Oisin Murphy secures double on Killarney homecoming Oisin Murphy enjoyed a rewarding homecoming after picking up two winners on his first appearance as a jockey at Killarney. The five-time British champion jockey was born and raised near the County Kerry track and has fond memories of visiting as a child, but surprisingly did not sit in the saddle at the venue until Tuesday evening on the second day of their annual festival. Killarney’s raucous crowd roared in delight as Murphy returned to the winner’s enclosure after powering Joseph O’Brien’s 1-5 odds-on favourite Celtic Motif to victory by six lengths in the opening Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Maiden. Murphy said: “It’s nice to win on her. She was a standout in the race, she had good form before she went to America for Joseph and had very good form over in America. “It was great that she won. Thank you to Killarney racecourse and everyone that has come. They put in an awful lot of effort.” Fresh off the back of his 2,558-1 five-timer at Windsor on Monday, the 30-year-old continued his rich vein of form by partnering Michael O’Callaghan’s Saga Gaga at a price of 3-1 in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Handicap. “It’s amazing. She was bred by Danny Leane, a local man who lives at the top of the road here,” said O’Callaghan. “It was his dream to have a winner at Killarney. She was his first ever winner when she won at Gowran and now for her to win on home soil with Oisin Murphy riding her, it’s amazing. “Oisin came in and said she’s still plenty raw, she enjoyed the trip and enjoyed everything. He said she is a stakes filly. “To win that against older horses off a mark of 90 was a good performance. “She’ll probably get a small break and we might try and look for a bit of black type before the year is out.” Dermot Weld’s Wild Sapphire (6-4) battled gamely to hold off Ken Condon’s Sron Na Caise in the Hotel Killarney Maiden. Cause I Like You (100-30), trained by Michael Mulvany, denied Murphy’s mount Zheleznaya Dama by a length and three-quarters in the Irish Examiner Handicap, while Gillian Scott’s Red Hugh O’Donnell (33-1) survived a stewards’ inquiry to win at the this meeting for second successive season in the Killarney Plaza Hotel and Spa Handicap. Wild Sapphire’s rider Chris Hayes also completed a double aboard Gaoth Chuil (15-8) in the Rose Hotel Handicap, while William Durkan’s Eagle Fang (15-8) secured the concluding Thorn Plant Hire (Q.R.) Maiden.
