Keatley's magnificent eight

Adrian Keatley produced one of the most remarkable training performances of recent times when his horse, Aisling Oscar, won his eighth successive race at Southwell on Thursday.

After Monasterevin jockey Conor Whiteley won two of the last of those races, stable jockey Oisin McSweeney was back in the saddle again and delivered the horse with perfect timing to do something that hasn’t been done in the mid-90s.

Aisling Oscar was originally trained by Craig O’Neill and had a couple of wins at Dundalk in early 2024 in what was an otherwise non-descript campaign as a three-year-old The switch across the water to Keatley’s yard has brought an incredible change of fortune since then. Aisling Oscar was third at Wolverhampton on 25th November on his first outing under his new trainer but two days later was back in action at Newcastle and recorded the first win in this incredible sequence.

He has seen his mark rise by 25lbs through his winning run and the handicapper is likely to bump him up again after this latest performance.

Jockey McSweeney praised the work by the trainer.

“It’s unbelievable what he has achieved and the credit goes to Adrian and his team, and Dan who bought him. It doesn’t happen every day of the week and it’s great just to be a part of it,” he said.

Keatley began his training career in 2014 and enjoyed Grade 1 success in the 1,000 Irish Guineas in 2015 at the Curragh with Jet Setting.

He moved to England in time for the 2019/20 season to where he is currently based in Malton, North Yorkshire.