Morgan honoured at the Curragh Joanna Morgan is to be honoured at the Curragh with the naming of a race after the recently-retired trainer. The Joanna Morgan Lifetime Achievement Handicap will feature as one of seven races on the opening day of the Curragh season on Sunday, March 29. The pioneering female rider and trainer rode more than 200 winners and was victorious on every continent during an illustrious career in the saddle. She was also the first woman to ride in an Irish Classic when piloting Riot Helmet in the 1976 Irish Derby and was the first to be placed in one when she was third on El Cito in the Irish St Leger in 1980. The Curragh was a happy hunting ground, with One Won One claimng the Phoenix Stakes and Obama Rule taking the Dance Design Stakes, while Moran Gra won both the Irish Cambridgeshire and Dubai Duty Free Premier Handicap on Irish Derby Day. Among her big-race successes as a rider at the Curragh were Yankee's Princess in the Irish Lincolnshire, Royal Hobbit in the Waterford Testimonial Stakes and Stackallen Stakes, Baby Brew in the Rockingham Handicap, The Bower in the Irish Cambridgeshire, Viaticum in the Diamond Stakes and Another Sky Lark in the Smurfit Paribas Bank Premier Handicap. In 1979 she became the first lady to ride a major Flat winner in Britain or Ireland when landing the Madrid Handicap in 1979 on Frosty Stare for trainer Seamus McGrath. Curragh manager Paul Hensey said: "We are delighted to honour the career of Joanna Morgan. She has been a great friend of the Curragh since she moved to Ireland in the 1970s and it is appropriate for us to honour her achievements which included so many great successes as both a jockey and trainer here. "I hope plenty of people will come racing to wish her well."
