Joseph O’Brien dominates Irish Cambridgeshire

Federal gets the better of Good Heavens in Curragh feature.

Federal led home a one-two for trainer Joseph O’Brien in the Paddy Power Supporting Cancer Trials Ireland Irish Cambridgeshire.

The Owning Hill handler saddled just two of 28 runners in the EURO 100,000 feature and the pair ultimately dominated the finish at the end of the Curragh’s straight mile.

The JP McManus-owned Good Heavens was the better fancied of the pair at 13-2 – making his handicap debut following a dominant victory at Cork last month.

Federal had finished four and a half length behind his stablemate in the same race and while he was significantly better off at the weights for the rematch, he was much bigger odds at 28-1.

Good Heavens battled his way to the lead inside the final furlong, but was unable to resist the late surge of Federal, who having been ridden with more restraint by 3lb claimer Mikey Sheehy got up to secure top honours by a neck.

O’Brien said: “Mikey gave him a great ride. He’d been off the track for a long time and ran well the last day. He was a talented enough two-year-old but had a bit of trouble with his feet and that’s why he was off for so long.

“He was due to go to Australia but lucky for us he didn’t. The owners’ patience has been rewarded and a lot of people put in a lot of work to get him here.

“I ran him on soft ground here as a three-year-old and shouldn’t have run him that day. He ran well in Cork after being off for ages and we said that we’d give him a shot here with the prize-money on offer.

“He looks a stakes horse in the making.”

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