Aidan O'Brien may have left Longchamp yesterday dreaming of possible Derby glory with the Grand Criterium winner, Second Empire, but he made sure he kept the home fires burning with four winners at Naas. Unusually, though, stable jockey Christy Roche managed to get only one slice of the pie with Kincara Palace in the Castlemartin Maiden, allowing young apprentice Andrew "Frosty" Kelly the main course in the £25,000 Birdcatcher Nursery on Flame Violet.
Kelly, 17, from Loughlinbridge in Co Carlow, is one of the main work riders in Ballydoyle, but his height and weight mean his jockey ambitions look destined to be fulfilled over the jumps.
"I got down to 8st 10lb today but I don't think I'll be doing it again in a hurry," Kelly grinned after landing Ireland's premier two-year-old handicap by only a short head from another of the O'Brien-trained quintet, Boat Strand, and the heavily-backed favourite Balla Sola.
Maybe, but Flame Violet, with joint top weight, was an ideal candidate for him and the Birdcatcher was a valuable race in which to land his third career win.
Flame Violet showed the class that allowed her to finish just off the leaders in the Moyglare Stud Stakes to hold a prominent position throughout, and Kelly made the decisive move into the lead a furlong and a half out. Balla Sola was quickly in trouble, but Boat Strand finished very strongly under another O'Brien apprentice, Colm O'Donoghue, and only just failed in a head-bobbing finish.
Flame Violet's price of 12 to 1 reflected the sort of prices that characterised another day at Naas when no favourite obliged.
O'Brien ran three in the Retza and Soudavar Garnet Stakes and it was the 16 to 1 outsider of the three, Royale, who arrived late and fast under Niall McCullagh to get the better of Via Verbano and Theano, with Roche's pick, Dangerous Diva, only fifth.
It was Seamus Heffernan who foiled Roche and the favourite Festival Song in the opener, winning on the newcomer, Sharp Catch, who lived up to her breeding in the five-furlong contest. Sharp Catch is a half sister to O'Brien's Group-winning sprinter Catch The Blues, who was beaten a short head in this race three years ago.
