'He was a horse worth waiting for' - Jungle Boogie getting the old O'Brien name back in the spotlight

A word of wisdom from Willie Mullins had been enough to sustain Noel O'Brien's hope that Jungle Boogie might one day amount to something. It was quite a wait for the breeder with racing royalty in his DNA who produced the top-class chaser Merry Gale from Clashganiff House, the farm at Churchtown, County Cork, where his legendary uncle Vincent was born and began his unrivalled training career.

Noel O'Brien is still racing mad, going to meetings or point-to-points whenever he can, and had headed to Tramore for the Savills New Year's Day Chase. Jungle Boogie, whose spread-out career had seen him win a bumper, a hurdle and a chase in only three starts for Mullins, outlasted his former stablemate Classic Getaway in what was only his second appearance for Henry de Bromhead, making it well worth the journey.

"He’s a horse I’ve heard tremendous stories about, that he was held in high regard in Willie Mullins’ and he’s had problems every year but every problem he had was fixable," says O'Brien.