AIDAN O’BRIEN will turn to an ‘incredible’ apprentice jockey as back-up to Christophe Soumillon – after Ryan Moore’s season-ending injury.
The Ballydoyle boss confirmed on a recent stable tour that Super Sou is in line for a whole host of big rides as the Flat season draws to a close.
O’Brien has been forced to look elsewhere after Moore was ruled out with a broken leg.
Derby winner Wayne Lordan’s ban – which he is appealing – has also ruled him out of the St Leger and Irish Champions festival next weekend.
With his two top guns out, O’Brien has been scrambling to secure riders for his biggest names.
And while Sou is a massive signing, one rider who will almost certainly get some eye-catching mounts, and is currently going under the radar, is Jack Cleary.
The Irish apprentice has ridden 15 winners from 88 rides for O’Brien.
More important for punters, though, is that, at the time of writing, he is operating at a brilliant +11.71 to a £1 stake.
That means the winners he does get tend to come at chunky prices.
A case in point would be recent 14-1 scorer Two For Joy, who 5lb claimer Clearly steered to success at Cork last month.
That was part of a giant 59-1 double on the day after Cleary also struck on O’Brien’s hugely promising Precise.
A measure of how Cleary is trusted to ride some of O’Brien’s most promising horses is evident in the fact she won a Group 3 on her very next run.
Chris Armstrong, O’Brien’s racing secretary, labelled Cleary ‘incredible’ after the big-price double.
Cleary proved an able deputy to Moore once again last month when taking over from him on Extravagant.
Moore could only managed a last-place finish on the two-year-old colt when he had the ride at the Curragh on July 19.
But Cleary got the son of Wootton Bassett his first ever winner when he got the leg up at Killarney the following month.
That 5-1 victory showed Cleary’s liking for a win at a price.
Expect a few more of them over the coming weeks.
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