MANY congratulations to Junior event rider Paddy Smullen, who partnered his first winner on the racecourse, when the Dermot Weld-trained Grappa Nomino landed the two-mile amateur riders’ handicap at Dundalk last Friday evening at odds of 20/1.

The 17-year-old rides out one lot each morning for the Rosewell House trainer before attending Leinster Senior College Newbridge, where he is in fifth year. However, he is not lost to eventing and hopes to represent Ireland at the European Junior championships this year on the Irish Sport Horse gelding, Avalon Romulus.

“He’s going to throw everything at it,” said Frances Crowley, Paddy’s mother and owner of the nine-year-old Cointreau van de Withoeve bay. “They are entered (in the EI110 (J) class) at Tyrella 1 and are among a group of young Irish riders heading to The Netherlands in April.”

We better say that Paddy’s sister Sarah has two Connemara ponies entered at Tyrella 1, her aunt Angela O’Ryan’s Carhu Melody in the EI100 (P) and her mother’s Macs Silver Cookie in the EI90 (P).

Friday night’s win at Dundalk was an emotional one, as Paddy rode in the same saddle as his late father, the nine-time Irish champion jockey Pat Smullen, who partnered so many great winners for Weld and rode both his first and last winners at the Co Louth track.