The Annus Mirabilis Syndicate with How About No and Dylan Browne McMonagle© Photo Healy Racing
Heavily-supported How About No on Friday credited trainer Joseph O'Brien's Annus Mirabilis Syndicate with a 100th winner, having landed Dundalk's DundalkStadium.com Maiden under jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle.
Browne McMonagle had earlier scored on the Johnny Feane-trained Ohailbhic and on How About No (morning 6/4, returned 4/9f), raced prominently before shaking off the challenge of market-rival Sea Wave (11/4) to score by 1.25 lengths.
Donal O'Mahoney, of the 14-member syndicate of friends, reported “only with Joseph O'Brien could this be possible and we have been with him since day one. We have been on the 'nervous 99' for a long time but Joseph picked out this horse for a long time as the one which might do it for us.
“The right race came and this is also our 30th winner in Dundalk.”
He added “we know the O'Briens who are great people, and while we were never going to have a horse with Aidan for obvious reasons (being Coolmore's trainer), there was a chance of having horses with Joseph. We hatched this plan with Annemarie (O'Brien) before Joseph had stopped riding and it has been a spectacular ride for all of us.
“We average having between ten or 12 (horses) a year, have a strike rate of 15% and are currently 50/50 between horses we own and lease. To get into bed with the O'Briens has been a privilege and we are really really happy tonight.”
Regarding How About No, O'Brien's representative Sean Corby added "he sharpened up from his first run and seems to stay very well. Dylan was adamant to make plenty of use of him and he ground it out well.
"He's a very big horse and I'd say he is going to progress all the time. It is a big day for the owners so we are delighted."
Quotes from Michael Graham
