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Celtic giants
Despite ground concerns, the successful Dublin Festival produced some noteworthy performances with the Sadler’s Wells light shining bright, reports Aisling Crowe
A GLANCE THROUGH THE catalogue for any recent NH sale of young stock will reveal how the influence of Sadler’s Wells is growing ever-more dominant in NH breeding, with a sizeable number of horses now featuring close in-breeding to the breed-shaping patriarch.
Looking through the pedigrees of the winners at this year’s Dublin Racing Festival, it was easy to see one of the reasons why breeders have no compunction about sending grand-daughters of Sadler’s Wells to his grandsons, or even sons.
Of the 16 races run over the two days, Sadler’s Wells featured in the pedigrees of seven winners, six of them successful in Graded races.
His Prix du Jockey-Club runner-up Oscar was one of the first of Sadler’s Wells’s sons to make his mark as a NH stallion, and although Oscar was retired from covering duties five years’ ago, the former Coolmore sire is still making his presence felt at the highest level of jump racing.
The very first race of the Dublin Racing Festival provided Oscar with a new Grade 1 winner, and one that was raucously celebrated on his return to the winners’ enclosure.
Latest Exhibition was the first Grade 1 in seven years for his popular trainer Paul Nolan, and a first in four for jockey Bryan Cooper. Both trainer and jockey have endured the lows of their professions in the intervening years so their resurgence, aided and abetted by the seven-year-old Latest Exhibition, was warmly received and set the tone for an emotional and joyous weekend at Leopardstown.
Latest Exhibition was bred by James Mernagh out of his home-bred Supreme Leader mare Aura About You, winner of the Grade 3 Dawn Run Novice Chase and third in the Grade 1 Barry and Sandra Kelly Memorial Navan Novice Hurdle and Grade 2 David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle.
Her pedigree is traditional Irish NH breeding with her broodmare sire none other than the six-time champion NH sire, Rathbarry Stud’s stalwart Strong Gale. Withdrawn from the 2016 Derby Sale, Latest Exhibition has quickly illustrated his owner-breeder and dam’s abilities; he has never finished out of the first two in six starts so far.
The Navan Novice Hurdle now holds Grade 2 status, but Latest Exhibition went two better than his mother when winning the 2019 renewal in December, and his victory at Leopardstown over 2m6f indicated that he has every chance of bettering his dam’s Cheltenham record, too.
He is the first foal out of Aura About You, who has a six-year-old full-brother to him and a yearling colt by Walk In The Park. Interestingly, Mernagh moved away from the Sadler’s Wells line for his dam’s 2019 covering instead sending the now 17-year-old mare to Ballylinch Stud’s Group 1 Champion Stakes winner Fascinating Rock.
Paisley Park, Oscar’s Grade 1 Stayers’ Hurdle hero of 2019, warmed up for a title defence with victory in the Grade 2 Cleeve Hurdle on Festival Trials Day at Cheltenham. With no more Oscars to come, the focus is now on his young relation Imperial Monarch, whose oldest crop are making their point-to-point maiden and bumper debuts this season.
The ten-year-old Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris winner stands for €2,500 at Coolmore’s The Beeches Stud and is by Galileo and out of Ionian Sea, a Slip Anchor half-sister to Oscar. Another son of Sadler’s Wells was responsible for the winner of the very next race, the Grade 1 Dublin Chase.
Policy Maker, winner of four Group 2 races in the colours of the Wildenstein family, is the sire of Chacun Pour Soir, who has only run four times for Willie Mullins and owner Rich Ricci, despite being an eight-year-old.
Chacun Pour Soir has won three of those four starts, starting off in a 2m beginners’ chase at Naas last March, then outclassed Defi Du Seuil in the Grade 1 Ryanair Novice Chase at Punchestown before finishing second to A Plus Tard in the Grade 1 over the Dublin Chase’s course and distance at Christmas.
Chacun Pour Soir was bred by Didier Berland out of the Grade 3 winner Kruscyna, a daughter of Ultimately Lucky, a Group 3 and Listed-winning Kris horse. She is the dam of two winners with her first two runners, her seven-year-old Kap Rock daughter Diva Reconce won a mares’ bumper. Kruscyna has a three-year-old daughter by Lauro.
Policy Maker moved from France to Blackrath Stud in Kildare for the 2016 season and his fee for the 2020 breeding season is listed as private. Trainer Peter Maher runs the stud in conjunction with his training career, and he is carrying on a family tradition as his grand-father Frank Latham stood French NH stallions at the farm in the 1970s, including Vulgan, who sired three individual Grand National winners.
Paisley Park
Sadler’s Wells featured in the dam-lines of five Dublin Racing Festival winners, two of them through his grandson Winged Love. The Irish Derby winner and son of In The Wings spent the last eight seasons of his stud career at Hugh Suffern’s Tullyraine Stud in County Down, where he died five years’ ago.
The best of his offspring include the ill-fated Grade 1-winning 2m chaser Twist Magic and the Grade 1 RSA Chase, Fort Leney Novice Chase and Dr PJ Moriarty Novice Chase winner, Bostons Angel.
Unsurprisingly, given the status of his sire In The Wings in Germany, Winged Love stood a number of seasons at Gestüt Karlshof during the early part of his stallion career, which accounts for his position as dam-sire of the Grade 1 Irish Arkle Chase winner Notebook, a German-bred son of Samum. Winged Love is also the broodmare sire of the Grade 2 Coolmore NH Sires Irish EBF Mares’ Bumper winner Darling Daughter by Presenting.
Bred by Fergal Duncan, Darling Daughter is the first foal out of Premier Victory, who won a pair of Grade 3 novice hurdles and was second in the Grade 2 Michael Purcell Memorial Novice Hurdle for trainer Tom Hogan of Gordon Lord Byron fame.
She was bred by Hugh Suffern and is a full-sister to Evan Williams’ Midlands National winner and Welsh National runner-up Firebird Flyer. They are two of four winners the King’s Ride mare Kiora Lady produced to Winged Love.
Premier Victory was purchased for €44,000 by Duncan, with a covering by Oscar, at the 2012 Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale, but Darling Daughter, born in 2014, is her first foal.
She was purchased at the 2014 November NH Sale by Rathbarry Stud for €19,000, and sold by the Cashman’s operation to Cormac Doyle of Monbeg Stables for €30,000 at the 2017 Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale.
Darling Daughter won her point-to-point at Portrush in March last year and was bought by Margaret O’Toole for a now-valuelooking £82,000 at Cheltenham’s April Sale. She is now unbeaten in both her starts for Gigginstown House Stud, Gordon Elliott and jockey Lisa O’Neill.
Premier Victory has a four-year-old full-sister to Darling Daughter named Premier Queen, a three-year-old full-brother who made €48,000 to Rathbarry Stud as a foal, a two-year-old Shirocco filly and a yearling colt by Youmzain, who was unsold as a foal in November before his half-sister made her track debut. Their dam was covered by Diamond Boy in 2019.
The success of Montjeu and his sons in the NH sphere is no secret, but his daughters have yet to enjoy anything close to the level of success of their paternal half-brothers with 2015 Grade 1 Slaney Novice Hurdle winner McKinley the most high profile winner out of a Montjeu mare over jumps.
However, like that old cliché, two Grade 1 winners with Montjeu as their dam-sire have appeared this year.
First up was Colin Tizzard’s Fiddlerontheroof in the Tolworth Novice Hurdle at Sandown on January 4.
Darling Daughter
A 2019 £200,000 Goffs Aintree Sale purchase by the father and son teams of trainers Colin and Joe Tizzard and agents Peter and Ross Doyle, Fiddlerontheroof had won a bumper and was placed in two more for trainer Timmy Hyde and Harry Swan, son of the great jockey Charlie Swan,
Bred by The Treaty Pals Syndicate, Fiddlerontheroof is the second foal out of Inquisitive Look, twice a winner at three. She has a perfect record with her foals as the first two, both by the late Whytemount Stud sire Stowaway, have both won.
Her first, the seven-year-old mare Love Lane, is a threetime winner over hurdles for Henry Daly and Fiddlerontheroof is her second.
Fiddlerontheroof has always been highly regarded by the Tizzard team and began his hurdling career in the Grade 2 Persian War Novice Hurdle in which he finished a good second to Thyme Hill.
He was second on his next start at Wincanton and then got his head in front at the third attempt, winning at Sandown in early December before he returned to that course for an easy Grade 1 success.
Inquisitive Look has a four-year-old filly by Valirann, a two-year-old colt by Affinisea and returned to the three-parts brother to Sea The Stars last year.
Montjeu mares were responsible for a 1-3 in the Grade 1 Juvenile Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival, but the result was more notable for the identity of the winner’s sire. It must be impossible to be Born To Sea, forever destined to live in the enormous shadow cast by his half-brothers Galileo and Sea The Stars, but the Listed winner and Irish Derby second may have found his niche at last as a sire of NH stars.
Fiddlerontheroof
Honeysuckle
His third crop just turned four and he is now the sire of a Grade 1 winner over hurdles, but not with the horse who was anticipated to have that honour.
Aspire Tower won the Grade 2 Juvenile Hurdle for Henry de Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival and were expected to take the Grade 1 equivalent at the Dublin Racing Festival.
However Aspire Tower, who was in with every chance of fulfilling that prediction, fell at the last when about to commence battle with Cerberus. That gelding, a son of Iffraaj out of a Montjeu mare, represented the Joseph O’Brien and JP McManus axis, but idled when left in front.
It was the partnership’s apparent second string, A Wave Of The Sea, who pulled out more on the runin to overtake Cerberus, who was also passed by Wolf Prince and could only finish third. Montjeu was also represented in the pedigrees of second and fourth, who are by his Derby-winning son Pour Moi.
A Wave Of The Sea
A Wave Of The Sea is quite the experienced hurdler, his Grade 1 success was his sixth start and third win over obstacles.
He is the third runner and first winner out of Je T’Adore, who is out of Tree Tops, a Grand Lodge half-sister to the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes winner and Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes second Tuscan Evening.
His third dam The Faraway Tree is a half-sister to Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan winner and sire Susuru, and Krisalya, the dam of Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches winner Rose Gypsy. She is the second dam of Crystal Caver, who is the grand-dam of last year’s joint-highest-rated horse in the world and new Coolmore NH sire, Crystal Ocean.
A Wave Of The Sea was bred by John Yarr, who purchased Je T’Adore for 28,000gns from Baroda and Colbinstown Studs at the 2014 Tattersalls December Mare Sale.
She has a two-year-old colt by No Nay Never, who made €140,000 to Al Shaqab Racing at the 2019 Arqana August Yearling Sale. He had previously been purchased for 120,000gns by Charles Briere’s Fairway Consignment at the 2018 Tattersalls December Foal Sale.
Her yearling daughter by Starspangledbanner made 47,000gns to Colbinstown Stud at Tattersall’s December Foal Sale and she was amongst the first group of mares covered by Gustav Klimt in 2019. Born To Sea has clicked very well with Pivotal mares, his two highest-rated hurdlers so far are out of his daughters.
Galileo has also enjoyed success with Pivotal daughters, and Sea The Stars also has a Group 1 performer with Pivotal as a broodmare sire, so it is not a surprise that their youngest half-brother has done well with Cheveley Park Stud’s kingpin.
Given that Sea The Stars has also clicked well with Sadler’s Wells mares – three of his ten highest-rated runners so far are out of the great stallion’s daughters, including Taghrooda – and Born To Sea has promising runners out of Montjeu mares, the proliferation of Sadler’s Wells daughters and grand-daughters in NH breeding should suit Born To Sea.
No discussion of the influence of Sadler’s Wells on the Dublin Racing Festival would be complete without mentioning the amazing Faugheen, who won the Grade 1 Novice Chase at the ripe old age of 12.
Honeysuckle and Rachael Blackmore were cheered home by the enthusiastic Leopardstown crowd A Wave Of The Sea: was the “other” juvenile runner for Born To Sea at the Dublin Festival, but ended up being the successful one after Aspire Tower crashed out at the last hurdle
The former Champion Hurdler, who won his first Grade 1 over fences at Limerick’s Christmas meeting, made pulses race and tears come to the eyes of the huge crowd drawn to Leopardstown to witness the old warrior raise the roof on the grandstand.
By the Trempolino horse Germany, who was a 1m4f Group 1 winner in that country, Faugheen is out of the Accordion mare Miss Pickering and was bred by the late Dr John Waldron.
His six-year-old Fracas half-brother Osmotic is in training with Gordon Elliott for Gigginstown House Stud and won a bumper last year, while his Shirocco half-sister, who was fourth in a Worcester bumper, made €27,000 to Seamus Murphy at the Tattersalls Ireland February Sale.
He has a four-year-old half-sister by Califet, the final produce of their dam.
The sweet scent of Honeysuckle filled the Leopardstown air following the success of the mare in the Grade 1 Irish Champion Hurdle for Henry de Bromhead, Rachael Blackmore and owner Kenny Alexander.
A six-year-old daughter of Sulamani, Honeysuckle was extending her unbeaten sequence to eight, seven of those successes on the track following from her a debut success in a point-to-point.
Bred by Doug and Lucy Proctor at The Glanvilles Stud in Dorset, Honeysuckle was sold in Part Two of the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale to Mark O’Hare for what now looks a steal at just €9,500.
Four days after an impressive winning debut with her 15l under O’Hare in the fouryear-old mares’ maiden at Dromahane, she was sold at the Goffs Punchestown Sale for €110,000 to Peter Molony of Rathmore Stud from Shanrod Stables on behalf of owner Kenneth Alexander.
She has an unraced five-year-old fullbrother named Last Royal, who was bought back for £30,000 at last August’s Goffs UK Sale by The Glanvilles Stud.
Her Shirocco half-sister Roc Royal raced in France and was bought back by the Proctors last year to breed from – their dam First Royal is no longer with us.
First Royal was German-bred and won twice on the Flat in the country at three and was placed twice in Listed hurdles there at four.
She was by Lando, the Japan Cup winner and son of Acatenango, and a sire of top-class jumpers, including the Grade 1 winners Fox Norton and Air Force One.
He is also the sire of Scalo, who will stand his first season at Yorton Farm in 2020, and is the sire of last year’s Group 1 Deutsches Derby winner Laccario.
Yorton Farm was home to Honeysuckle’s sire Sulamani until his death at 18 in 2017 and on official rating, she is the joint-best of his offspring along with Grand National hero Rule The World.
The Group 1-winning son of Hernando has a number of two and three-year-olds who, no doubt, will be of interest at the store sales after the exploits of Honeysuckle.
