Barry Connell

CHELTENHAM, UK -- Look to the stars. A reflex action for Sean Flanagan as he passed the post in front on Marine Nationale (Ire) (French Navy {GB}) to win the G1 BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase. Any win at Cheltenham is emotional for those closest to the horse, but this was one heavily laced with poignancy, coming less than a month after the death of Marine Nationale's former jockey Michael O'Sullivan at the age of 24. Two years earlier, Marine Nationale had provided him with his first victory at the...

Adrian Heskin, who became the youngest winning rider at the Cheltenham Festival when steering A New Story (Ire) (Fourstars Allstar) to victory in the 2010 Glenfarclas Chase as a 17-year-old, has announced his retirement from race-riding at the age of 32. The County Cork native went on to become retained rider for prominent owner Barry Connell, for whom he partnered Martello Tower to Grade 1 success in the 2015 Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle, before later moving to Britain to take up the same position with Max McNeill. Together the pair...