O'Keeffe tries the flat The O'Keeffe family from Taghmon in County Wexford have been associated with point-to-points and National Hunt racing for many years now but tomorrow Richard dips his toe into the flat racing waters with two runners at Naas – Golden Monica and Erewhon's Princess. Golden Monica goes in the 8.00, the Derrinstown Stud Apprentice Handicap and Johnny Killahena will ride the four-year-old whilst half-an-hour later Niall McCullagh will get the leg up on Erewhon's Princess in the 8.30, the Irish Stallion Farms European Breeders Fund Fillies Maiden. Both these fillies are by Erewhon (www.erewhon.ie), who stands at Lurgan Green Stables in County Louth with Peader McCaghey. O'Keeffe explained: "He ran a few times in America and he won three times. He got an injury to his foot. A friend of mine bought him over there and brought him home and he is standing up in Drogheda. Lucky enough he turned out to be a full-brother to Light Shift who won the Oaks (at Epsom in 2007). "He got Erewhon fairly right (for reasonable money) before Light Shift ran in the Oaks – he was lucky after that – lucky so far anyway. "One of the runners tomorrow is handicapped (Golden Monica) and I got her fairly right. If she don't run well in a handicap it'll be hard to get her into another one. She is only rated 44. She is thrown in there at that so she'd want to run well. "My own background is that Derek is the father and James was an uncle. He trained Harveysland and Kilkilrun and bred Ryans Fancy and Finian's Rainbow. There were heaps of good horses here that time. "We'd be involved plenty in the point-to-points. "We'll see how the flat game goes. I have a few nice two-year-olds there too. They'll be out now in six weeks time. It's something to do for the summer. Nobody else has nothing to do – we'll have something to do to keep us going!" (EM)
