O’Sullivan and O’Connor share double on final day of Irish Flat season
Champion jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle, left, with champion apprentice Wayne Hassett with their prizes at the Curragh on Sunday. Picture: Bryan Keane/Inpho
On a day when Wayne Hassett clinched the apprentice championship thanks to victory on James J Braddock in the opening two-year-old maiden, Ross O’Sullivan and Donagh O’Connor shared a superb double with Chally Chute and Switch From Diesel as the 2025 Irish Flat season concluded at the Curragh.
A home-bred seven-year-old, an unlucky second in the recent Irish Cesarewitch, Chally Chute (11-8 favourite) gave both trainer and rider the biggest win of their careers when, having travelled strongly, he outpointed The Shunter in the Group 3 Comer Group International Loughbrown Stakes.
“He’s been a real star since he arrived and we’re thrilled,” declared O’Sullivan. “He won the listed race in Roscommon, was unlucky in the Cesarewitch and now this, a Group 3.
“He has a high rating and will be some horse for next year. He could be one to run in some the Cup races, in England or, maybe, France.”
The O’Sullivan/O’Connor combination struck again when Switch From Diesel, a top bumper mare, came from well off the pace and got up on the line to pip Factual Fact by a nose in the 1xBet Safer Gambling Maiden.
Winner of three bumpers and runner-up to Bambino Fever at the Punchestown festival, six-year-old Switch From Diesel is now expected to embark on a hurdling career.
Champion jockey for the first time, Dylan Browne McMonagle arrived home from his Breeders’ Cup heroics on Ethical Diamond to be presented with his trophy, alongside another key member of Joseph O’Brien’s operation, Wayne Hassett, whose wide-margin success on James J Broderick left him on 25 winners for the season, two ahead of Robert Whearty, in the apprentice title race.
Hassett said: “Joseph told me not to complicate things, to be handy. We went a nice gallop and, although he was plenty green and wandered around a bit, he did it well.”
The Declan McDonogh-ridden Beset completed Joseph O’Brien’s double when bolting up by seven and a half lengths from Royal Entry in the listed Guinness 0.0 Finale Stakes, her rider stating: “She’s had a good year, had been stakes-placed and is now a Group winner. She gave me a good feel today and went to the two-furlong pole on the bridle, which is always a good sign.”
The Mark Fahey-trained Tina’s Indian, back at the scene of his debut success last year, justified 1-2 favouritism in the WTW Willis Race, battling back to beat the flattering Senna’s Girl (Wayne Hassett) by a neck.
“It was a good opportunity for him on ratings,” said Fahey. “Ronan (Whelan) was good and strong on him and, to be fair, the horse picked up and won well enough at the line.
“We’ll talk to Ronan and see what he thinks about chancing him on the all-weather.”
Apprentice Jimmy Dalton registered his third success and, in doing so, rode out his 10lb claim when Staysound Susie, trained by his boss Andy Slattery, swooped inside the final furlong to foil Asdana in the 1xBet Supports Irish racing Sprint Handicap.
And another apprentice Rory Mulligan rounded off a successful year when partnering Ciarán Murphy’s Titanium to victory in the Finlay Volvo Premier Mile Handicap.
