'Sometimes you’ve got to give it time' - winners starting to flow for O'Neills as smart prospect Oh Clare breaks maiden

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Oh Clare provided Jonjo and AJ O'Neill with another welcome winner when landing the 2m3½f maiden hurdle.

Owned by Paul and Clare Rooney, the five-year-old went one better than at Carlisle, sitting behind Sevarana for most of the race before kicking on at the penultimate hurdle under Jonjo O’Neill Jr to record her first victory at the fourth attempt.

The winning rider told Sky Sports Racing: "She ran well in Carlisle against Dan Skelton’s horse, Real Quartz, who won again at Doncaster. We’ve always liked her and I said you wouldn’t see the best of her until she goes chasing next year, but hopefully she can make her mark over hurdles."

The joint-trainers decided not to saddle any runners for three weeks following a dry spell in November and the yard was back among the winners when Wilful got the better of Hot Fuss and Alexei at Ascot on Saturday.

O'Neill Jr said: "As Dad said, sometimes you’ve got to give it time, but that’s a hard thing to do in the middle of the season.

"We thought if we kept going, winners would trickle through, but we weren’t happy and he said if we stopped at the time we stopped, hopefully from Christmas onwards, we could have a clear run of things, and I think they made the right call."

Pirate’s plunder

A first-time tongue-tie helped Dartmoor Pirate land the £30,000 2m6f handicap chase for Anthony Honeyball.

The six-year-old travelled well and jumped in line with two rivals at the third-last before pulling clear to win by nine lengths under Rex Dingle.

Read more:

'Definitely the toughest period of my career' - O'Neills' despair turns to joy as Wilful wins Ascot's Festive Hurdle 

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