El Salvador, a 25-1 chance trained by Aidan O’Brien and ridden by his son Donnacha, took the Irish Cesarewitch at The Curragh on Sunday, defying top weight and a sustained challenge from the well-fancied Hidden Universe throughout the final furlong.
Donnacha O’Brien, the 16-year-old younger brother of O’Brien’s principal jockey Joseph, rode his first winner last month but defied his relative inexperience to win by a length in the colours of his mother, Anne-Marie. The success was his fourth from 30 rides in public to date.
“It’s great for Donnacha,” his father said. “It’s a hard race to win. He’s a tall fellow and is doing his leaving certificate this year. It was a nice, patient ride as the start was a bit messy and he was a long way back.”
The trainer completed a treble on the final card of the year at The Curragh, including a one-two in the card’s maiden as Royal Navy Ship beat the fast-finishing favourite Jacobean, and a three-length success for Together Forever in the Staffordstown Stud Stakes, a Listed event for fillies.
At Limerick the Munster National was won by Shanpallas in the colours of JP McManus, who bought the horse less than three weeks ago. Charles Byrnes’s six-year-old, ridden by Davy Russell, beat another McManus-owned runner, Tom Horn, by three-quarters of a length.
“It’s my first winner for JP,” Byrnes said. “He only bought the horse two and a half weeks ago and his previous owners are all here, they are delighted. He needs good ground so his options are limited but it’s job done today.”
The Velka Pardubicka (Czech Grand National) at Pardubice in the Czech Republic was won for the third year in a row by the mare Orphee Des Blins, who made all the running under Jan Faltejsek. Lambro, representing the Lambourn stable of Charlie Mann, who won the race as a jockey in 1995, finished unplaced.
In a typically chaotic race, Orphee Des Blins avoided trouble in front and stayed on strongly to hold off the late challenge of Al Jaz in the final half-furlong.
Monday’s meeting at Salisbury, where the official going is soft, heavy in places, is subject to an inspection at 7.15am after persistent overnight rain was forecast before the track’s final card of the year.
