Cunning plan lands the Captain's prize

Miss Cunning benefited from a change of tactics to win Cork's Captain Ruben Ocana Memorial Handicap today, getting off to a flier and making virtually all under jockey Jessica O'Gorman.

Backed from 33/1 and returned 12s, the six year old mare notched a sixth success, winning a race named in honour of Captain Ruben Ocana, who emergency-landed at the racecourse in 1983.

Winning owner/trainer Aengus King said “I told Jessica that she was riding very passively and said no matter what the result, to ride positively.

“Her best ride was on a John McConnell-trained horse last week and I rang her and told her to start taking things into her own hands and to stop coming late. I think she learned again today.”

He added “the mare hadn't ran in a long time and we had her fresh but the change in tactics woke her up. Whatever it is, horses run for Jessica and her dad Anthony works for me, led up the horse, so it is brilliant.”

The race, and this weekend's two-day Ocana Festival, is run in memory of Ocana who emergency-landed at the racecourse on 18 April 1983 and remained stranded for 39 days until a runway, now a carpark, was laid to get his Gulfstream II jet airborne.

During the time, a love affair formed between he and the town with the event featuring in 1983's Reeling In The Years. Racehorses to have run unsuccessfully at today's racecourse include Captain Ocana and Another Ocana, which won a nearby Dromahane point-to-point last December.

After racing today, the ashes of Captain Ocana, who passed away in 2009, will be spread by his family and a Mexican orange blossom bed will be opened.