20 minute read
A spread of success
Rachael says “A Plus Tard” to her rivals
A fantastic four days at The Festival saw success for 24 different stallions, writes Aisling Crowe
THE CROWDS were back at Cheltenham and so too were the French-breds, back with a vengeance.
Of the five Championship races, three went to horses bred in France, all of them over fences. The Gold Cup, the Champion Chase and the Ryanair Chase were won by horses bred under the blue, white and red tricolour, while Britain and Ireland split the hurdling championships apiece with reigning champions Honeysuckle and Flooring Porter defending their titles in the Champion Hurdle and Stayers’ Hurdle respectively.
In total, the winners of 15 of the 28 races were bred in Ireland with French-breds winning nine and four races going to Britishbred runners.
When it came to stallions, only two, both prematurely deceased, managed to sire more than one winner with Jeremy earning the 2022 title on a countback by virtue of Scarlet And Dove’s third place finish in the Grade 2 Mares’ Chase for Joseph O’Brien. The Jersey Stakes-winning son of Danehill Dancer supplied Grade 1 Ballymore Properties Novice Hurdle winner Sir Gerhard, who won last season’s Champion Bumper, and the Grade 3 Ultima Handicap Chase winner Corach Rambler.
Fame And Glory was the sire of the Grade 1 winner The Nice Guy and Commander Of Fleet, who won the Grade 3 Coral Cup.
That ensured that 24 different stallions sired a winner over the four days with the Sadler’s Wells line dominating. His sons Sholokhov, Kayf Tara, Milan and Yeats and grandsons Galiway, Walk In The Park and Fame And Glory all sired Grade 1 winners, while Galileo, Doyen and Well Chosen also sired winners during the four days.
Sadler’s Wells sons and grandsons also shone as broodmare sires with the stunning Supreme Novices’ winner Constitution Hill out of a King’s Theatre mare and Sir Gerhard’s dam by Authorized. Old Vic, Beat Hollow, Saffron Walden and Hurricane Run were other broodmare sires from that line to feature in the pedigrees of Festival 2022 winners.
Rachael says “A Plus Tard” to her rivals
Rachael Blackmore left Cheltenham a superstar last year, but there was also the sense that the first woman to be leading jockey at the meeting also had unfinished business with Cheltenham’s Holy Grail.
For all her 2021 history-making six winners, victories that included a Champion Hurdle and a tour de force in the Ryanair, there was a nagging feeling that the Gold Cup was the one that got away.
Trainer Henry De Bromhead saddled two horses in last year’s Gold Cup, Minella Indo and A Plus Tard, and Blackmore plumped for the latter. It was the former, however, who took gold under Jack Kennedy with Blackmore having to settle for silver one and a quarter lengths behind the horse she turned down. When you’re panning for gold, finding silver is no consolation.
Twelve months on and Blackmore was back in the Cheltenham winners’ enclosure, continuing her outstanding unbeaten partnership with Honeysuckle and benefitting from Galopin Des Champs’ unfortunate stumble at the back of the last with Bob Olinger.
Her mind was set on that elusive gold. She maintained her partnership with A Plus Tard and Robbie Power was given the ride on defending champion Minella Indo.
A Plus Tard, owned by Cheveley Park Stud, was sent off favourite on the strength of a much better season than his stable companion for whom the electricity of Cheltenham sparks him alive.
As the field rounded the home turn both the De Bromhead horses looked to be travelling better than their rivals and the pair jumped the second last together. Blackmore has not become one of the best jockeys around by accident, and the Tipperary woman did not repeat her (own perceived) mistake of 2021, and she held on to A Plus Tard down the hill and until the very last moment possible.
The pair galloped into the history books by 15l with De Bromhead celebrating another Gold Cup 1-2.
How it started...
..how it ended up
Blackmore took the Champion Hurdle winner Honeysuckle wide, hit the front two out and went clear to win her 15th race
Richard Thompson, son of Cheveley Park Stud’s owners Patricia and the late David Thompson, said: “We’ve been talking about this moment, and it’s happened. It’s absolutely fantastic to win the Gold Cup. Incredible. My father would have loved it, he watched the Gold Cup for many years and to actually win it is incredible. I can’t even speak. What a day for racing.”
A Plus Tard was bred by Henri and Sophie Devin at their Haras du Mesnil in France and is one of six individual Grade 1 winners by Haras de la Hetraie’s Kapgarde, the best of whom is Grand Steeple Chase de Paris winner Milord Thomas.
Kapgarde was a Grade 3 winner at Auteuil and second in the Grade 1 Prix Ferdinand Dufaure. He boasts a strong NH pedigree as a Garde Royale half-brother to Geos, who won the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle at Kempton for Nicky Henderson.
He is also a half-brother to Cybersun, who was third in the Grade 1 Prix Reynaud de Vivier.
His Epervier Bleu half-sister Daprika is the dam of Chilli Filli (Presenting), who has won three Listed mares’ chases for trainer Henry Daly over the past two seasons.
Another half-sister, Kapricia Speed, is the dam of Fergal O’Brien’s Grade 3 handicap hurdle winner Barney Dwan and the second dam of French Listed hurdle winner Kasad Coko.
Kapgarde’s Video Rock half-brother Kap Rock moved to Knockhouse Stud from Haras de la Hetraie last season.
Their dam Kaprika is a Cadoudal halfsister to Listed Brown Lad Handicap Hurdle winner Lord Dal and they are out of Lady Corteira, who won the Listed Prix A de Goulaine.
Bar Vauban’s powerhouse performance in the Triumph Hurdle, it would have been a Grade 1 Festival double for the Devins and their Gold Cup hero’s family.
A Plus Tard is one of six reported foals out of the Kahyasi mare Turboka, who won eight times for the Devins when trained by Guillaume Macaire.
A Plus Tard’s year-younger full-brother Kap Auteuil is trained by Toby Lawes for Andrew and Sarah Wates and has won five of his ten starts to date, two of them this season.
Vauban, by Galiway, wins the Triumph (G1) from Caldwell Construction-owned pair of Fil Dor (red cap), who is related to A Plus Tard, and Pied Piper
Their four-year-old half-brother by Doctor Dino, who stands at Haras du Mesnil, won a three-year-old hurdle at Auteuil in October for the couple and trainer Gabriel Leenders. Turboka’s first foal La Turbale is by Ange Gabriel, a dual winner of the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud whom the Devins stood at Mesnil.
The unraced La Turbale has developed into quite the broodmare for the team – her first foal, the Doctor Dino mare Style Icon won the Listed Prix Charles Lafitte on the Flat at Maisons-Lafitte for trainer HenriFrancis Devin and his parents, while her six-year-old Turgeon gelding Le Lude was Listed-placed over hurdles.
Her four-year-old full-brother to Style Icon is Fil Dor ,who was second in the Triumph Hurdle, having previously filled the same position behind Vauban in the Grade 1 Spring Juvenile Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival.
Trained by Gordon Elliott for Andrew and Gemma Brown, Fil Dor won the Grade 2 Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival and a Grade 3 at Fairyhouse earlier this season.
La Turbale has a yearling full-brother to Fil D’or and Style Icon named Dino Style.
W family continues its wonderful run
Waldgeist’s first foals broke the mould at the Flat foal sales a few months’ ago – the Arc winner bucking the trend of middledistance stallions overlooked by the narrow commercial focus of the market.
In December, his family also created a stir at the Tattersalls and Arqana mares’ sales as the partnership between Gestüt Ammerland and Newsells Park Stud was dissolved .
At the Arqana December Sale his fullsister Wildfeder helped to accumulate record-breaking returns when selling to Crispin de Moubray on behalf of Ammerland for €2,050,000 just a handful of days after their three-parts sister by New Approach, the Group 3 winner Waldlied, made 2.2m guineas at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale sold to Jill Lamb on behalf of Newsells’ new owner Graham Smith-Benal and a new partnership.
Now it was Cheltenham and the turn of Vauban to add the Triumph Hurdle to his Dublin Racing Festival Grade 1 victory for Willie Mullins and Rich Ricci.
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 out of Gifted Icon, a Peintre Celebre half-sister to St Leger winner and sire Masked Marvel and to the Group 3 winner Waldlerche, dam of Arc and Prix du Jockey Club winner and exciting young stallion Waldgeist.
Waldlerche, Gifted Icon and Masked Marvel are out of the Falmouth Stakes (G1) runner-up Waldmark, a Mark Of Esteem half-sister to Deutsches Derby winner and sire Waldpark, the Listed winner Waldvogel and the unraced Waldbeere, 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 (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.
Vauban was trained by his part-breeder Philippe Decouz and was purchased privately last summer by his Irish connections after his victory at Lyons.
Vauban made one more start in France, winning the Listed Prix Frederic de Lagrange over 2400m at Vichy.
The French-bred Energumene wins the Queen Mother Champion Chase (G1). In total French-breds won nine races, GB-breds took four races (two Grade 1s) and Irish-breds were successful in 15 races
On his first start over hurdles, he was half a length second to Pied Piper (New Approach) 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 before finishing third behind Vauban and Fil Dor in the Triumph itself.
“He was our best chance of the week and we are delighted with that, he’s a proper little taxi,” commented winning owner Rich Ricci, who explained how Vauban came to be running this season.
“I was having a war with Willie at the beginning of the season because none of our horses were running well and we didn’t have that many.
“He wanted to keep Vauban for next year and, while we are happy to do that with some of ours, we bought quite a few last year that we did put away. I thought I didn’t have enough runners that were quality and we are in a transition year, which I have spoken about, so I said to Willie to just run him and see how he gets on.
“If it didn’t work, we still have a nice horse for next year but he came out and won the Grade 1 at Leopardstown. He really only ran because our string weren’t firing at the time and I thought ‘he’s supposed to be a good one so let’s have a go!’”
Talk in the immediate aftermath of the race centred on the possibility of an audacious raid on Australia and the Melbourne Cup in November.
“Why can’t we win both? Why not in the same year?” replied Ricci in answer to questions about the possibility of Vauban taking on the race that stops a nation.
In the very next race the Grade 3 County Hurdle, Colonel Mustard, a relation of Vauban’s, put in his best performance yet to finish third to the highly-talented State Man.
Trained by Lorna Fowler, Colonel Mustard is out of Waldblume, a winning Halling half-sister to Waldmark, the second dam of Waldgeist and Vauban. Bred by Gestüt Gorlsdorf, who bred Sea The Moon, he is a half-brother to the Listed-placed Waldblumchen by the aforementioned Deutsches Derby winner, and was sold for 20,000gns to Stroud Coleman at the 2015 Tattersalls December Foal Sale by his breeders.
L’Homme’s a Diamond for Kilbarry Lodge
L’Homme Presse’s victory in the Grade 1 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase was a milestone one not only for trainer Venetia Williams and jockey Charlie Deutsch, but also for his sire Diamond Boy.
It was a first Festival winner for the Mansonnien full-brother to Willie Mullins’ four-time Grade 1-winning chaser Golden Silver. L’Homme Presse’s success earlier this season in the Scilly Isles Novice Chase (G1) was a first at the highest level for a runner by Diamond Boy, who is standing his fifth season at Con O’Keeffe’s Kilbarrry Lodge Stud in County Waterford having transferred from Haras de la Croix Sonnet.
A seven-year-old, L’Homme Presse is from the third crop of Diamond Boy who was a Listed winner on the Flat in France, winning the 1m6f Listed Prix Scaramouche at SaintCloud. Diamond Boy was also placed in two further Listed contests.
From small numbers in his French crops, he is the sire of five individual Graded winners with L’Homme Presse the best of the quintet.
L’ Homme Presse put in an exhibition round of jumping in the 3m Grade 1 novice
Diamond Boy is also the sire Kingwell Hurdle (G2) winner Grand Sancy, who was also placed in the Tolworth Hurdle and Henry VII Novices’ Chase, both Grade 1 contests, for Paul Nicholls. His best runner in France is the dual Auteuil Grade 3 winner Cat Tiger.
Diamond Boy’s final French-bred crop is the largest from his time there with 82 registered four-year-olds. His first Irishbred crop will be hitting the store sales this summer and there are 143 three-year-olds registered by him. He has 137 two-year-olds and 49 yearlings and covered just 38 mares in 2021.
L’Homme Presse is owned by Andy Edwards’ Dfa Racing and was sourced in France after winning twice over hurdles for Mickael Seror. He was bred by Bernard Camp out of the winning Romance Turgot by Bateau Rouge and is the third and final foal produced by her.
Above, Constitution Hill, has been rated the highest-ever novice hurdler by Timeform after his Supreme Novices course and distance record win
He was offered for sale as a yearling at Arqana’s Autumn Sale by Haras du Dorat but was unsold at €22,000.
It is a very interesting pedigree as he is by far the best horse under his first three dams, but his fourth dam Emmaline was a
Listed winner on the Flat in America and is the second dam of the Group 1-winning sprinters and half-brothers Tangerine Trees and Alpha Delphini. Emmaline is an Affirmed half-sister to the American Grade 1 winners and sires Bates Motel and Hatim.
Trainer Venetia Williams revealed just how nerve wracking it was watching her first Festival Grade 1 win.
“He’s such a spectacular jumper and it was lovely to hear the crowd cheer every time he put in a big leap.
“I think this race was always the most likely, but the only thing which would have changed our minds was if it was going to be heavy ground and even this rain has made it just soft ground.”
It was part of an excellent week for Con O’Keeffe’s Kilbarry Lodge Stud as the Waterford farm bred the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle winner The Nice Guy.
By the late Fame And Glory, he is the only foal out of Kilbarry Beauty, a winning Saffron Walden three-parts sister to the Grade 1 Ballymore Properties Novice Hurdle winner Massini’s Maguire. O’Keeffe sold him to the Hit The Diff Syndicate at the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale for €33,000 in 2015.
Blue is the colour for Rathbarry Stud
Blue Bresil’s rise to the upper tiers of NH stallions has gathered much momentum this season, with soaring Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner Constitution Hill truly advertising his sire’s credentials with aplomb.
Blue Lord, successful in the Grade 1 Irish Arkle at the Dublin Racing Festival, was third in the Cheltenham equivalent to emphasise the quality that Blue Bresil offers.
Between the pair, they managed to double their sire’s tally of Grade 1 winners in a few short weeks this winter and the clamour for places in his book has reached fever pitch.
Blue Bresil attained quite a high level of form on the Flat winning from 9.5f to 1m6f at two and three and he finished third in the Group 2 Prix Noailles and Prix Hocquart and two Listed contests. He also ran in Vision D’Etat’s Prix du Jockey-Club and Zarkava’s Arc, but when switched to jumping at four he discovered his metier. The son of Smadoun was second in three Graded contests at Auteuil, including the Prix Amadou Hurdle (G2) and, like Diamond Boy, began his stud career at Haras de la Croix Sonnet.
He has three individual Grade 1 winners and four Grade 1-placed performers from his French crops and transferred to Yorton Farm for the 2016 season. Constitution Hill is from that first Yorton crop, which has 94 registered foals, the biggest number for Blue Bresil to that point. He is one of 11 winners from 46 runners and one of two black-type-performing five-year-olds by Blue Bresil.
His second crop conceived at Yorton consists of 93 registered foals with a winner from just seven runners. There are 77 three-year-olds by him registered and they are certain to be hugely sought-after at the store sales in the summer.
The final foal crop bred at Yorton commanded a fee of £6,000 and there are 107 of them. He switched to Glenview Stud, the NH division of the Cashman family’s stallion farms, for the 2020 season and has 136 registered yearlings who were bred from a fee of €8,000. His 2021 and 2022 fees have been listed as private.
Constitution Hill, who has shone a bright spotlight on his sire’s abilities, was bred by Sally Noott out of the Listed Jane Seymour Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle third Queen Of The Stage by King’s Theatre.
The first foal of his dam, he was sold by Throckmorton Court Stud to Warren Ewing and Barry Geraghty for €16, 500 at the 2017 Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale.
He was a narrow second on debut in a Tipperary point-to-point for Ewing last spring and was sold for £120,000 to Nicky Henderson and Michael Buckley at the 2021 Goffs UK Spring Point-To-Point Sale.
Constitution Hill has a year-younger half-brother by Flemensfirth and a three-year-old half-sister by Jack Hobbs. His yearling half-sister made £50,000 to Alne Park Stud at Goffs UK in January.
Speaking to Goffs UK after watching Constitution Hill make easy work of his highly-regarded stablemate Jonbon, Ewing remarked: “That was brilliant, he broke the track record as well, it was just an outstanding performance.
“I am delighted for Michael Buckley, too, he has bought a few horses from us and it’s great that he has such a talented horse.”
Bumper just a walk in the park for Mullins
Facile Vega gave his legendary dam Quevega her first Grade 1 winner when successful in the Champion Bumper.
Unbeaten now in three starts for his owner-breeders the Hammer And Trowel Syndicate, Facile Vega is the second foal and winner for the remarkable mare, who won six runnings of the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle at The Festival. The tough as teak Quevega, who is now 18, was successful in 16 of her 24 starts and her Grade 1 victories encompassed four Tipperkevin Stayers’ Hurdles at the Punchestown Festival.
She was also placed three further times in Grade 1 company.
The daughter of Robin Des Champs was bred by Pierre Rives out of the six-times winning jumper Vega IV, who is also the second dam of Auteuil Listed Handicap Hurdle winner Flip De Vega.
Quevega’s first foal, the Beat Hollow mare Princess Vega, won a Tramore maiden hurdle on debut as a fouryear-old and she is due her first foal by Order Of St George at the end of April. Facile Vega is the second foal out of Quevega, who has a four-year-old full-sister to him now in training with Willie Mullins. Her threeyear-old Camelot filly is in pretraining with John Berry and her two-year-old daughter of the Derby winner Australia is at the Irish National Stud where Quevega recently foaled a full-brother to Facile Vega.
It was also an important success for his sire Walk In The Park, whose offspring include the Arkle and Ryanair Chase winners Douvan and Jonbon, but this was a first Cheltenham success for his Irish-bred crops, of which Facile Vega is a member of his first conceived at Coolmore’s Grange Stud.
That first Irish crop has produced the Listed-winning mares Haute Estime and Mullenberg, who are both out of mares by Oscar and inbred 3S x 3D to Sadler’s Wells.
Eabha Grace, out of Myska, a Listed-winning half-sister to the dual Grade 1 winner Bob Olinger, is also from Walk In The Park’s first Irish crop and she has been second in the Listed EBF Mares’ Bumper.
Already his second Irish-conceived crop has produced a Listed performer, the Prix Antoine de Palaminy Chase third Nambiti.
The initial Irish crop of 180 was by far the biggest of his stud career to that point dwarfing all his previous crops. In fact, he sired 198 foals in total from his first eight crops. His current bunch of four-year-olds are his largest crop to date numbering 182 and he has 136 three-year-olds registered.
His stock have generated headlines and sale-topping prices over the last few years particularly on the back of the success of Douvan and Min, with Douvan’s full-brother Jonbon setting the record for a point-topoint horse when selling for £570,000 to JP McManus in 2020 having won his four-yearold maiden for Ellmarie Holden.
It would appear that the “sales hype” behind Walk In The Park is justified based on his early results from his time in Ireland.
At the time of writing he had 29 individual winners from 98 runners born in 2017 with four black-type performers. Of his current four-year-olds, 14 have run and four have won with the aforementioned Listed-placed chaser in France.
