Donnacha O’Brien accuses Shane Foley of 'brutal riding' 

Trainer Donnacha O’Brien with Comanche Brave, Pic: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Donnacha O’Brien has accused Shane Foley of “brutal riding” in Saturday’s Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes.

Foley won the feature race on day one of the Irish Champions Festival at Leopardstown on board 50-1 shot Hotazhell but only after drifting dramatically left late on to cause a chain reaction that in turn hampered the O’Brien-trained A Boy Named Susie, Hawk Mountain, and Lambourn. The messy incident resulted in Foley getting slapped with an 11-day careless riding ban.

Speaking at the Curragh on Sunday after watching Comanche Brave, his only other Champions Festival runner this weekend, win the BAR 1 Betting Flying Five Stakes, O’Brien hit out at Foley.

“I thought it was brutal riding from Dusty [Foley] to be honest. If a claimer did that you’d give them a bollocking but that’s racing, he’ll know that himself. Paddy [Hartnett] hit the horse one extra in Cork the other day and got a similar ban to what Shane got so it’s frustrating.” 

Asked what Oisin Murphy's take was on how A Boy Named Susie would have fared with a clean run, O’Brien added: “He thought he was coming to win, he said he was going better than the winner at the time. He was the quickest second last to last furlong and then he just got wiped. He’s a good horse and he seems okay so it could be worse.

“It’s so hard to get horses that good and to get them right on the day but to get to a race like that with a chance is so hard, it is frustrating. He seems A1 this morning so we’ll live to fight another day.”