Irish jumps jockey Conor Brassil underlined his toughness when he won his first Australian race by taking out the feature event the Brendan Drescher Hurdle (3500m) at Pakenham on Right Now (NZ) (Wrote).
It was less than a month ago Brassil suffered a small fracture in his lower back when he fell from Custom Of The Sea at Warrnambool.
The win on the Bevan Laming-trained jumper was his first ride back.
It was only Brassil’s second meeting riding in Australia and only his fifth ride.
Brassil rode Right Now into second placing at that Warrnambool meeting, but was worried he might have lost the ride as Darryl Horner Junior won on him two weeks later at the same track.
Brassil thanked Laming for giving him the ride and he said he had to work to get down to 65kg for his return ride.
Brassil said when he finished second on Right Now at Warrnambool he got to the front too soon.
“He idles when he gets to the front too soon. I said to Richard (Laming) he’s better off the pace and I got there too early today anyway,” Brassil told Racing.com.
The race was run at a hectic pace with Dubai Moon taking on the other frontrunner Fabalot from the outset.
Brassil had Right Now travelling perfectly throughout and he took the lead at the second last jump and went on to win by 14 lengths over The Good Fight (NZ) (High Chaparral) with Lincoln King (NZ) (Shocking) a length and a quarter away third.
