Richard O'Brien registered his first winner post-lockdown as his Global Pass rewarded patient owners with success in the It's Good To Be Back At Limerick Racecourse Handicap at Limerick today.

Ridden by Ronan Whelan, the son of Exceed And Excel made good headway along the rail in the final furlong and in the end scored a three parts of a length win over Han Solo

Global Pass was gaining his first win at the 18th attempt and afterwards O'Brien reported “I'm delighted for John Twomey and his wife Maura, from Newtownshandrum in Cork, as they are as kind owners as ever had a racehorse.

“The horse had such a bad year performance-wise last year, I made an agreement with John to keep him as a lead horse and if he showed anything we'd try him for John again on the track.

“He is a lovely horse to have around the yard and thankfully John has stuck with him. He was relatively inexpensive (5,000gns in 2018) and while it was hard to see where we would go with him last year, John was keen to give him every chance and I'm very grateful.

“Ronan (Whelan) was very ballsy on him and is riding brilliantly. We'll look for another race in two or three weeks and we can now pick his races as he won't be liable for ballot next time.”