Derek O'Connor ends 23-year wait with Galway win on Comfort Zone
23 years after winning the Connacht Hotel Amateur Handicap on Rapid Deployment, Derek O'Connor won it again on Comfort Zone. Pic: Healy Racing Photo
Twenty-three years after winning the race on Rapid Deployment, local hero Derek O’Connor bagged a second Connacht Hotel Amateur Handicap when guiding Comfort Zone to victory for JP McManus and Joseph O’Brien in last night’s opening-day feature in Galway.
The 18/1 shot travelled sweetly throughout, quickened to take command off the home turn and stayed on to beat top-weight Holy See (40/1) by three-quarters of a length, with 2023 winner Teed Up a close third and Eagle Fang (stable companion of the runner-up) fourth.
O’Connor, who will soon turn 44, declared, “It’s one of those prestigious races for amateurs, a lovely, lovely race to win but, like Mayo, it’s not simple to win.
“It’s incredible to win this race again. Joseph had the horse in great shape and neither he nor Frank (Berry) gave me instructions.
“You need an awful lot of luck in this race every year. The plan was to stay out of trouble. I was getting the vibe from the horse that he was enjoying himself.
“I climbed Croagh Patrick yesterday, which did me no harm. Monday evening is always the local day here, so it’s great.”
Having won the race for the first time, Joseph O’Brien commented, “It’s a fantastic race to win and Derek gave him a great ride. We fancied him for the race last year but he was disappointing. The slower ground helped him and he has run well here before – you might see him again at the weekend. He’s been a great servant and has been knocking on the door, trying to win one of these big pots.”
Comfort Zone sparked a double for O’Brien, completed when Dylan Browne McMonagle brought handicap ‘snip’ (she was 16lb ‘well-in’) Dancing Saxon from off the pace to land the Clayton Hotel Galway Handicap comfortably from Expert Dancer.
The trainer stated, “Dylan gave her a fantastic ride – they went fast, he was cool and made his move at the right time. She was obviously well-handicapped and will step back into stakes company now, looking for more black type.”
Joseph O’Brien was denied a treble when his Which Flannerys was outstayed by Teofil in the four-year-old bumper.
Once-raced Teofil, who made his debut at the Punchestown festival, is trained by Jim Bolger and was strongly handled in a tight finish by John Gleeson, getting home by a neck.
Always a force at Ballybrit, Willie Mullins kicked off the festival on a high when Witches Familiar, successful on her Irish debut at Ballinrobe, bolted-up in the Galmont Hotel & Galway Bay Hotel 4-Y-0 Novice Hurdle, stretching clear to slam Mino Des Mottes by eight and a half lengths.
“She was in training most of last year and we felt she was better than the average novice, so we decided to keep her a novice and wait for here,” explained the champion trainer.
“I won’t be in a hurry with her. I’m looking at her as a ‘Royal Bond’ filly and, with a bit of luck, she could be one for the ’mares novice’ in Cheltenham.”
The Mullins-trained handicap debutant Sharkeyboy was narrowly denied in the Gra Chocolates Handicap, collared close home by top-weight Madbadanddangerous, ridden for Noel Meade by Colin Keane and defying a 6lb. rise for his Ulster Derby success last month. The winner might now be aimed at the Irish Cesarewitch.
The first flat race of the 2026 festival, the Eventus Irish EBF 2-Y-O Maiden, won last year by Constitution River, went to the Paddy Twomey-trained Trean (Billy Lee), who proved almost five lengths superior to Ballydoyle colt City Of Gold.
The winner, owned by the Red Lily Syndicate, was bouncing back from a lacklustre run at the Curragh, as his trainer explained, “I think he’s a very good horse. He ran a very good race on debut, but a lot of mine were under a cloud when he ran at the Curragh – I was disgusted and left in a hurry. He’s fit to run in a good race now.”
And 7lb claimer Conor Smithers declared, “This horse took me out of the freezer – I owe this lad the world,” after Timurshah completed a hat-trick and defied a 16lb. higher mark for Monasterevin-based Aidan Melia in the EASYFIX Iggy Daly Handicap Hurdle.
The 12/1 shot jumped to the front two out and powered clear up the hill to score by eight and a half lengths and might reappear, off 73, in a flat handicap on Friday.
