Khabaray gives O'Brien third winner

Richard O’Brien has made a bright start to his three months fledgling career as a trainer and the Co Limerick based handler trained his third winner in that period when his Khabaray landed the Happy St. Patrick's Day Handicap.

Khabaray had previously failed to win in 11 runs but today, under jockey Ross Coakley, was held up in mid-division before eventually making his way to the front inside the final furlong before crossing the line ahead of Settle For Red

Afterwards O’Brien stated “that's great and I'm delighted with him. We've always thought he was capable of doing something like that and hopefully now he'll kick into gear and progress. We'll probably wait now until there is a little bit of good ground because I don't think he'll handle soft.

“I'm delighted for my father especially. We've had a few winners here and it's great for him - he bred him and he bred me so he'll be delighted and will get a massive kick out of this.

“I'm delighted with the ride Ross gave him - it was absolutely perfect. He had spoken to Bill (Lee) who had ridden him the last day and he said to ride him like that, ride him with loads of confidence and deliver him late. It worked really well.”

By Tom Weekes, quotes from Gary Carson