It was a day to remember for Shane Fitzgerald at Oldcastle on Sunday afternoon when he reached a personal landmark with a 50th success between the flags.
The Co. Cork native reached the milestone when teaming up with his long-time ally Mick Goff to land the Tattersalls Ireland four-year-old mares’ maiden at the Co. Meath venue on his first ride of the new campaign.
Making all of the running, as has been the case with so many of his successes, Fitzgerald guided the Masterofthehorse mare to a three-length success in the day’s opener, and did not have to wait long to beginning building towards the next 50 by once again teaming up with Goff to win the very next race with another newcomer, American Legacy in the Triermore Stud four-year-old geldings’ maiden.
Fitzgerald has been associated with number of different handlers since beginning his riding career, but it is with the Wexford handler whom he has forged a particularly successful partnership with.
Goff provided Fitzgerald with his first winner at Bennettsbridge back in 2015 with his son of Gold Well, Clondaw Cian, and the pair have enjoyed much success since.
Fitzgerald’s second winner came aboard the Mick Goff-trained Bun Doran to take the four-year-old maiden at Necarne just a number of months after his initial success, with that horse going on to excel for his subsequent connection in Britain, including Grade 2 success in the Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton last Christmas.
Since his initial success in 2015, Fitzgerald has been crowned joint-Champion Under-21 rider twice, with his first title coming in 2017 with Liam Quinlan and his second title in 2018 with Sean O’Keeffe to follow on in the footsteps of Barry O’Neill by winning that title in consecutive years.
In recent times Fitzgerald has guided some promising sorts to victory, some of which include Clondaw Secret, Sir Sholokhov, Clondaw Secret, and He’s A Hardy Bloke to victory.
