Young Offaly jockey Paddy Smullen pictured at the Curragh last year when he rode for Gordon Elliott in the Pat Smullen Cancer Trials Charity Race. Photo: Patrick McCann/Racing Post.

Son of legendary Offaly jockey rides first winner

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Offaly amateur rider Paddy Smullen - son of the late nine-time champion Pat - rode his first winner on the Dermot Weld-trained Grappa Nonino at Dundalk last Friday evening.

It was a most fitting venue for the 17-year-old to gain his first success as his dad rode his first winner on the grass at Dundalk in 1993, and his final winner also came at the track in March 2018.

Coming from off the pace, Paddy Smullen brought the 20/1 chance through to lead well inside the final furlong and the six-year-old scored by a cosy length and a half from Paul Nolan’s 13/2 chance Palamon.

Rhode native Pat Smullen won the Irish flat racing champion jockey title nine times in the course of a glittering horse racing career.

Pat died in 2020, aged just 43 years old, after a brave battle with pancreatic cancer, during which he helped to raise considerable funds for cancer research.

Kieran Galvin
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