Success Doubly Sweet For Rider-Breeder O'Neill 

For a jockey, any day you ride a winner is a good day, but Wednesday proved to be even sweeter for Kieran O'Neill, who is also the breeder of his winning mount Naana's Sparkle. It's not the first time he has won aboard the Twilight Son gelding either, as O'Neill guided him to his first win back in 2024. The four-year-old has also won twice in the interim for O'Neill's weighing-room colleagues Rowan Scott and Charlie Bishop

“It is extra special,” O'Neill admits. “Because from day one, I broke him in and I was the first person to ride him, so it's even better when you do that, when you bring them up and then get to ride the winner on him as well.”

And it's not just Naana's Sparkle with whom the jockey has had this close contact as he also won on his dam Sweet And Dandy (Dandy Man) when she was trained by Jimmy Fox. 

“I bought her as a yearling,” he says. “And I broke her in, and I won on her myself as well, so it's quite good. When her owner sold her, I bought her back and then put her in foal to Twilight Son twice.”

The mare's first foal, Dusk Dame, now five, was a dual winner for O'Neill's partner Alice Haynes. After Haynes handed in her training licence, Naana's Sparkle moved to continue his training in Newmarket with Lemos de Souza. His latest win, in a Class 3 five-furlong handicap, came off a mark of 86.

“I still think there's a bit more to come with him really,” O'Neill says. “I always knew he was going to get better from three to four. I knew the owner wanted to sell him at the back end of last year, but then we got new owners in to him to buy his half out, so that actually worked out perfect, and then Lemos said he could train him.”

The Irishman, who has been based in England since 2011, started as an apprentice in the UK with Richard Hannon Sr and, since his move to Newmarket, has been a key member of John and Thady Gosden's team at Clarehaven Stables.

He adds, “I ride [Naana's Sparkle] every day, so it's grand. I go there and then I go in to the Gosdens.”

Next in line from Sweet And Dandy is a filly by Inns Of Court who O'Neill says “doesn't know she's a racehorse yet”.

He adds, “But I've given her plenty of time, and she's actually grown a lot, so I think she'll be okay one day. She just hasn't come together yet.”

The 11-year-old mare, who boards in Ireland at John Bourke's Hyde Park Stud and is O'Neill's sole broodmare, produced a Starman foal last week and also has a yearling colt by Far Above. She is set to be covered by Minzaal.

“I'd like to get some land eventually, because it is expensive boarding a mare, but if I was to get a couple of acres, I'd like to get two or three mares myself,” he says. “It's fun when they win but it can be hard, but once you've got the land to do it, it's a lot easier.”

Naana's Sparkle, who fortunately found his favoured soft ground after a long-awaited deluge at Yarmouth on Wednesday, has potential engagements next at Haydock or Chester.

“There's a 0 to 95 on 30 June around Chester, but I don't want to run him on very fast ground,” O'Neill says. 

“There's also a Listed race at Haydock before that [the Achilles Stakes] and if it was soft or heavy ground and he ended up being placed and picking up a bit of black type, it'd be great for the mare.”