Ma Fee Heela and Shane Kelly pictured on their way to victory© Photo Healy Racing
Ma Fee Heela got off the mark on the third time of asking, as he ran out a comfortable winner of the Sean Judge Memorial Maiden.
Sent off a well-backed favourite when second on debut at Naas in March, the French bred son of Siyouni since finished fifth to Irishcorrespondent at Leopardstown last month.
Settled in mid-division this evening, he was fourth entering the straight. He improved into second on the outer with over a furlong left to race, and he was ridden to lead inside the final furlong, going on to score by two and a quarter lengths,
Shane Kelly was aboard the winner who was returned the 4/7 (from 5/6 on-course) market leader. Mirror Man was sent off the 2/1 second favourite, and he was second under Shane Foley for Mick Halford.
O'Callaghan said afterwards: "I'm delighted to see him go on and do that. We have always thought a hell of a lot of him. He picked up a little issue last year which meant we had to put him away. He came from the breeze ups and hopefully we have another nice one on our hands here. We've been very lucky buying from the breeze ups.
"I just gave him two quick runs in succession to try and make a bit of a man of him because he didn't have the right sort of ideas about the whole thing but he seems to have learned a little bit there now.
"He raced far more professionally tonight and we'll take it one step at a time with him. He still has a little bit to learn. We'll try and find the next suitable race for him, if there was a conditions race for him just to step him up again and get as much experience into him as we can. He's a lovely horse.
"It's great to get a winner for the owner. This is nice ground up here and I think the time was quite fast. He has a bit of knee action. He would handle typical Irish ground but he wouldn't handle our current ground. I'd say he is quite versatile. Once he learns to relax he'll get a mile as well. We'll see what the handicapper does.
"Apart from Mick Halford's horse (Mirror Man) who I expected to improve a lot from his first run and ran very well, it was kind of an ordinary sort of contest after that. I won't get carried away myself, maybe try and find a conditions race."
Additional reporting by Michael Graham
