Joseph O’Brien off to a flyer with four winners

On the June bank holiday Monday in 1993, Aidan O’Brien trained his first winner, when Wandering Thoughts obliged at Tralee. Yesterday afternoon, 23 years later and at the corresponding meeting, now held in Listowel, his eldest son, Joseph, claimed his first official national hunt winner when Mai Fitzs Jack justified long odds-on favouritism in the John B Keane Maiden Hurdle.

The most remarkable aspect? That was just one of four winners on the day for the newly-licensed trainer, after his two national hunt winners at Listowel were emulated on the level at Gowran Park.

O’Brien’s first official winner came a little earlier in the afternoon with his first runner, when Justice Frederick belied a market drift to take the opening race at Gowran Park, at the expense of Leo Minor, trained by his father Aidan.