Dundaniel and Alan O Sullivan© Photo Healy Racing
Nineteen year old Alan O'Sullivan registered his first racecourse winner on Dundaniel (15/8f) in Cork's John Thomas McNamara Maiden Hunters Chase today, scoring a poignant success for connections of the Michael Kennedy-trained gelding.
O'Sullivan, with 11 point-to-points wins, today safely steered easy winner Dundaniel to an 11 lengths win, thus following older brother Michael O'Sullivan, with a treble yesterday, in riding an Easter winner at their local course.
O'Sullivan, from nearby Lombardstown, today said “I rode Dundaniel the last day when he won well in Bandon and he was on another level today.
“He had a lot of runs in point-to-points and his first run on the racecourse so maybe that livened him up and he was very good.
“My Dad (William, a Cheltenham Foxhunters Chase winning jockey) is a farmer and my uncle Eugene trains the horses and everyone works together and it seems to work well.
“I won the pony race on this card on a serious pony called Murphy Brown here a few years ago. I'm hoping to be a jockey but I'm in college in Cork and will get that done first.”
Dundaniel's trainer Michael Kennedy added “my horses have been hitting the cross bar but are running competitively so I can't complain.
“This horse has always worked nicely but has just taken time. He was impressive but I don't know what the opposition was like so we won't get carried away. I might run him again next week in Tramore.”
He added “sadly his previous owner P.J. O'Driscoll, from Bandon, passed away last September having shown a lot of patience with the horse. He missed today but is probably looking down on us and brought us some luck.”
