Likedbymike captured the €50,000 Abergwaun Stakes under jockey Colin Keane at the Mallow racecourse
17:28, 30 Aug 2026Updated 22:32, 30 Aug 2026
Trainer Michael Byrne at Cork(Image: Racing TV)
There was emotional scenes at Cork racecourse on Sunday when a trainer with only two horses in his care won the Listed Abergwaun Stakes.
Michael (Mick) Byrne is based near Cahir in County Tipperary and fought back the tears after his well-backed favourite Likedbymike captured the €50,000 prize.
Poignantly, the four-year-old filly is named after Byrne’s late son Michael, who tragically passed away at the age of just 36 in 2024.
Byrne junior was a successful jump jockey for a number of years in Britain having ridden in point-to-points in Ireland and rode almost 100 winners, mostly based with Tim Vaughan in Wales.
He won a race at the Aintree Festival and competed in the Grand National and had returned home to work with his dad Michael after retiring from the saddle in 2016.
His sad passing left the racing community in Ireland and Britain shocked and devastated and hundreds of mourners paid their respects at his funeral in Holycross.
Incredibly his family and friends raised over €50,000 for charity through a three peak challenge in Michael’s memory in Tipperary last year called ‘A Hike for Mike’.
The Byrne family mainly prepare young horses for the sales and it was Michael junior who sourced the winning filly before she started her career on the racecourse.
Former jockey Michael Byrne(Image: Martin Lynch)
Byrne senior still keeps two in training and on Sunday the four-year-old provided a fairytale success in one of the day’s feature races.
Backed from 6/1 into 11/4 favourite the daughter of Inns Of Court captured the five furlong contest under Colin Keane, quickening up in nice style to defeat Erosandpsyche by three-quarters of a length.
An emotional Byrne spoke to Kevin O’Ryan from Racing TV afterwards and said: “That’s unbelievable. It means everything really. This doesn’t happen too often to us.
“We’ve only two horses to run and we ran the two of them today. Breeze-ups are our main thing. We couldn’t get this one into a breeze-up so we had to run her.”
Byrne was bridging a 30 year gap from his last Pattern race success in 1996 which came over hurdles at Navan when Conor O’Dwyer rode Gentle Buck to win a Grade 3.
“She deserved that, she’s been knocking on the door a good few times. She won her maiden here so she obviously loves it here.
“We gave her a break after she won in Naas and it probably did her good. She got great confidence from winning in Naas, it was a nice handy run.
“There is a fillies Listed race at the Curragh at the start of next month so that’s probably where we’ll go next. She doesn’t mind an ease in the ground, she handles it.”
Byrne’s only other horse in training, Ochtar Againn, also ran at Cork on Sunday, finishing last of 16 in the Book Tickets Online At www.corkracecourse.ie Apprentice Handicap.