Light Pillar wins on Irish debut for O'Brien & Crosse

Light Pillar made a winning Irish debut at Dundalk today as the Joseph O'Brien trained son of Galileo won the Scenic Carlingford Ferry Race under jockey Shane Crosse.

The Irish bred, ex-Andre Fabre trained four year old colt was a dual winner in France and went unsold at E130,000 at Arqana Sales last September. He since joined current connections (Rafferty's Rules Syndicate) and today justified even money favouritism to beat Kerosin by a length and a quarter.

The win was Crosse's third success, meaning his claim will now be reduced from 10lbs to 7lbs and afterwards the 16 year old said “he was a great ride throughout and I suppose he was the form horse going into the race.

"Kevin(Manning) came through strong but when I was going to go for mine he was going to find something and thankfully he did.

"I'm in school at the minute, I'm in fifth year but I'm up there (with Joseph O'Brien) when I'm off and at weekends.

"Obviously the 10lbs (claim) was great. The first target was to get down from the 10lbs and now try to eat into the 7lbs as much as I can."

Quotes from Michael Graham