County Cork dairy farm yard celebrates first win with 100-1 Local News shock

A County Cork dairy-farming family turned a side operation into a Saturday headline when Local News, sent off at 100-1, nipped the 4-7 favourite Divaboriva by a head in Cork’s Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Maiden Hurdle.

The six-year-old mare, owned by Mrs Stephanie Hennessy and bred by Mrs Bernie Hennessy, produced the first win of Richard Hennessy’s training career under Josh Williamson, who was riding as a 5lb claimer. La Cote Fleurie was third in the 2m 3f 50y contest, which was run on good ground with good-to-yielding places and timed in 4m 47.60s. Official race records showed 15 runners.

For Hennessy, the result carried far more weight than a price-tag upset. He said he had taken out his trainer’s licence about a year-and-a-half ago, and this was his first success since doing so. The family’s main work is dairy farming, with a few horses kept as a hobby, and the mare’s win underlined how thin the margins can be for a small yard trying to compete against much larger operations.

Hennessy said Local News had not been showing much at home and had been kept as a companion for a younger horse. He also said she had been held back by “small niggly injuries” but nothing serious, which helps explain why the public had so little reason to fear her on the day. That made the victory even sharper: a locally bred mare, lightly regarded and still a maiden, found enough to land the race against a heavily backed favourite.

The family’s involvement ran right through the winner. Hennessy said everyone rides the mare, including his wife Stephanie, his father Joseph and his sister. He added that his father “always had a few winners” and that the family now farms full-time while keeping horses around the place. Local News is also for sale, though Hennessy noted that “there aren’t many who like to buy small mares.”

That is why this kind of result still lands so hard in jumps racing. Small yards do not get many chances, and 100-1 winners do not come around often, especially when the favourite is odds-on and the field is only a head away from a very different outcome. For the Hennessys, though, the market shock was the point. The win gave Richard Hennessy a first training success, gave the family a genuine day to remember, and turned a quiet provincial maiden into a result that will travel well beyond Cork.