JUST over three months after riding his last winner and with just his fourth runner as a trainer, Donnacha O’Brien was back in the winner’s enclosure when Flower Garland captured the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Maiden.

Owned and bred by the trainer’s mother Annemarie, this filly came within a neck of giving Donnacha O’Brien his first success as a trainer at this track last month. The 4/7 chance strode clear of the field from two furlongs out under Gavin Ryan to register a resounding six-length triumph. Appropriately O’Brien’s first victory as a trainer came at a track where Quartz gave him his first riding success in September 2014.

“It’s nice to get the first one out of the way. She was entitled to win but I didn’t think she’d do it like that,” reflected the trainer who has 35 horses under his care for 2020. “She gets the mile well and I think she’ll probably stay a mile and a quarter. We have a few nice well-bred two-year-olds as well as Fancy Blue (unbeaten listed winner) and a few three-year-olds that haven’t run.”

The success of Flower Garland came half an hour after Anthony McCann’s Alhajjaj sprang a 20/1 shock under Danny Sheehy in a handicap over an extended 10 furlongs. The grey had beaten just one rival in his last four starts but stole into an unassailable advantage through the first half of the race and was able to sustain his effort to reach the line half a length ahead of Moving Forward.

“Nothing followed him today, thankfully. If they had followed him he probably would have fired the toys out of the pram. He has the ability to do it and he showed it there,” reported McCann who trains the seven-year-old for his stalwart patron Rita Shah.

There was another surprise in the offing in the apprentice riders’ handicap as Willie Byrne, partnering his third winner of the winter season, teamed up with Tio Esteban to spring a 16/1 surprise.

The Willie Martin-owned and trained five-year-old carried the day by three lengths. Tio Esteban was bouncing back to the form that saw him win at Wolverhampton back in November.

TWO winners for Colin Keane moved him on to the 13-winner mark for the winter season and he completed his brace aboard a smart sort in Denis Hogan’s Sceptical who turned a well contested six-furlong handicap into a one-sided affair late on.

This son of Exceed And Excel and the Queen Mary Stakes heroine Jealous Again was picked by owner James McAuley for just £2,800 as an unraced three-year-old from Godolphin last August.

After reaching the frame on his debut, Sceptical then bolted up in a maiden here in November and he prevailed off a rating of 90. The patiently ridden gelding asserted over the last furlong and a half to defeat War Hero by two lengths.

Earlier, Keane took the mile handicap on the useful Ger Lyons five-year-old Bucky Larson.

The 5/2 favourite, who is owned by Sean Jones and the trainer’s wife Lynne, took the measure of the game front-runner Shawaf to record a two-length triumph.

“He’s had a few niggly problems and he would have needed his run here last month. He could pick up a premier handicap in the summer,” stated the rider.

Johnny Murtagh’s Kokura lost a race in the stewards’ room here last month but compensation awaited in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Median Auction Maiden.

Ben Coen got the Fitzwilliam Racing-owned 11/10 favourite to the front as the last furlong loomed and the pair reached the line with half a length to spare over the newcomer Rio Ocho. This three-year-old again looked green and rolled around when he hit the front and he appeals as one that can progress further.

Smyth’s night to remember

IT was an evening to live long in the memory for Fermanagh-born apprentice Nicole Smyth (22) who registered her first success in the saddle courtesy of Pegasus Bridge who struck at 50/1 in the second division of the 45-65 rated seven-furlong handicap.

In a tremendous finish where victory could have gone to any one of six or seven runners, the Liam Lennon-owned and trained Pegasus Bridge got home by nose from Tynamite in a four-way photo.

This was a first success for Pegasus Bridge picked up for £4,000 at Ascot last summer.

David Marnane previously secured the first division of the seven-furlong handicap with Poet’s Pride who was backed from 9/1 earlier in the day into 9/2.

The Laurence O’Kane-owned five-year-old, got home by half a length under Billy Lee.