O'Brien And Heffernan Win Curragh Awards Aidan O'Brien and Seamie Heffernan were the big winners at the annual Curragh Racecourse awards which took place last night in L'Officina restaurant in the nearby Kildare Village outlet. The pair were awarded the Irish Daily Mail Training and Riding Performance of the Year Awards. There were selected from 8 monthly winners, with O'Brien the monthly winner for May and September following a number of high profile successes, while Heffernan claimed his Award for his winning ride on Diamondsandrubies in the Group One Sea The Stars Pretty Polly Stakes last June. Special Achievement Awards were presented to Curragh based trainer Sandra Hughes for her success in the Irish Grand National with Thunder and Rose and to Dermot Weld to honour his magnificent season which included sending out two Group 1 winners from his Curragh base. An Award was also presented to Willie Mullins in recognition of using the Curragh Training Grounds to prepare many of his greatest winners in 2015. John Weld, Chairman of the Curragh Racecourse, commented: "The Curragh Racecourse enjoyed a very positive year in 2015 with increases in attendance, betting, prize money on offer and international competition and it is important that we celebrate and acknowledge some of the tremendous achievements that have taken place on our track over the past year. We appreciate the significant support of our partners Kildare Village, Tipperary Crystal and the Irish Daily Mail who have all helped us develop the CurraghRacing Awards into a major event in the Irish Racing Calendar."
