Pietropaolo gets ball rolling for O’Brien Apprentice jockey Julian Pietropaolo registered a sixth career win and a first success for employer trainer Joseph O’Brien today, bagging Punchestown’s Irish Stallion Farms EBF Handicap on Kashel Spring (12/1). Having finished second on three previous occasions for the dual Melbourne Cup-winning trainer, Pietropaolo today produced Kashel Spring from mid-division to lead in the closing stages and defeat Its All Peachy by a half-length. Pietropaolo, 17 and from Ballynoe, Co Cork, reported “there was loads of pace on so I was happy to have Kashel Springs in mid-division, as I didn’t want to be too hard on her early on. “They kicked from about three furlongs out and to be fair to her she galloped. I got a few belts into her and she picked up well and she was tough. She was game at the line, when I really put the gun to her head she came out of it on top.” O’Brien, whose stable jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle is suspended, had in the half-hour earlier race also combined successfully for the first time with Joey Sheridan on Snapretend, for the opening leg of a personal double. Quotes from Gary Carson
