JOCKEY PROFILE

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As a 16-year-old, Ana (Anastasia) rode her first winner in early February, 2013 at Dundalk on Fairylike which was trained by her father, Aidan O'Brien. She rode her second winner at the same venue the following month and the pair shared significant success until Ana's forced retirement from race riding following a fall at Killarney a little over four years later. 

Ana rode her first winner outside Ireland when landing an international female riders’ race on the trainer Wido Neuroth-trained Hi Finn at the opening of Bro Park Racecourse in Sweden on Sunday, June 19, 2016. At Leopardstown the following month, she partnered her first stakes winner when Arya Tara took the Listed Stanerra Stakes. It was also a first stakes winner for the winning trainer, her brother Joseph. And for good measure Arya Tara was completing a first double for Ana who had earlier won a seven furlong apprentice handicap on the Paul Deegan-trained Three Majors.

Ana was undoubtedly robbed of a champion apprentice title when she suffered serious injuries in a fall at Killarney in July, 2017. She fractured the C1 vertebra in her neck and T6 in her back as well as damaging her eye socket, jaw and teeth. She had ridden 18 winners in the season up to that point and her lead lasted all the way to October. She eventually finished third in the table, just two winners behind Oisin Orr and one off runner-up Killian Leonard. 

In all, Ana rode close to 70 winners in her brief racing career. She rode winners for a host of trainers including James Nash, Michael Grassick, Edward Lynam, Damian English, Tim Doyle and her brother Joseph and continues to be involved in her father's training operation at Ballydoyle.