Old friends, new stars

Aisling Crowe reports from the Dublin Racing Festival which saw the amazing Honeysuckle win her third Grade 1 Irish Champion Hurdle, Chacun Pour Soi his third Dublin Chase, while the impressive Conflated and Vauban put themselves on the big stage

THE RETURN OF CROWDS TO RACING in Ireland was celebrated in raucous fashion at the Dublin Racing Festival with fans releasing the pent-up tensions and frustrations of two years away from the track.

The opportunity to acclaim racing’s queens Honeysuckle and Rachael Blackmore after their third Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle (G1) was one that the Leopardstown crowd could not pass up, and the unbeaten pair were serenaded off the course and into the winners’ enclosure by awed fans.

Honeysuckle, the British-bred daughter of Sulamani, has captured the hearts of racing’s public alongside her record-making jockey and the unbeaten duo are the brightest stars in racing, and possibly Irish sport, right now.

The Champion Hurdle heroine was joined as a triple Dublin Racing Festival Grade 1 winner by Chacun Pour Soi, who recorded his third Dublin Chase triumph in his customarily exciting manner for trainer Willie Mullins and owner Rich Ricci.

Sir Gerhard, victorious in the Grade 1 Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle in the Cheveley Park silks, is another whose pedigree and race record are familiar to readers as the Champion Bumper winner of 2021 has been something of a standout since he began his racing career.

Away from those bright lights familiar to stargazers of racing’s galaxy, some nebulae burst on to the scene at Leopardstown this month and it is on those with the potential to shine bright that we turn our telescopic gaze.

Vauban leads the way for Galiway

The rise of Galiway from humble beginnings to stallion sensation has been completed in just a couple of years and his first crop has led the way with Sealiway winning a Group 1 at two and adding a second in the Champion Stakes last season at three.

Now another Flat stakes performer from that debut cohort by Haras de Colleville’s son of Galileo has taken a top-level triumph over hurdles – Vauban broke his jumping maiden in some style winning the Spring Juvenile Hurdle for Mullins, Ricci and jockey Paul Townend.

Bred by P Decouz and SCEA du Bas Bugey, he hails from a branch of the wonderful German Wurfbahn family.

Vauban is out of Waldfest, a winning daughter of Hurricane Run and Gifted Icon, a Peintre Celebre half-sister to St Leger winner and sire Masked Marvel and to the Group 3 winner Waldlerche, dam of the Arc and Prix du Jockey-Club winner and exciting young stallion Waldgeist.

Waldlerche, Gifted Icon and Masked Marvel are out of the Falmouth runner-up Waldmark, a Mark Of Esteem half-sister to the Deutsches Derby winner and sire Waldpark, the Listed winner Waldvogel and the unraced Waldbeere. She is dam of the Group 3 winners Wiesenpfad and Waldpfad, who was also Group 1-placed, and the Listed winner and Preis der Diana third Waldtraut.

Another half-sister produced the Group 2 Gran Premio del Jockey Club winner Walderbe by Maxios.

Vauban’s fourth dam is the German champion older female stayer Wurftaube by Acatenango, who won the Group 2 German St Leger and was placed at Group 1 level.

It is some pedigree!

Vauban was previously trained by his part-breeder Philippe Decouz and was purchased privately last summer by his Irish connections after a victory at Lyons Parilly. He made one more start in France, winning the Listed Prix Frederic de Lagrange over 2400m at Vichy.

On his first start over hurdles, Vauban was half a length second to Pied Piper at Punchestown on New Year’s Eve and that horse went on to annihilate the opposition in the Grade 2 Triumph Hurdle Trial at Cheltenham in January.

The form looks strong, and it was that which gave Mullins confirmation that the promise of Vauban’s Flat form in France could be translated into top level success over hurdles.

“His form after his run in Punchestown looked very good and we thought that if Paul got him jumping today that he could improve hugely on that form, which he did,” said the winning trainer. “It puts him in the picture for the Triumph Hurdle now and it is great to win another Grade 1. We are delighted that he won today, that he learned and was able to put it all together with the experience. It’s a nice way to break your maiden.

“We thought he was a nice horse when we bought him – we bought him after his second last run in France and he had a final run on the Flat there, which proved that he was a serious Flat win. We just had to teach him how to jump and we eventually got round to that,” he smiled.

I don’t know if many horses break their maiden in a Grade 1, but it is tremendous for him.

Yeats leads the championship

The unexpected success of Conflated in the Grade 1 Irish Gold Cup for Gordon Elliott, Davy Russell and the Gigginstown House Stud team gave his sire Yeats the lead at the head of the NH sires’ championship.

Speaking afterwards, the winning trainer said: “Conflated got into a lovely rhythm, I was keen to run him during the week, I was thinking of going for the handicap but thankfully Eddie and Michael let me run him in this.

“I wanted to find out how good or bad he is, and where we are going with him. I know he has a massive engine. “It is great for Michael and Anita [O’Leary], and the whole team in Gigginstown and all the team at Cullentra, we have a massive team behind us and to win a big race like this is unbelievable.

“We had three seconds today but winning the Gold Cup has made up for that.”

The legendary Ascot Gold Cup hero Yeats was engaged in a battle to the wire for leading sire honours last season with the late Stowaway, who won out in the end, but Coolmore’s son of Sadler’s Wells is now out on his own for this year’s title following his eight-year-old son’s victory in the €140,000 Grade 1 chase, which closely followed that of Longhouse Poet in the Thyestes Chase (G1) at Gowran Park.

Yeats, who is now 21, has achieved his position in the table from fewer runners than either of his closest rivals; Getaway and the late Fame And Glory, and at a greater winners-to-runners rate, too.

His ratio of stakes winners-to-runners at 18 per cent is one lower than that of Fame And Glory, but two points higher than recorded by Getaway to date this season.

Once again, the horses bearing the Minella monikers were purchased at the same sale although this time they were picked out at the 2019 Goffs Land Rover Sale

Conflated is one of seven individual Grade 1 winners sired by Yeats, who also has the aforementioned Longhouse Poet and Tudor City as winners of Grade 1 handicaps.

Bred by the Dillon family, Conflated is out of the Presenting mare Saucy Present, who is the dam of Ordinary World, who is by another leading son of Sadler’s Wells in Milan.

Ordinary World was placed in multiple Grade 1 chases for Henry De Bromhead and owner Chris Jones and is one of four winners out of the mare, three of them by sons of Sadler’s Wells and the fourth by a grandson. Saucy Present is a half-sister to the Listed mares’ novice chase winner Saucy Pride, who is the dam of Peckhamecho, who was Grade 2-placed in a bumper and over hurdles. Her dam Saucy Gale is a half-sister to Queenie Kelly, dam of Grade 2 winners and the Grade 1-placed Calling Brave and Ottawa, and the third dam of Kerry Lee’s Power’s Gold Cup winner Kylemore Lough.

Conflated was sold as a foal by the Motherway family’s Yellowford Farm to Brendan Bashford Bloodstock for €46,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland November Sale and he doubled his price when bought from Glenvale Stud by Henry De Bromhead at the Derby Sale.

His dam was covered by Vadamos last year, while his now six-year-old full-sister Saucy Yeats went to Berkshire for her first covering.

Team Minella strikes again

Last season’s extraordinary achievement of producing both the Gold Cup and Grand National winners was perhaps the pinnacle of John Nallen’s achievements – sourcing Minella Indo and Minella Times from the Tattersalls November Foal Sale in the one year was an outstanding job by the Tipperary man.

At the Dublin Racing Festival, Nallen turned provider of the first two home in the Grade 1 Nathaniel Lacy and Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle as Minella Cocooner led home Minella Crooner. Once again, the horses bearing the Minella monikers were purchased at the same sale, this time at the 2019 Goffs Land Rover Sale.

The six-year-old is trained by Willie Mullins for the Bobbett family and his Grade 1 success was achieved under yet another fine front-running ride by Danny Mullins.

“We decided there might not be much pace in the race so we would make it and Danny was good on him in front, he got some tremendous jumps from him, got his breathers after the hurdles and paced it beautifully,” commended Mullins.

Minella Cocooner has a high-class pedigree as a son of the excellent Flemensfirth and the retired star is currently operating at a stakes winners-to-runners strike-rate far of 26 per cent, which is far in excess of any other stallion in the top ten.

The winner was bred by John Asple out of Askanna, a Grade 2 winner over hurdles and successful in a Grade 3 chase. Askanna is an Old Vic half-sister to the Grade 3 winner and Irish Grand National third Abolitionist, who is a son of Flemensfirth.

Their dam All The Roses is a Roselier half-sister to Racing Demon, who won the Henry VII Novices’ Chase and two runnings of the Peterborough Chase for Henrietta Knight and the Radford family. Third dam All Set is a half-sister to Merry Gale, a fourtime Grade 1 winner over fences.

Minella Cocooner was sold by Peter Nolan Bloodstock to Kevin Ross on behalf of Chris Jones’s Killeen Glebe for €56,000 at the 2016 Tattersalls Ireland November Foal Sale. Gerry Ross of Limekiln Stud consigned him for Jones at the Land Rover Sale where he made €82,000.

Askanna’s now four-year-old Walk In The Park filly brought €75,000 from Kieran McManus at last year’s Land Rover Sale and she has a three-year-old son by Getaway and a two-year-old Walk In The Park colt. She was covered by Jet Away last year.

Blue lords it over rivals in the Irish Arkle

Blue Lord maintained his unbeaten record over fences but he had to survive both a determined challenge from Riviere D’Etel and a stewards’ enquiry to keep that record intact for Willie Mullins in the double green silks of Simon Munir and Isaac Souede.

“It was a good performance and he did what was required,” said Mullins. “It was a tough race with no hiding place and he did it from the front, jumped well throughout.”

He is a son of Blue Bresil, who is having an increasingly large influence in NH racing and breeding, with the Irish Arkle winner the second new Grade 1 victor for Rathbarry Stud’s exciting stallion in less than a month.

The first was Constitution Hill in the Tolworth Hurdle, and they have doubled their sire’s tally of top-level winners in a very short space of time.

Blue Bresil’s results on the track, coupled with the attractive foals he is siring, have made buyers sit up and take notice at the sales. At the recent Tattersalls Ireland February National Hunt Sale, there were 12 weanlings by the son of Smadoun sold out of 14 offered for an average of €24,892 when the sale average was almost half of that figure at €13,064.

The median achieved was even more telling at €25,000 and that was a little short of three-times the sale median of €9,000.

His latest Grade 1 winner is from his penultimate French-bred crop when his fee was just €1,500. Since he transferred, first to Yorton Farm and then to Rathbarry, Blue Bresil’s fee has crept steadily upwards and he is now listed as private, his last advertised fee was €8,000 in 2020.

Blue Bresil’s results on the track, coupled with the attractive foals he is siring, have made buyers sit up and take notice

Blue Lord was bred by Mrs Joelle Morruzzi and Mrs Raymonde Demai out of the Cachet Noire mare Lorette and was sold at the 2017 Arqana July Sale by Haras de la Croix Sonnet.

He is the second foal out of his unraced dam and she is out of Lorraine Express, a Mansonnien half-sister to Mely Moss, who was second to Papillon in the 2000 Grand National for Charlie Egerton.

Lorette has just three recorded offspring with Blue Lord the only one to have won.

Galopin gains vital big race experience

Success for Galopin Des Champs in the Grade 1 Ladbrokes Novice Chase was not as silky smooth as his Christmas stroll in a beginners’ chase at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival, but in having to jump at a proper pace, Mullins and Townend expressed the hope that the experience would stand to owner Mrs Audrey Turley’s six-year-old. “He wasn’t as happy, and I wasn’t as happy watching him, jumping at Grade 1 pace.

“By all accounts Paul said it was a proper pace, much faster than at Christmas and he didn’t want to keep going on with him like he did in that race because he felt that on softer ground, he had to learn today,” commented the relieved trainer.

“I am happy that he learned a lot today but my heart was in my mouth going down the back!” Galopin Des Champs is a son of Timos, a Group 2-placed stallion by Sholokhov, who was bred by Gestüt Etzean and sold for €46,000 at the 2006 BBAG September Yearling Sale.

He is out of the Surumu mare Triclaria. She is also the dam of the Youmzain mare Sea Calisi, who won the Group 2 Prix de Malleret and was third in both the Yorkshire Oaks and Prix Vermeille.

She moved to Chad Brown’s barn for her four-year-old season and won the Beverly D Stakes and the Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay Stakes. She was also placed in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes.

Galopin Des Champs is out of a mare by the Group 1 Criterium de Saint Cloud winner Marchand De Sable, a son of Theatrical.

Manon Des Champs has foaled two black-type winners, both of them by Marchand De Sable.

A delighted Willie Mullins trained seven winners at the Dublin Festival