Young Tipperary jockey claims another win and his first at local track

The John O’Brien Memorial Tipperary Perpetual Cup, run in balmy sunshine at Powerstown Park, in memory of the popular Clogheen resident, was won in comfortable fashion by the 2/1 favourite Extensio.

Trained in Kilmallock by former jockey Pat O’Donnell, the 73-rated six-year-old raced freely in the early stages. Sent to the front by Joey Sheridan two furlongs from the finish, he shot clear in the straight and was eased close to home to hold off Sheishybrid by two and a quarter lengths.

O’Donnell remarked “He’s been a lucky horse to start with. You almost don’t want to believe you have your hands on a good horse because it’s so hard to come by them but I think we have a good one here. Before he won in Roscommon, he was meant to go to Haydock with a view to the English Cesarewitch but the ground turned up soft, so we had to cancel that.

“Where I might go with him now is the Cesarewitch Trial in Newmarket. Needless to say, several jockey agents were on the phone to me, looking for the ride, but Joey has been helping me all spring so I certainly wasn’t going to look elsewhere. It was a team effort”.

John O’Brien’s daughter Margaret and grandson John made the trophy presentations to the trainer’s wife Una, who is the successful owner, and O’Donnell’s father PJ.

Clonmel teenager Sean Bowen, whose mother Elizabeth Nallen-Bowen is the joint owner of Hotel Minella with her brother John, is on a roll and notched up his third winner of the week aboard Simply Sideways in the Nire Valley 50-85 Handicap.

The 17-year-old has just started his Leaving Cert year at Rockwell College and was seen to good effect with his handling of Tim Doyle’s charge, who kept on well to contain the late effort of the top-weight Eclat De Lumiere by three parts of a length.

Moyne-based Doyle was full of praise for the rider, commenting “Sean is great value for his seven pound claim and has a great head on him. He’s had six rides for me and that’s his fourth winner, so he’s doing us a lot of favours”.

Above: Margaret Quirke (nee O’Brien) and John O’Brien jnr present the John O’Brien Memorial Tipperary Cup to Una, Pat and PJ O’Donnell following the success of Extensio

Bowen, who is gaining valuable experience with both Adrian Joyce and Fozzy Stack, later received a great reception in the bar at Hotel Minella from Peter Roe and members of the Fairyhouse Supporters Club who were on a reciprocal visit to Clonmel and over-nighting at the Minella.

Dermot Weld may have had to settle for the runner-up spot in the fourth race but he made no mistake with the 8/11 favourite Astar in the fillies maiden. The front-running home-bred duly obliged under Chris Hayes to credit another local owner, Maurice Regan’s Newtown Anner Stud Farm Ltd with an overdue one and a quarter length success.

“It was as expected,” said Weld. “The plan was to jump off, make all and keep it simple. She has been a model of consistency and, later in the year, we’ll try for black type with her”.

Afterwards Clonmel’s racecourse manager DJ Histon made presentations to Dermot Weld and Newtown Anner’s racing manager PJ Colville, better known as the former amateur rider from Fethard. PJ explained “I break all their yearlings in Rosegreen and take them over until they are allocated to their different trainers. We have a nice bunch of horses this year”.

Clonmel Athletic Club, who have been very successful on the local, national and international stage, recently marked the official opening of their new track at the Sports Hub on the Frank Drohan bypass and sponsored the prizes to the grooms of the best turned out horses at the race meeting.

The next race meeting at Clonmel is on next Thursday, September 28 and will feature the Irish Stallion Farms Captain Christy Novice Chase, while the countdown will soon begin to the big one, The Clonmel Oil Steeplechase, on Thursday, November 9.