Donnacha’s day as youngster ‘completes set’ for O’Brien family

It was Donnacha’s day at Dundalk yesterday as Aidan O’Brien’s younger son registered his first success in the saddle when producing odds-on favourite Quartz with a well-timed late challenge to foil Duchess Andorra by a half-length in the Dundalk Stadium Apprentice Maiden.

O’Brien (16), who recently began sixth year in Rockwell College, was ‘completing the set’ for the O’Brien family as both his father Aidan and mother Anne Marie were accomplished amateur riders while the achievements of his siblings, champion-jockey Joseph and sisters Sarah (amateur) and Ana (apprentice), have been well-documented.

And the youngest of the clan needed to be at his strongest to get the 4/6 favourite home, prompting his proud father to comment: “It‘s great to get it and I’m delighted for him. He had a bad fall in Wexford in one of his first rides, but was very lucky. He’s a big lad but, at the moment, he’s able to claim 10lb. off 9-5. It’s an important day for all of us.”