A HORSE bought for just £1,200 on a used CAR website is now an Aintree winner.
Andrew O’Brien stumped up the budget price to buy Fennor Cross online.
Fennor Cross won the William Hill Handicap Hurdle at Aintree under Ben Harvey
"That horse cost only €1400" !!!!!
An Aintree winner for the Positivity Syndicate with Fennor Cross!
#ITVRacing | #GrandNational | @MCYeeehaaa pic.twitter.com/BL61m355Tq
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) April 14, 2023
He teamed up with friends Seamus Dardis and Fergal McGuinness to create the Positivity Syndicate.
Now, the horse’s earnings have surpassed £100,000 with a third jumps win of his career – the £75,000 William Hill Handicap Hurdle at Aintree on Friday.
O’Brien told ITV: “Absolutely fantastic, I can’t believe it.
“Fergal is the most negative man in the EU – every race, he finds faults in him but credit to that horse.
“A lot of people don’t believe this, but I bought the horse as a yearling off a classified website called Done Deal.
“I saw him on the site and I went and looked at him, he was a big leggy lad who needed time but I got him for €1,400.
“I was in between just browsing and looking for a horse to buy really.
“I saw his page and he has winners all down the line, he was a half-brother to four winners.
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“He was a big lad when we got him and he needed a lot of time.”
Fennor Cross started out on the flats before stepping up to race over fences and has now won three of his four entries this season.
But the six-year-old’s greatest day so far came on the eve of the Grand National when Ben Harvey rode the 8-1 shot to victory over the iconic hurdles of Aintree.
However, the Positivity Syndicate are confident there is more to come, especially under trainer John McConnell.
O’Brien added: “We’ve certainly had to show patience with him.
“He didn’t make up into a two-year-old so he ran his first race for us as a three-year-old at Galway on the Flat.
“He came in after it and we found out he had a slight setback, so he was off for a long time after that.
“John McConnell did a fabulous job after that and we got four wins out of him coming into the new Jumps season.
“I would have been happy with winning a little 0-65 Flat race with him, but then he started growing into himself and getting stronger.
“He started to look more like a jumper, so we tried him over hurdles and he hasn’t looked back.
“We’ve bagged £43,000 for winning that race so we’re very happy! You get lucky once with these things and that’s it.
“To get a horse like that you have to be very lucky. I have another horse myself, though she’s not as good as him!”
The six-year-old was bought for just £1,200 on a used car website
Andrew O’Brien heads up the Positivity Syndicate
