Naas Monday
After an exciting day in Cork Saturday we head to Naas tomorrow with Maymine. She runs in the Listed Polonia Stakes, a 5.5f, 3 year old only race for fillies. I had my eye on this race from a bit back and due to it’s fairly restrictive criteria thought it might be poorly subscribed. So much for that, 16 show up including a Royal Ascot winner that cost a cool £1.5 million. It looks hot. Our lady has her winning bracket and is in a wonderful place at the moment and we felt it was the right thing to do with her. She’s taking her schedule well and has achieved plenty in a short space of time, having worked for the first time in her life on Queen Mother Champion Chase day. She worked with a nice older horse that day who failed to give her 3 stone, I remember being disappointed with him coming home. Some judge me. Anyway it’s a big step up but black type is where it’s at and I’m really looking forward to giving it a go. The horses are running well at the moment. All along it was primarily myself and Catherine Dalton that were responsible for everything and we tipped away fine. Catherine was worked to the bone and still is stretched. She is consistently fantastic running the yard. We had a new addition in Shane Hourigan on the 19th of March. He’s a local chap who relocated from Joseph O’Brien’s to be closer to home and to try and be involved with a potentially growing outfit. His arrival has allowed me to step back a fraction, observe a bit more, all the while getting valuable feedback. He’s a much better rider and I feel we’re hitting the nail on the head a little better as a result. Fingers crossed we can keep kicking, pot committed now.

2017 Richard O'Brien Racing Limited