There were emotional scenes after the first race at Leopardstown on Day 1 of the Christmas Festival following a surprise win by a 50-1 shot.
Ellie Mac won the Horse & Jockey Hotel Maiden Hurdle under Daniel Holden.
The horse is owned by the Niccolai Schuster Horse Racing Club, made up of family and friends of Niccolai Schuster (bel0w)- one of six Irish students that died in the Berkeley balcony tragedy in 2015.
"This is the greatest day of our lives since the tragedy in Berkley," John Schuster, Niccolai's father, told RTE.
"My son was a great racing fan and we decided at a party to put a racing club together – there was no shortage of neighbours, friends and we had support from all over the world."
Ellie Mac came in first ahead of Cask Mate and Antey.
Niccolai's mother Graziella said: "Our beloved Niccolai went down on the balcony that day in Berkley – his favourite sport apart from football was horseracing.
"He loved the Christmas festival here. He'd be here everyday. And what a way to start – he was on [jockey] Daniel’s shoulders today"
The four-day Christmas festival at Leopardstown has seven Group One races between today and Friday.
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