 to secure Mr Watson, who was third in the Racing Post Champion bumper at Fairyhouse recently. Minella Fifty, a good winner of his maiden at Tralee racecourse last month for Clonmel owner/trainer, John Nallen, also joins O’Neill’s yard, having fetched £150,000.
Point-to-point supporters will have been interested in Inch Rock, who was offered for sale by his Cork owner, Willie O’Neill following his impressive debut success in the four-year-old maiden at the Quakerstown meeting on Easter Sunday. This son of Bandari looked an exciting prospect on that occasion and he proved popular before agent Aiden Kennedy parted with £90,000 for the former Liam Burke-trained youngster.  
Last Sunday’s Doneraile Foxhounds meeting at Dromahane near Mallow was a marathon 11-race session where Scariff owner John Jones witnessed his colours carried to success by Itoldyou in the first division of the six-year-old and upwards maiden.
Friendless in the ring at 8-1, the successful son of Salford Express, who fell on his previous outing at Kilmallock, moved into second with six to jump before edging clear from the final fence to beat runner-up Coolykereen Castle by five-and-a-half lengths.
The winner was ridden by in-form jockey Declan Queally and is trained in Stradbally, County Waterford by Margaret Flynn, who nominated a winners’ race as the next port of call for the victorious six-year-old.

O’Brien dominates at headquarters

Not for the first time, Aidan O’Brien was the star turn at last Sunday’s Curragh meeting, where three wins for the Ballydoyle handler included a facile success with Excelebration in the Group 1 Gladness Stakes.
Formerly trained in England by Marco Botti, the winner switched to O’Brien when purchased by Derek Smith and the Exceed and Excel colt, who chased home Frankel at Ascot in October, pleased his connections when making a winning Irish debut.
Ridden by Joseph O’Brien, Excelebration came through strongly at the furlong pole to head front-running stable companion Windsor Palace and the 2-7 favourite ran out a very easy three-and-a-half-length winner.
O’Brien said, “I’m delighted with that. He was a very good horse before we got him and Marco Botti did a very good job with him.
“He’s very laid back at home and is lazy in his work. It was always the plan to come here for this race and he’ll now head to Newbury for the Lockinge Stakes, where he’ll probably have a re-match with Frankel.”
Earlier, O’Brien had taken the listed Anne Brewster Memorial Loughbrown Stakes with the gambled-on Requisition (6-1-7-2). Considered Ballydoyle’s ‘second string’ behind the Joseph O’Brien-ridden 4-9 favourite Nephrite, Requisition made light of that rating when bouncing out in front from the start and making all in this seven-furlong contest under Seamie Heffernan to beat Coolnagree by a length and three-quarters.
Nephrite proved a big disappointment when trailing in a well-beaten third, with O’Brien later ruling him out of the upcoming Quipco 2,000 Guineas when suggesting he may well drop back to sprinting.
The day had begun in the best possible fashion for the O’Briens when they combined to land the opening two-year-old maiden with odds-on shot Infanta Branca (1-3F).
This five furlong dash provided Henrythenavigator with his first success as a sire when Infanta Branca, who was beaten into second on her debut at Cork, flew from the stalls and made every post a winning one to beat Jim Bolger’s Leitir Mor by half a length.
The winner is a speedy type, with O’Brien nominating the Marble Hill stakes back at the Kildare track as the Michael Tabor-owned filly’s next port of call.