Cappuccino Man © Photo Healy Racing
This season's race to be Champion Conditional Jockey is already a vintage renewal as current leader Darragh O'Keeffe partnered his 30th winner this term on the Oliver McKiernan trained Cappuccino Man in the Charles Caldwell Memorial Maiden Hurdle at Downpatrick today.
Eight year old Cappuccino Man was previously a point-to-point winner at Loughbrickland in March 2015 and today finally won on his 19th racecourse start, as he beat fast finishing Premier D'troice by a diminishing half-length margin.
O'Keeffe's 30 winners this term is currently just six behind current overall Jockeys' Championship leader Paul Townend, on 36, and is 13 more than Conditional Jockeys' challenger Kevin Brouder (30-17) in the very early stages of this year's Championship,
Jack Kennedy's tally of 44 winners for the 2015/16 season is the best achieved by a Conditional Jockey this century.
Following the race trainer McKiernan said "he was a horse that had a lot of troubles all his life.
"I didn't think he travelled well the last day in Sligo but then it was soft ground and I put it down to that, or maybe he is getting a bit cute.
“It was probably a moderate enough race and and hopefully he will improve another little bit and he might jump a fence later on.
"We said we'd come here and see how he goes in a maiden hurdle. He's handicapped but he's on the high side. It was a handicap he ran in in Sligo so I said maybe 2m5f might suit him better in a maiden hurdle."
Quotes from Michael Graham
