Dingle Derby hero rides first racecourse winner Leading point-to-point jockey Mikey O’Connor’s Dingle Derby-winning son Dylan O’Connor had his first racecourse success today, as the sixteen-year-old steered Sporting Hero (7/2f) to win Dundalk’s opening Irishinjuredjockeys.com Handicap. A leading graduate from the pony racing circuit, O’Connor junior had won the 2023 showpiece Kerry race on Caro Quintero and today, on just his fourth racecourse ride, produced Sporting Hero with a nicely timed challenge to score. Drawn wide in 11, Sporting Hero had tracked the leaders with O’Connor moving him to lead inside the final furlong to beat My Girl Sioux by two lengths. O’Connor’s father Mikey, Ireland's fifth most successful point-to-point rider, notched a 429th success following a Ballyvodock double on February 2 and today at Dundalk, Sporting Hero's trainer Denis Hogan reported "I've known about Dylan for the past year or two and I've been keeping an eye on him. "When Sean Bowen (champion UK apprentice jockey) moved away to the UK, I was looking out for someone to take on. Dylan is a Cork man and I was asking one of the valets two weeks ago where I would get a good apprentice so he said to ring him, as Michael Halford had just retired and Dylan was signed-on to him. I signed him up straight away. "We will try and mind his 10lb claim although I'd say he will probably go jumping eventually.” Regarding Sporting Hero, he added “last week Joey (Sheridan) rode him and was third so the 10lb claim tonight was massive and he was also down in grade. “I have a lot of handicappers and the problem is when they win a race they get too high in the handicap and, if you have a good 7lb or 10lb (claimer), it means you might win another race.” Previous winners of the world famous Dingle Derby include champion jump jockeys Jack Kennedy and Paul Townend. Quotes from Michael Graham
