How Malton trainer Adrian Keatley's Aisling Oscar raced into the record books with Southwell win

The five-year-old, trained by Adrian Keatley at Norton, had won the first seven races of his sequence on the straight at Newcastle, but despite the switch in tracks was able to match the last horse to win eight handicaps in a row – Reg Akehurst’s Ballynakelly between 1995 and 1996.

The Keatley stable has had other horses who have run up a winning streak, but none quite like Aisling Oscar, who was bought for just 3,200 guineas in Ireland before making the move to North Yorkshire.

He has risen from a mark of just 46 to 71 during his prolific spell and looks capable of winning again.

Like Nigel Tinkler’s stalwart Athollblair Boy who retired recently having won a race in January at the age of 13, horses like Aisling Oscar are the lifeblood of the sport.

They bring pleasure to training staff, owners, jockeys and punters – especially ones capable of giving the bookies a bloody nose on eight successive occasions!

They also bring focus on a yard and Keatley admits it is a tactic of his to try and run up winning sequences and hopefully draw new owners to the dual purpose operation near Malton.

“It’s not just me and the horse, but the owners and everyone in the yard, it’s a winner and it’s great,” said Keatley.

"We had a filly a few years ago who won six on the bounce over the jumps [Gale Mahler] and another last summer [Another Baar], he won four in 11 days.

“We are trying to do that kind of thing all the time to try and get our name out there to prove we can do it and try and draw the attention of potential new owners.

“The last couple of months the yard has been on fire.

"We have had a domestic Grade 1 winner out in Bahrain, a couple of very impressive National Hunt bumper horses that have won and a good juvenile four-year-old who is three from three.

"I’d like to think we are on an upward trajectory all the time and a horse like Aisling Oscar helps the whole thing.”

Owned by Barry and the Chuckles – a syndicate which includes Dan Astbury who bought the horse and who buys all the horses for the stable alongside Keatley – the owners are certainly having a lot of fun with the gelding.

After a varied career across the Irish Sea, where he had a couple of wins earlier in his career, the horse has come alive since his move to Keatley’s.

A third-placed finish on the all-weather at Wolverhampton on November 25 was followed a couple days later by his first win at Gosforth Park – and he hasn’t had his colours lowered since, culminating in Thursday’s in the Win £250,000 With BetMGM’s Golden Goals Handicap.

Keatley said: “He must be a good horse given that the last one to do it was 30 years ago.

“He’s a will to win, he wants to win and he is showing that on the track.

“We bought him for small money and he was unexposed so we were delighted to get him.

“He will probably go to Newcastle on February 14 and there’s a race for him at Southwell before the end of the month.

“He won the all-weather December bonus, shared the January one and he is at the head of the leaderboard for the [all-weather] Horse of the Year so hopefully he can keep it going.”

Jockey Oisin McSweeney, who has ridden him for two of his wins, was pleased with the performance of his 3-1 favourite, who he came home with his nearest rival, Studious, three-quarters of a length behind.

He told Sky Sports Racing: “It’s unbelievable, he’s a credit to Adrian, his team at home and to Dan [Astbury] who bought him.

“It’s fantastic and it doesn’t happen every day of the week. It’s just great to be a part of it.

“It probably didn’t go as straightforward as we thought, but I had enough horse underneath me to get us all the way to the line. He loves it and he just seems to be thriving.

“That’s his eighth win on the bounce and he’s fairly versatile, everything doesn’t always have to go his way. He’s won from being dropped out, he’s been on the pace. All credit to the horse, really.”

Keatley has also trained his fair share of winners over the sticks too and looks to have a nice prospect in Indian River, who has won his three races since moving from Ireland.

He said: “He’s in the Triumph Hurdle, but he also in the Fred Winter on the first day, a handicap for four-year-olds so he will be going for that.

“He’s a good horse but he was very green the last day at Sedgefield so we will be doing a lot of work on him between now and Cheltenham to try and iron out those little greenness issues he had and hopefully, he will go there with a big chance.

“We are a very small yard in comparison to some so we only try to run them when they are in form and up to winning.”