17 minute read
The apple does not fall far from the tree...
... judging by some of the NH results over the Christmas period, writes Aisling Crowe
THE OLD ADAGE about good mares not making good broodmares didn’t hold up all that well over the Christmas racing period as Grade 1 winner Stage Star and the Leopardstown bumper victors Facile Vega and Embassy Gardens are all sons of mares who proved themselves to be a cut above their rivals on the track.
The Grade 1 Challow Novices’ Hurdle winner Stage Star extended his unbeaten record with an effortless 6l success in the Newbury contest for the Owners Group, trainer Paul Nicholls and jockey Harry Cobden. The six-year-old son of Fame And Glory was bred by Andy Muddyman, and is the second foal out of his Grade 2 Warfield Mares’ Hurdle winner Sparky May.
The King George VI Chase winner Tornado Flyer with delighted winning connections from the T F P Partnership in the winners’ enclosure at Kempton
Muddyman also bred the daughter of Midnight Legend, who won four of her 12 starts and was also third in the Grade 1 Sefton Novices’ Hurdle.
Her first foal Lanspark (Milan) was retained by Muddyman and won a 3m hurdle last season for Colin Tizzard. Stage Star was consigned by Baroda Stud, where Sparky May boards, at the Goffs Land Rover Sale in 2019 and made €60,000 to Tom Malone and Paul Nicholls.
Stage Star won a Chepstow bumper on his debut in October 2020 and was then placed behind Knapper’s Hill in a Listed bumper at Cheltenham and in Aintree’s Grade 2 bumper at the Grand National meeting.
Stage Star made a winning debut over hurdles at Chepstow and is now unbeaten in all three starts this season with his Grade 1 success most impressive.
Sparky May has a four-year-old Walk In The Park filly so closely related to Stage Star. She was sold for €50,000 to Kilskryne Bloodstock at last year’s Land Rover Sale.
Her two-year-old is a son of Mount Nelson and she has a yearling filly by Harzand.
SPARKY MAY was 10l second to Quevega on the only occasion the pair met in the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham in 2011, but she has beaten the inimitable mare to the top as a broodmare.
Quevega’s second runner Facile Vega looks well-named as his debut success in the bumper at Leopardstown was about as facile as it could be.
Racing in the colours of his owner-breeder the Hammer And Trowel Syndicate, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by son Patrick, there were plenty of similarities with his brilliant dam, but when it comes to looks, Facile Vega has nothing in common with his diminutive mother.
The now five-year-old son of Walk In The Park is a much bigger horse than his mother and his older half-sister, the winning Beat Hollow mare Princess Vega (Order Of St George), who is due her first foal in the spring.
“He was very good, relaxed brilliantly and covered huge ground. He is a quicker horse than I thought he would be, but he is his mother’s son. I was always doing a half-speed on him but I was worried that
I was going too slow. Obviously not!” remarked Patrick Mullins afterwards.
Quevega has now produced two winners with her first two foals so the pressure will be on the four-year-old full-brother to Facile Vega to maintain the record when he does take to the track. The daughter of Robin Des Champs also has a three-year-old filly by Camelot and a two-year-old filly by Australia and visited Walk In The Park in 2021.
Just 24 hours later, Willie and Patrick Mullins were back in the Leopardstown winners’ enclosure after winning the bumper with another son of a mare who won a Grade 1 for the champion trainer.
Ferny Hollow (Westerner) under Paul Townend wins the Racing Post Novice Chase
This time it was the turn of Embassy Gardens, the first foal of the Fairyhouse Mares’ Novices Hurdle winner Adriana Des Mottes, to make a winning debut, but his victory was a lot more dramatic. He was hit by a rival jockey’s whip on the nose inside the final furlong, but overcame that to fight his way to a nose success over Santonito for trainer Gordon Elliott and owners Andrew and Gemma Brown.
“He was very green, and then getting a slap across the face in the final stages and the other horse coming across him didn’t help, but I am hoping he will improve a little bit from that. He’s just green really but has been working well at home and showing plenty so I think he is a horse that can go on,” commented the winning trainer.
Embassy Gardens is a son of Shantou and his dam was sold for €155,000 at the 2015 Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale carrying him. The daughter of Network was also third in the Grade 1 Fort Leney Novice Chase at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival in the colours of Susannah Ricci.
Her first foal was bred by Rowland Crellin and sold by Loughmore Stables for €110,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale of 2019 to Ronnie O’Leary.
Embassy Gardens is owned by Sean and Bernadine Mulryan and has a four-yearold full-brother who made €70,000 to Ballycrystal Stables at last year’s Derby Sale.
Adriana Des Mottes has a two-year-old daughter by the Listed-winning jumper Castle Du Berlais, the regally bred Saint Des Saints son of Auteuil champion Royal Athenia, who stands at Haras du Lion.
Only time will tell how good this trio of broodmares and their offspring will be but for now, their futures look bright.
Tornado Flyer: King George surprise
The King George VI Chase winner Tornado Flyer is not out of a noted dam – he is the first foal out of Mucho Macabi (Exceed And Excel) who ran without success in Italy – but he still has family connections to boast about.
Mucho Macabi is a half-sister to none other than the dual Champion Hurdle winner, the 26-time winner Hurricane Fly (Montjeu), the winner of over £1.8 million in prize-money earnings.
Tornado Flyer was bred by Sweetmans Bloodstock and sold by Grange Stud at the Goffs December Mixed Sale in 2013 to GH Bloodstock for €30,000.
Pine Tree Stud reconsigned him at the Land Rover Sale 2016 where he was bought for €63,000 by Peter and Ross Doyle.
But he has always performed with credit and finished third to Faugheen in his first Grade 1 chase, the Flogas Novice Chase in February 2020, fifth in that year’s Festival Marsh Novice Chase (G1) and then second in the following December’s John Durkan Chase (G1) behind Min. His following races that season were all at the highest level registering a fifth, a fourth and finally a fifth in the Ryanair Chase (G1) to Allaho.
He was not seen on a racecourse again until again fifth to Allaho in the John Durkan last December, and from that run he picked up that form to register his 9l success at Kempton.
Much0 Macabi has had four other runners and just one other winner. Her foal of 2021, a filly by Walk In The Park, was sold at the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale for €50,000 by Castledillon Stud to Jamestown House Stud.
Parkhill family to the fore once more
The Parkhill family’s matriarch High Board, dam of the Champion Hurdle-winning siblings Morley Street and Granville
Again, appeared in the pedigrees of two Leopardstown Grade 1 winners in Ferny Hollow and Fury Road, the pair adding yet further lustre to a family that consistently produces top-class horses for the Parkhills.
Ferny Hollow initiated the festive double on St Stephen’s Day with his victory in the Racing Post Novice Chase for Willie Mullins, Paul Townend and the Cheveley Park team.
The Westerner gelding was having just his second run over fences but was always doing enough to ensure victory over the talented Riviere d’Etel. Willie Mullins was effusive in his praise of the seven-year-old after his Leopardstown success.
I was worried all week that I was asking him to come back too soon. We could have waited another two weeks and gone to Punchestown, but I thought we would let him take his chance here.
“As we got nearer the race here I was worried if I was doing the right thing but he showed what he is here today.
“Everything was against him and he still pulled it out of the bag, I thought it was an awesome performance.”
It is only Ferny Hollow’s third run since defeating Appreciate It in the 2020 Champion Bumper and his solitary start over hurdles was a winning one, defeating another Parkhill-bred star, Bob Olinger, in a Gowran maiden hurdle.
The Dublin Racing Festival and the major spring festivals are all on the agenda for Ferny Hollow, who has an unbeaten streak that stretches to five races and includes two Grade 1 victories.
Ferny Hollow made €38,000 to JJ Bowe at the Derby Sale in 2018 and went on to sell for £300,000 to Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins at the 2019 Tattersalls Cheltenham February Sale after winning his point-to-point for Colin Bowe.
He is one of five winners from six runners out of Mirazur, an unraced Good Thyne half-sister to the Grade 1 handicap chaseplaced Herzov and the Grade 2 handicap hurdle third Almira.
They are out of Higher Again, a Strong Gale half-sister to Morley Street and Granville Again. She is also a half-sister to Deep Line, who is the dam of the Grade 1 winner Hand Inn Hand, to Markiz, the dam of the ill-fated Grade 1 winner Lovethehigherlaw, and to Victorine, of which there will be more in a few paragraphs.
Mirazur has a five-year-old Kalanisi gelding named Nonbinding, who made €135,000 to Gordon Elliott and Aidan O’Ryan at the 2020 Land Rover Sale, the third highest-price at that sale.
Her four-year-old full-brother to Ferny Hollow was sold for €160,000 to the Jonbon team of Michael Shefflin and Paul Holden at the Derby Sale last year.
Mirazur has a three-year-old Court Cave filly, who is her last reported foal.
The aforementioned Victorine, dam of City Island who won the Ballymore Properties Novice Hurdle (G1) at The Festival in the colours of the Mulryans of Ballymore, is the second dam of the Grade 1 Neville Hotels (Fort Leney) Novice Chase winner Fury Road for Gigginstown House Stud, Gordon Elliott and Jack Kennedy.
Now an eight-year-old, he is the latest Grade 1 winner for the reigning champion NH sire, the late Stowaway. Prior to his Grade 1 breakthrough, Fury Road had won five of his 15 starts, including the Grade 2 hurdles at Limerick and Punchestown.
He was a close third to Monkfish and Latest Exhibition in the Albert Bartlett at the same Cheltenham Festival as when Ferny Hollow won the bumper.
Fury Road’s Leopardstown victory was his first in three starts over fences, and he had been third, less than 2l behind Beacon Edge and Gabynako, in the Grade 1 Drinmore Novice Chase at the end of November.
He was an 8l winner from Run Wild Fred at Leopardstown with Grade 1 winners Vanillier and Bacardys further behind.
Gordon Elliott was frank about the winner: “He disappointed me the last day, I thought he had a great chance in the Drinmore and he kind of pulled up when he got to the front so I put cheek-pieces on him today and it seemed to work well.
“Jack was worried when he got to the front so soon but he said in fairness to him he came up the hill well.”
The RSA Chase is Fury Road’s likely target at the Cheltenham Festival, and could give the Parkhill family a strong chance of breeding a Grade 1 winner at a fourth successive Festival.
He is one of three winners out of Molly Duffy, a 16-year-old Oscar half-sister to City Island bred by the Parkhill family.
Fury Road is the most recent of her progeny to be sold at auction, and he was the second-most expensive horse at the 2017 Derby Sale, making €205,000 to Aidan O’Ryan.
Molly Duffy has a seven-year-old Arcadio daughter named She’s Molly Mai, who was covered for the first time in 2021 by Jet Away. Her six-year-old Presenting mare Moe Joe was retained and her first foal is a yearling colt by Jet Away. She was covered by Sholokhov last year.
Molly Duffy has a four-year-old son of Mount Nelson, a three-year-old son by Jukebox Jury and a two-year-old son of Flemensfirth. She also visited Jet Away last year.
Her dam Victorine has a four-year-old Mount Nelson gelding, a yearling colt by Court Cave and was covered by the Boardsmill Stud sire once again in 2021.
First Grade 1 winner for Malinas
Malinas had an exciting end to 2021 – first, he moved the short distance from Glenview Stud to stand at Coolagown Stud in a partnership between the two north Cork farms, and then he sired his first Grade 1 winner.
The short-head victory of his son Master McShee in Limerick’s Grade 1 Faugheen Novices’ Chase was the most heart-warming success of the festive period.
The Malinas gelding is one of just two horses Paddy Corkery has in training at his Dungarvan yard and not only did Master McShee give Malinas his first top level win, he was also providing Corkery and jockey Ian Power with their first Grade 1 success, too.
Although he was unconsidered by many going into the highlight of Limerick’s Christmas meeting, his connections were always convinced that he belonged in top company.
His form lent some credence to that as he was third to none other than Bob Olinger and Bacardys on his only other run over fences in an 18-runner beginners’ chase at Gowran in November. He was also second to Appreciate It in a Cork maiden hurdle, with the third horse then some 28l behind.
“He burst a blood vessel in a Grade 1 hurdle last February [the Chanelle Pharma Novice Hurdle] but we knew he was a Grade 1 horse and, to be honest, we thought he had a right chance today.
“We took out the cotton wool and started nursing him after he burst, but that didn’t work so we started training him properly this year,” explained a delighted Corkery.
That joy was evident at Limerick where the eight-year-old gelding, who cost just €11,000 at the 2014 November NH Sale, outfought Farouk D’Alene to create a Christmas fairytale.
Bred by Mrs L Suenson Taylor out of the unraced Oscar mare Oscar Annie, he was sold by the British-based Clarendon Farm to Morgan Sheehan as a foal.
He is the first runner out of his dam whose second runner, the Leading Light six-yearold mare Lucky Light, won a five-year-old mares’ maiden for Colin Bowe at Ballingarry last May.
She made her track debut in a Sedgefield maiden hurdle on December 2 when second for Paul Collins behind Richmond Lake over 2m4f.
Edwardstone: the impressive son of Kayf Tara is unbeaten in three completed starts over fences
Oscar Annie was reported as having left stud in 2019 after producing four foals.
His second dam One Hell Of A Woman by Fourstars Allstar is a winning halfsister to Daraheen Chief, who was second in the Ladbroke Hurdle, and to Daraheen Diamond. She is the unraced dam of the Grade 2 National Spirit Hurdle winner Brewin’upastorm, the Grade 2-placed hurdler Kimberlite King and the Grade 3-placed Glam Gerry.
The Group 2 Oppenheim Union-Rennen winner Malinas was also placed in four Group 1 races, including second in the Deutsches Derby and the son of Lomitas had previously sired five individual Grade 2 winners and three Grade 1-placed horses.
Master McShee was bred during the stallion’s four-year stint at Yorton Farm prior to his move to Glenview Stud, and his oldest Irish-bred crop has just turned five.
They include Electrical Kid, who was second in the first division of the Moig South maiden for Donnchadh Doyle and made £95,000 to Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins at the Tattersalls Cheltenham December Sale.
Edwardstone: an owner-breeder star
Kayf Tara may have retired from stud duties at Overbury Stud, but he is still getting exciting prospects and Edwardstown, trained by Alan King and the winner of Kempton’s Wayward Lad Novices’ Chase (G2), is certainly that.
The eight-year-old gelding beat Do Your Job by 10l on Boxing Day having previously won the Grade 1 Henry VIII Novices’ Chase at Sandown at the start of December by 16l.
He is now a 5/1 chance for the Arkle at The Festival and may take in February’s Grade 2 Kingmaker Novice Chase at Warwick en route.
He was bred by joint-owners Robert Abrey and Ian Thurtle out of their Luso mare Nothingtoloose.
She won a maiden point-to-point and is a half-sister to the bumper, hurdle and chase winner The Parishioner, and to the dam of the consistent graded chaser Shotgun Paddy and the Weatherbys NH Flat (G1) race thirdplaced Queens Brook.
Edwardstone’s third dam is Many Miracles, dam of Patricksnineteenth.
By Mister Lord, he ended up as a 125-rated-winning chaser but won the Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase (G1) in 2004 and finished fourth in that year’s Royal & SunAlliance Novice Chase.
Nothingtoloose was not sold twice at the sales – first at the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale and then at the Doncaster Spring Store Sale. She found her home for life with Abrey at the following year’s DBS Spring HIT Sale when bought for £22,000.
Edwardstone is her second foal, her previous filly by Dr Massini has not been named. She did not foal in 2015 or 2016, but in 2017 produced Nothingtochance, a filly by Kayf Tara and who is yet to run.
Clearly a little tricky to breed from the next foal to appear out of Nothingtoloose was a 2020 colt by the developing Rathbarry Stud-based stallion Blue Bresil, and she was empty again for 2021.
Fortune has now produced a better hand and she is due to the Chapel Stud-based dual-purpose sire Planteur.
He is sire of last year’s star Group 1 stayer Trueshan, the breeders’ connections with his trainer Alan King paying dividends.
