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The Irish point-to-point scene got off to a slightly delayed start this year on account of a very dry September that saw both a late-September fixture at Rathcannon and a Toomebridge early-October meeting deferred to a later date. The rains came in time for Castletown-Geoghegan (located in Westmeath in the centre of the country) and they managed competitive fields (66 runners) compared to their last fixture in April that only produced 45 starters including two three-runner affairs. I’m pleased Rathcannon hasn’t been lost as it has produced an interesting track winner or two in the past with Michael Hourigan’s Run With The Wind being a particular favourite.
My main focus in this blog will be to try to unearth future track winners and in this regard I will be concentrating almost exclusively on winning four- and five-year-old maidens. The occasional “also ran” will feature on account of an eye-catching or unlucky performance or if I feel the horse has connections that shouldn’t be ignored.
I also like to keep an eye on the younger mares although their progression to the winning ranks under rules, in general, tends to be minimal. Finding and following a winning mare can be an enjoyable journey given the massive odds stacked against them in the jumping game. Finally, a small number of handlers (trainers) believe in the benefit of a good p2p education and will tend to run younger winners in winners’ company rather than immediately step them up to the track. These more battle-hardened runners can sometimes hold an edge over their tyro peers and if trained by somebody like Jim Dreaper (a man with the patience of Job who can have a couple of these performers in his yard most seasons) there can be an advantage to following them in their early novice careers.
Castletown-Geoghegan is a progressive course run, as ever, by a great team of volunteers and would be in Michael O’Leary’s backyard. The notable feature of the track is a steep downhill run to the final fence that can prove difficult to negotiate. As there is only a very short run-in thereafter this can prove to be the winning and losing of the contest. It almost had an impact in the very first contest of the new season!
4yo maiden:
This 13-runner affair attracted a single mare (finished last of 9 finishers) and the established form on view beforehand did not look the strongest although the eventual winner had finished fourth on his only start behind a horse (John Halley’s As Jussiniere) that subsequently sold for €40,000 at Goffs. However, many of the main Wexford stables were involved – The Doyles, Colin Bowe and Denis Murphy – with Colin McKeever (trained 3 winners in past 6 years) also sending a challenger from the north but it was the Tipperary-based Martin Hassett who produced the winner in Jack Steel. Fourth on his only start at Lisronagh last April he showed decent improvement to win here having made all at what seemed a modest pace. He made a mistake at the last and taking this fence at speed was almost his undoing. Deciphering connections overly-exuberant quotes can be a minefield in this sector but it looks as if this son of Craigsteel is sales bound shortly having proven the retrospective pre-race confidence to be accurate (although not reflected in the market!!). He was given a rating of 87. I am choosing to ignore the quote that “he might go for a bumper” as this can often be snake oil saleman’s palaver. (Note: a subsequent chat with said trainer noted in Week #2 of the season leaves me less cynical)
This has tended to be a good maiden and since 2008 has produced 5 track winners from 9 qualifiers with the best of them being Ballyoliver (good staying chaser for Venetia Williams), Trustan Time (placed in Scottish National last start for Tim Easterby) and Ceasar Milan who is still relatively unexposed for Paul Nicholls and there’s some hope value from at least two previous winners who are now with David Pipe (Border Breaker) and Tim Vaughan (Ballymoat).
Jack Steel was a failed 3yo store pinhooker for connections and they decided to train and race him themselves. The Hassett’s have been employees in both Ballydoyle and Coolmore for years and the pro jumps jockey Shane Hassett is closely connected. This horse cost €9,000 at the Goffs Derby Sale and is a full-brother to a Philip Rothwell 2m5f maiden hurdle winner who seemed to seriously regress afterwards. The unraced dam is related to 4 winners of a single race each over distances from 2m-3m. The third and fourth dams are closely related to some very good staying chasers and 2m hurdlers including Champion Hurdler Gaye Brief.
Jack Steel’s sire Craigsteel’s first NH crop are now 10yo’s and his best runner to date, Cross Kennon (a very good staying hurdler), is from that crop. His stock that win point-to-points generally progress and these include He’s A Delight (Irish bumper and hurdle winner), Boss Croaker (dual handicap hurdle winner), Ballincurrig (progressive handicap chaser with Nick Skelton who had Galway Plate aspirations earlier this year), Truckers Steel (won bumper on debut for Tom George) and the “could be anything” Pulled Mussel, a 20L bumper winner for Robert Tyner on his only start so far under rules. Donald McCain and Jonjo O’Neill have three winning graduates from last season to race this year-Five For Fifteen, Amys Choice and Rainman and all three are worthy of attention.
Finally, I cannot pass this race without another mention of Colin McKeever and his record in this race. As mentioned above he has won this race three times in the last six years and every other horse he has run has at least collected a maiden point. Among his winners, Bally Sands and Ballyoliver have tasted success for Robin Mathew and Venetia Williams while Ballymoat has been unlucky not to win (so far) for Tim Vaughan. His “also rans” have been Drumlister (three-time winner for Arthur Moore), Brownville-a promising bumper winner for Twiston-Davies and only Watford (winner of a subsequent point maiden) has failed to score under rules. His representative this year, Ballykan, started favourite and finished second to Jack Steel having threatened briefly on the run to the last. One can say with a degree of certainty that he will win his pointing maiden and should prove up to the task of winning under UK rules as most of McKeever’s and his principal, Wilson Dennison’s winners, are sold into this market. I fully expect to be previewing Balykan’s sales and track potential before long.(Note: week #3 will see a more detailed analysis conducted into the McKeever maiden winners that are principally owned by his main patron Wilson Dennison).
5&6yo maiden:
This was won by Robert Tyner’s Gowanauthat a 6yo son of Golan who’s had plenty of previous experience in maidens and under Rules without distinguishing himself. I would be slightly biased against the older age profile but what discourages from nominating him is the poor record of previous 6yo winners in this race who have been, largely, entirely forgettable. His only two (of three elder) siblings to race failed to trouble the judge in 20 outings. He wouldn’t be the first horse to improve after a series of modest efforts but it won’t surprise me if he tends to keep himself to winners’ company between the flags as have many previous winners of this contest. On the other hand, if he keeps the sales date that connections mentioned afterwards, he may be capable of modest success in England at the lower-grade tracks.
Horses to follow:
Jack Steel
BallykanI realise this is jumping ahead a bit but I understand Shantou Village was impressive at Loughanmore yesterday (had Ballykan behind in 3rd).
Week ending 12 October 2014: Action from Loughrea and Tinahely
One of the few older horses to catch my eye last season was triggered by the arresting comment of his unheralded trainer that he had a very bright future and was a possible future winner of the Foxhunters. Aintree is not a possible interpretation as the Foxhunters venue in these circumstances.
The horse is
Need To Know
(a 6yo gelding by Definite Article out of a four-time winning mare) and the trainer is Wexford-based John Paul Brennan (a former Jim Bolger pupil) who has been very sweet on this horse since his maiden win in his home county (Ballinaboola) last January. He followed this up with a Winners-of-One victory in Tinahely in March and he thereafter became expensive for me! Brennan has been a reliable source of modest young winning stock for a few years (no standout rules representative from the sales ring in the past few years) so the
Need To Know
project will be causing plenty of anxious moments at home as he is carrying a lot of latent hopes (from blood, sweat and tears).
Following his “winners” success Brennan subsequently sent him hunter chasing on five occasions between April and June this year and they yielded two fourth placings and one third. He was solid in the market on every occasion, ran reasonably well but perhaps showed that he still has a level of maturing to do. He was given an early re-introduction this season last Sunday, again at Tinahely, and managed to upset a long odds-on favourite (and one of last season’s leading lights in p-2-p Open events) when scoring in the feature race of the day on very good ground and seems to travel on everything but extreme conditions. The stardust was again being sprinkled in the aftermath of Sunday’s race and whereas I do believe in racing dreams coming true I will be following this horse faithfully once he returns to the track at less salubrious venues than Cheltenham.
To the best of my knowledge Foxhunter qualification requires two Open or Hunter Chase victories in the same season so
Need To Know
is probably half-way to the Cotswolds at this stage, probably about 70 miles south-west of Angelsey on the Irish Sea.
4yo maiden Tinahely
Last week’s nomination,
Jack Steel
, got an early boost when fourth-placed
Gingili
(6L in arrears of
Jack Steel
), trained by Colin Bowe, scored in a close contest in the 4yo maiden. This merely reinforces my faith in
Jack Steel
and in a double coincidence during my week I happened to run into
Jack Steel’s
gregarious trainer, Martin Hassett, and the following day I got to chat with the owner of the Pat Doyle-trained
Fact Of The Matter
winner of the 4yo maiden at Loughrea last Sunday.
Hassett was thrilled with the performance of
Jack Steel
and confirmed that he had been working well prior to Castletown-Geoghegan. One report I read suggested the horse had completed another circuit of the track prior to being pulled up and this was confirmed and explained by the fact that he was passed by a riderless horse shortly after the winning post which brought out his competitive streak. Interestingly, the horse is bound for the Brightwells Cheltenham sale in November and his connections are slightly concerned that the Craigsteel “unfashionable” sire-line might detract from his value such is the high regard in which they hold him. When I informed him that Donald McCain and Jonjo O’Neill are recent supporters of the stallion with acquisitions costing €30,000, £40,000 and £45,000 from the pointing field last spring it should give them a fighting chance of a decent payday. Hassett seems confident that the horse will have the toe to win a bumper and provide a deal of enjoyment to his next owner. Good luck to all concerned.
In another story from the same trainer’s yard that would take too much telling a shorter version is that Hassett has charge of the ex-Ballydoyle invalid
Master Speaker
who in my opinion is due a decent flat race over five or six furlongs some time soon. I hope I may be forgiven in suggesting that they may have been campaigning him a little too honestly this year but his form in good quality sprinting races bears close scrutiny and perhaps heavy ground conditions (beloved by his sire) or a trip to the all-weather will see him reward their patience. (He finished a close up sixth at Cork this weekend and probably needs to drop 10-12lbs now).
I am not putting my main future faith in
Gingili
** from this contest but rather in the second-placed Beneficial gelding
Tiger Sam
(rated 86) purely on the basis that he is trained by Noel Meade making a rare foray into the pointing field with a young horse. In researching Meade’s previous pointing exploits with a 4yo I lighted upon Corbally Ghost who also finished second on his only start in a point at Lismore (a track with a good reputation) in March 2011. A run in a bumper that same spring behind the mighty Simonsig saw him put away until the following autumn when he collected a bumper and two hurdles in quick succession. As you would expect of any horse from these quarters
Tiger Sam
has a very likeable pedigree and his two half-brothers Macgeorge (won 14 staying chases) and Chief Dan George (won Aintree’s top novice hurdling prize in 2007 and 8 other races) have plenty of quality. My one concern is that
Tiger Sam’s
dam (a half-sister to an Irish Champion hurdler in Deep Idol) was all of 24 when he was born but let’s not be ageist! If
Tiger Sam
can follow in the footsteps of Corbally Ghost or his illustrious half-brothers we should all be happy.
** In an attempt to keep my list at manageable proportions I will try not to recommend too many horses to follow although one is always concerned that future winners are discarded on a whim.
Gingili’s
(rated 88) rather strong case for support is aided simply by the fact that six of the last seven winners of this contest have all tasted success at some stage under rules with Tammys Hill (7 wins including the 2014 Cheltenham Foxhunters), Lough Derg Way (four-time winner for Jamie Snowden) and Dawn Commander (six-time winner and has been a credit recently to Renee Robeson ) being the most prominent. Coincidentally, the afore-mentioned John Paul Brennan (
Need To Know
) trained Four Shuck Men to win a division in 2012 and this subsequent £42,000 purchase won a bumper on his first start for Tim Vaughan.
Gingili
, as I mentioned above, improved from his seasonal start behind
Jack Steel
to score here and was immediately nominated for sale which is no surprise as he is owned by winning trainer Colin Bowe’s head lad. This is probably as useful way to keep your staff happy with such intangible bonuses that can quickly become tangible and someone else pays!
Gingili
(GB-bred by Beat All) seems to have been bought privately at Doncaster as a 3yo after he failed to sell in the ring and chances are that he will now make a multiple of his unsold price of £14,000. He’s out of a three-time winning Generous mare who scored twice over hurdles for Donald McCain (she was bred to be a flat mare and has some salubrious relations such as Ascot Gold Cup winner Celeriac) and it will be very interesting to see if McCain buys
Gingili
because he originally bought his dam (Gentian) because she was related to a mare (Calomeria) who won a Wensleydale (Listed Juvenile Novice Hurdle run at Haydock) for him in 2004 and threatened to be very good for a while.
If
Gilgili’s
sire, Beat All, were a footballer he would be a journeyman as he has spent his time at three different studs in his lifetime and is a steady and reliable cover at a certain modest price range. His record with winning 4yo pointing maidens offers some conditional hope in that his best two graduates in the past, Jarob and Mr Tingle, sold very well at public auction following their maiden victories and went on to win two races each under rules. I would suggest that this will probably be the case with
Gingili
i.e. he will sell for £40,000+ at public auction, join a leading trainer and will win his share of races. I would also venture that good ground will be required for his stock to show their best form.
5yo maiden Tinahely
A somewhat common theme from the maidens I have been analysing here in the past two weeks is the relatively surprising number of early autumn contests run over the past five to six years that have produced winners who regularly transfer their flag-work to track-work when they graduate to the racecourse. (Pointing can sometime be referred to as racing “between the flags” due to flag markers replacing fixed rails in many instances.) I believe this occurrence is largely explained by commercial reasons in that trainers of four-year-olds are desperate to grab an opportunity to sell a “young” winning horse in the pre-Christmas sales (predominantly Brightwells-Cheltenham and Doncaster-Newbury) and they will be trying to make up for lost time if their charges, for whatever reason, missed a winning opportunity earlier that spring. Similarly, an unexposed national hunt horse aged five is a far more appealing prospect to most owners/agents than one aged six or older and this can have dramatic economic consequences in the sales ring-the ultimate arbiter of “fashion”.
Tinahely’s 5yo maiden is no different and since 2010 has produced four winning recruits from five divisions with Nigel Twiston-Davies five-time winner According To Trev being easily the best. The other winners are more modest performers although three of the four winners all won on their very next appearance.
This year’s winner is Colin Bowe’s
Black Jack Rover
(by Vinnie Roe) who was bringing up a double for his handler on the day. This horse failed to sell for just €600 as a yearling but that was before his half-brother, Kilgefin Star, managed to win two hurdles for Northumberland-based Michael Smith and it now looks a stroke of good luck for his owner/breeder. My guess is that
Black Jack Rover
will be good enough to win at his grade in the UK and just might manage to keep up the reasonable bumper-winning record of previous winners from this race.
4yo maiden Loughrea
Sam Waley-Cohen is what I would consider the leading example of a perfect lifestyle many in Ireland discovered many decades ago namely, combining the ownership of racehorses with the Corinthian spirit involved in riding them competitively and all the while keeping down a full-time job to keep the show on the road. The top Ballydoyle vet, John Halley, is probably a version of Ireland’s foremost example of this and his opposite number across the pond might currently be John Ferguson. Halley combines one of the most interesting and demanding jobs in racing with running a point-to-point yard (with the occasional runner under Rules) and his success over the years is surely matched by the satisfaction achieved. Producing Noel Meade’s Pandorama in his early days was his most successful training achievement to date.
This all brings me to Gerry Spain who combines a career as a pharmacist with riding out for Pat Doyle in Tipperary and investing (wisely) in promising young maidens (sounds like a medieval bodice-ripper tale) for sale to Britain. Spain broke his duck in points as a jockey some years ago on the ex-Paul Nolan French Accordion and is hoping that another ex-Nolan horse Noble Prince might work the oracle for him in Open events this season. Pat Doyle should need no introduction as he is tasked (along with Gordon Elliott) with educating the young Gigginstown 4yo’s and a fine job he makes of it.
From a punting perspective I am interested in the Spain/Doyle winning maidens and prior to
Fact Of the Matter
winning impressively on Sunday their only two previous investments – both 4yo maiden winners – had been Measure Of My Dreams (now starring for Willie Mullins) and Throthethatch who has joined Lucinda Russell and “probably needs good ground” to be seen at his best after disappointing in an Ayr heavy-ground bumper on his only start to date. These two investments have returned a tasty profit and that will no doubt be augmented by the proceeds from
Fact Of The Matter
who is also likely to sell at Brightwells next month. When I met him earlier, Spain explained that they were very tempted to run in a bumper rather than going the pointing route and that he gives the feel of a genuine track performer with plenty of speed.
This maiden, prior to 2012, was nothing to write home about but Ted Walsh’s prolific winner Foxrock (beaten favourite in this year’s Cheltenham four-miler) and the ill-fated bumper winner Uppertown Cave from last season– trained by Donald McCain – have given the race a better recent complexion.
There is one concern that attaches to this horse and that is his sire Brian Boru. A Coolmore luminary at one time he was recently demoted to stud duties in Wales and although the sire managed the feat of siring the first three home in this bumper Brian Boru has been a disappointment at stud and that will probably depress
FOTM’s
potential value. For a stallion that would have covered literally hundreds of mares from his time in Coolmore’s Grange Stud it does seem remarkable that he has only sired three previous 4yo maiden point winners prior to
Fact Of The Matter
. Only two of these are worthy of comment: On Your Eoin was subsequently bought by Gigginstown for £55,000 and has yet to win for Noel Meade whereas Billy Twyford joined Nicky Henderson for £30,000 and following a bumper win joined Lawney Hill where he has won three handicap hurdles.
Fact Of The Matter
is unlikely to set the sales ring alight next month but if their respective connections are correct both
Jack Steel
and
Fact Of The Matter
should be winning under Rules before long.
5yo maiden Loughrea
This maiden has produced three top-drawer winners (from 5 contests) in just the last four seasons headed by Cheltenham winner Brindisi Breeze so it’s right up there for potential-Just A Par (P Nicholls) and Master Of The Game (N Henderson) also deserve the utmost respect. However, I just don’t like the profile of this year’s winner
Teds Island
(very cheap foal) who took four runs to get his head in front and his handler, John Martin Walsh, has not tended to produce anything of note over a number of years.
Horses To Follow:
Need To Know
Tiger Sam
Gingili
Fact Of The Matter
Black Jack Roverhi nenni,
Last weekend seemed to be a very busy one and produced a large number of track prospects including Shantou Village. It also included a very rare 4yo winner of a winners’ event, a 5yo maiden who had been running well in bumpers, a Brian Boru winner for one of my favourite small licenced trainers (who has usually been very profitable to follow under rules), another 5yo winner for one of the greatest names in the sport and the first autumn 4yo winning mare who has a very nice pedigree not to mention a beano of a weekend for the family taking the business by storm: the Doyles, so no shortage of stuff to write about!
Week ending 19 October 2014: Action from Lougbrickland, Co. Down
This meeting seems to have suffered intermittently from adverse weather conditions in the past and since 2008 (7 years) there have only been two previous renewals of this autumn fixture with blank years from 2011-2013 entirely.
4yo maiden:
When last run in 2010 this race produced the three-time Philip Hobbs’ winner Ballytober who was purchased by Diana Whateley for £85,000 and is still going strong. The only other winner, Mention Me (from 2009), was a sound investment for handler Ashleigh Murphy but her £50,000 seller had many health issues for his subsequent trainer Clive Bennett and only made one track appearance in 2012. On this flimsy evidence alone one could ordinarily expect this year’s winner
Lovely Job
– trained successfully by Wexford handler Donnchadh Doyle – to fetch decent money and move to the UK in November following the Brightwells sale but subject to my reservations outlined below.
The purist (read, old fogey) may tell you that point-to-points have lost some of their amateur charm and lustre in recent times and have been substantially transformed into commercial ventures for selling on four- and five-year-old maidens and, in all honesty, there is a substantial ring of truth to this. Donnchadh Doyle would be a prime examplar of the old fogey’s assertion in that from 15 winners he trained last season 8 were 4yo’s and he also had a single 5yo success albeit with a “failed” 4yo i.e. took six attempts before he managed to win and become modestly sale-able. Doyle’s best-sellers last year were Aqua Dude who has joined Evan Williams (€150,000 sale), Pylonthepressure – now with Willie Mullins – and Classic Place a very impressive maiden winner who has a new home but hasn’t appeared under a new training name as yet. Doyle is only training pointers since 2011 and a very successful commercial venture he is now running. Lucinda Russell and Donald McCain are also buyers of his stock and Island Heights and Uppertown Cave have already scored under rules for both in 2014.
Lovely Job
received a rating of 87 for this performance – the average rating dished out to 4yo’s this season so far is 87.5 – and he seemed to travel nicely before taking up the running going to the last fence from whence there is a nice downhill run home. He will almost certainly be offered for sale at Brightwells in November although his pedigree will not be jumping off the page. He is only the second winner the dam has produced from at least 10 foals so
Lovely Job
is just a half-brother to a Beneficial mare who landed a very modest 2m2f handicap hurdle at Downpatrick in 2007. There will also be serious questions asked about his sire as he is the first winner for the rookie stallion Touch Of Land (first crop from the Co. Kilkenny Knockhouse Stud’s stallion are now 5yo’s) and he has not been setting the world alight with his early runners albeit it is early days yet. It will be very interesting to see if he changes hand, how much he will make and who will take a chance on the relatively weak page. Such are the variables in this wonderful game.
5yo maiden:
Robin Des Champs is well-known as a sire of very decent jumpers and, since coming to prominence in the British Isles a number of years ago, his best performers have been virtually monopolised by Willie Mullins with Sir Des Champs, Quevega, Vatour, Sous Les Cieux and Un Atout being among the best known. Robin Des Champs was purchased from France in 2009 and now stands on Rathbarry’s national hunt roster at Glenview Stud. Unhappily, he is a stallion now synonymous with sub-fertility and if you are sending your mare to produce a potential future champion then it’s 3/1 the field with only a reported 25% success rate in the breeding shed.
Ian Ferguson paid €32,000 to Rathbarry in 2012 to acquire then then 3yo son of Robin Des Champs,
Kerisper
, on behalf of Wilson Dennison who is synonymous with point-to-pointing in the North of Ireland and has been a tremendous supporter for many years and many of the point maidens in the “six counties” are sponsored by his motor business. His main trainer for a number of years has been Colin McKeever and the partnership regularly churns out young maiden winners that are virtually all sold on immediately. In reviewing the duo’s successes over the past four years it is notable that Willie Mullins (possibly via the Harold Kirk Northern Ireland connestion) has been a strong supporter with Balnaslow, Briar Hill and Unic De Bersy all being very decent track performers. In more recent times Nigel Twiston-Davies privately acquired both Blaklion (four from four) and Brownville so if the Dennison winners end up in good billets following a maiden win it should be very strongly noted. The winners have not tended to be highly rated when collecting their maidens (median mark is 86-87) but they do progress in general. The highest ever winner was from last season and he is Horsehill – a winner at Loughanmore last April and rated 90 – who has now joined Oliver Sherwood at a cost of £45,000 for whom he has yet to race.
Kerisper
won this maiden impressively (Derek O’Connor was complimentary about him in his Racing post column) and has been given a rating of 89, the highest so far this season for a winning 5yo. He seems to possess a nice pedigree as the French-bred’s dam was a winner over 2m2f who in turn is a full-sister to a winner and is out of a winner!
The last time this maiden was run it was divided in 2010 and produced two very modestly-rated winners in Traffic Chaos (a maiden hurdle winner for Charlie Mann who cost him just £6,000) and Venetia Williams’ Rocky Bender who wasn’t seen for two years and has been placed six times in handicaps after his injury-delayed setbacks.
My guess is that
Kerisper
will be joining a strong stable following the Cheltenham sale in three weeks’ time and will continue the good recent record of the Dennison/McKeever nursery.
Horses To Follow:
Lovely Job
Kerisper
Week ending 26 October 2014:
Loughanmore, Co. Antrim.
4yo maiden:
Shantou Village – g by Shantou (Denis Murphy)
Denis Murphy is no slouch at winning maidens and has done well for a few clients who buy to sell and Maria Byrne, Pat Coffey and
Shantou Village’s
owner, Thomas O’Sullivan, have all done well at the sales with previous 4yo maiden winners from this quarter.
How much would you give for
Shantou Village
at Brightwells in two weeks’ time based on the partnership’s three previous 4yo winning maidens? Grey Monk (by Alderbrook) fetched an eye-watering €210,000 and was a major disappointment for Potts/de Bromhead, The Grey Taylor (Royal Anthem) has yet to win after four starts since he cost P J Martin and Steve Gollings £110,000 and Gee Hi (Milan) who fetched £80,000 has won a bumper and maiden hurdle for Charlie Egerton in what looks a truncated 4-race career. Note: As I type I see that Gollings’ horse, The Grey Taylor, whom he describes as a “monster” and “can be dangerous” has just won a Wetherbys novices’ hurdle to improve the immediate record.
The sire Shantou, whose most promising representative is currently Willie Mullins’ Briar Hill (bought, incidentally, by Mullins for £100,000 for Graham Wylie after winning his maiden at Necarne in 2012), certainly gives
Shantou Village
a chance to progress and his damline, although predominantly flat-bred, features In The Forge who scored in a bumper and two 2m hurdles for Mick Halford and is a half-brother to Shantou Village’s dam. He obviously had some quality as a 3yo as he was a €27,000 purchase at the 2013 Goffs Land Rover sale. He was one of five stores bought by O’Sullivan on the day.
He scored here quite impressively from horses with what looked like good recent form, including a previous nominee
Ballykan
-probably a shade disappointing in third- and received a rating of 90 for his troubles, the highest of any 4yo maiden so far this season. Generally speaking, the winner of this maiden is worth following under Rules and only Balnahinch (from 2008) has failed to score and his career was cut short after finishing second twice in just four starts for Henrietta Knight. Horses like Mr Moonshine (dual Grand National runner), Balnaslow (W Mullins), Champagne West (P Hobbs) and Definitly Red (S Gollings) have all been prolific track winners and recent previous winners of this maiden. He looks one to take serious note of and I would rate his sire over the likes of previous graduates by Alderbrook and Royal Anthem who were responsible for previous winners from these same (Murphy)quarters.
5yo maiden:
Some of the best fun to be had following pointers is when they are retained in a relatively small stable in the obvious belief that the handler believes he can get them to score when the time is right. Jimmy Lambe did this to marvellous effect with a previous winning 5yo maiden (from 2011) named Shanroe Society at Thurles in January 2013 and it was a victory well worth waiting for as he seemed to do a wonderful job on the handicapping front – the horse was a decent winning punt at 9/2. Interestingly, 19 runs later, Shanroe Society has yet to win another race.
This is by way of introduction to Lambe’s winner of this maiden named
Shanroe Santos
owned by the same connections as the afore-mentioned gelding, sharing the same sire in Definite Article, both purchased at public auction and both been given introductory runs under rules before going pointing.
Shanroe Santos
, purchased as a 3yo in 2012 for €15,000 had been running reasonably well in four recent bumper outings (fourth at Roscommon last May on his latest outing) and it shouldn’t have come as any surprise that he was capable of winning a maiden here. He was given a decent rating of 92. I’ll be a little disappointed if he is now sold but based on past history he will now be well educated over timber and I fancy having a little investment on him in three-four months time "when the time is right”. Jimmy Lambe is no wool-gatherer although I have just seen that his post-race comment indicated the horse may in fact be sales bound.
Winner of One:
It has been seven years since a 4yo scored in “winners” company against his elders and of the three horses to do that in 2007 two were of no account. The only maiden winner of note to take that route was John Nallen’s Minella For Food and that project didn’t really work out because the horse picked up an injury (after finishing a promising second in a Thurles hurdle) and was off the track for almost two years thereafter.
Mr Mountain
(by Mountain High and trained by Donnchadh Doyle) managed to do that here and one anticipates it was a performance of some quality for which he received a rating of 92-the same rating awarded to 5yo Shanroe Santos – and a pretty decent rating for a 4yo.
Mr Mountain
had managed to win one of the very last 4yo maidens run last season at Kinsale in early June (one bank holiday weekend in Ireland I would highly recommend!)and was promptly despatched to a special section of the Tattersalls Derby Sale where he was led out unsold at £75,000 much to the chagrin of connections no doubt. I expect there would be a view abroad that late-season 4yo’s winners are not worth that sort of money so the Doyles were forced into last Saturday’s rearguard action and one can imagine that they will now expect him to fetch £75,000 or more at Brightwells this time round. He only cost them two-and-a-half-grand as a 3yo so it looks good business now. His Oscar dam was pretty slow but her full-brother and two half-brothers won six races between them and they tended to run well on their early racecourse appearances. His sire, Mountain High, has just 5yo’s on the ground and early signs are promising that this Coolmore rookie will make the grade as a decent jumps stallion. Doyle and his owners were obviously very determined to get a pre-sale “result” taking this adventurous winners route with
Mr Mountain
so it will be one of the more fascinating results at the Brightwells Sale scheduled for Friday evening, 14 November. Doyle was quoted as saying that the horse will be better over shorter trips than the three miles negotiated here.
Tattersalls Farm
4yo mares maiden
Washington Lady – m by Beneficial (Donnchadh Doyle)
In the first race of its type this autumn this was yet another winner this season for Doyle (he already has five individual scorers) and I am quite fascinated by how young mares progress if and when they ever get to the track. As I have mentioned in an earlier thread, the unforgiving jumps game is not suitable for most mares and you get a very large number of “unraced” mares that go straight to the breeding shed. That they generally command little interest and, consequently, cash, at the sales as racing prospects means that a jumping mare producing lots of filly foals for a breeder will not be very profitable and can be the bane of a farmer’s life. This winner, for example, made just €1,200 as a 2yo jumping prospect whereas her year older full-brother earned €9,000 as a yearling.
Washington Lady
is by a “proper”, albeit dead, sire and her unraced dam (who’d of guessed?) was a half-sister to three winners – all by Beneficial incidentally – the best of whom was Pat Fahy’s five-time winner Washington Lad considered good enough to contest the 2005 3m novice hurdle event at Cheltenham. Washington Lady was given a rating of 80 (mares will generally be 8-10lbs behind their male counterparts) and based on past evidence this will not make her a standout rules prospect where, in my experience, you need a rating approaching the mid-80’s to be ranked a future star. Occasionally a mare will run well and on very, very, isolated occasions manage to beat her male counterparts when they are pitted against the geldings and that’s when it can get very interesting. These are my five-star horses, not Cheltenham prospects or sale-toppers but rather something to go to war with against the bookmakers.
I have lots of data on how maiden-winning 4yo mares perform subsequently and I may get a chance to post on this topic over the course of this blog.
4yo Winner Of One:
What made
Mr Mountain’s
performance at Loughanmore even more noteworthy was the fact that connections decided to take on older winners even though they had a rare enough opportunity this very weekend to race only against other winning 4yo’s. In the event this event attracted maidens only and it was won yet again by a Donnchadh Doyle trained performer in
Crosshue Boy
(by Brian Boru).
I wrote in week two about Brian Boru and his relatively disappointing time as a Coolmore jumps stallion and here we have another maiden winner that must be thrilling his new owners at Dunraven Stud in South Wales although they’re not very sharp on updating their stallion’s successes on line.
Crosshue Boy
looks cheaply-bought for just €8,200 at Goffs last February but, in fairness, the mare had looked dog-meat material before producing this winner as her previous ten foals were useless and the mare herself was as slow as a week. The only saving grace on Crosshue Boy’s recent history was the dam’s half-brother Yellow Spring who won 9 times for D M Grissell in the early nineties. Someone in Camp Doyle has a serious eye for a horse and they are making plenty of money turning geese into swans.
Crosshue Boy
is now rated 88 as a winner of a five-runner “maiden” and with all newcomers taking part it’s difficult to get a handle on his ability. Hopefully by the time he gets to the track we will have picked up a few more clues.
5yo maiden:
Believe it or not, more joy for Bridgend and Dunraven Stud as Brian Boru keeps up his current purple patch.
Big Jack Behan
scores for Sean Gallagher but it looks a very modest contest and it’s the trainer’s first winner in three years so at least he probably got drunk later that evening even if he didn’t produce the Gold Cup winner here.
Rathcannon
4yo maiden:
I took a very keen interest in this race in 2010 because it featured a Michael Hourigan-trained winner who had been educated at David Wachman’s Longfield Academy. Suffice to say I had a Listowel beano some months later when this horse bolted in at 33/1. Happy days!! Run With The Wind was the horse and it’s possibly a coincidence that he ran into fourth today (Nov 1) at Down Royal in a handicap hurdle at precisely those same odds.
This maiden is generally a decent contest and it’s coincidental that best recent winners have hailed from yards more associated with racing inside the rails (Michael Hourigan and Willie McCreery). It’s also a meeting that usually kick-starts the season but this fixture was postponed for a month on account of firm ground. The winner,
Battle Of Clontarf
, is named after a famous skirmish in Dublin exactly one thousand years ago and it featured Ireland V Denmark and just guess who captained Denmark??? Brian Boru! (who was enjoying his fourth pointing winner in October and leads the field in the sire standings). It really seems to be uncanny that the stallion is excelling on such an auspicious anniversary.
The UK justifiably makes much of the involvement of Mick Channon and Michael Owen in the racing game and here in Ireland we have our own version of former sports stars involved in Gaelic Games who are now featuring as successful trainers. The afore-mentioned Willie McCreery (who enjoyed Group One success this season with Fiesolana and was a gaelic footballer of some note) and
Battle Of Clontarf’s
trainer, Kieran Purcell, a former stalwart of a famous Kilkenny hurling team, are two that come immediately to mind. I have kept a keen eye on Purcell’s runners over the years and winning pointers like Paddy Pub and Smokey Joe Joe have performed exceptionally well when Purcell has targeted them at contests under Rules.
Battle Of Clontarf
(rated 88) had been a decent second to the Spain/Doyle winner
Fact Of The Matter
two weeks earlier at Loughrea and was a lucky winner here as he looked destined to be at best second before a few tales of woe handed him the advantage. He hasn’t got the greatest pedigree – in truth, it’s very poor and he changed hands last year for just €2,400 – and I would have more confidence in the trainer than the page at this stage. I will probably only stick with
Battle Of Clontarf
if he remains with Purcell but signs are that he may be sold. Incidentally, the trainer was very bullish about his horses after this race and they may be worthy of close inspection over the coming weeks. They were under a cloud earlier in the year and may be attractively-priced as a result. Point-to-point trainer-form often transfers to the track and the victory of Colin Bowe’s Little King Robin in a Grade Two hurdle at Down Royal recently is a case in point-he lies second in the handlers’ list with three winners. Update: I attended a point-to-point yesterday (Sunday 2-Nov) and Kieran Purcell had a double on the card so keep an eye out for his track performers over the coming weeks.
5yo maiden:
The Chuckmeister – g by Germany (John Berry)
The final offering from this busy weekend is trained by one of the most famous names from the point-to-point scene in Ireland. John Berry’s uncle, Padge, was the training king-pin of the game a few decades ago and John himself was three-time winner of the leading rider award over twenty years ago and has been training pointers and racehorses for twenty five years. His greatest success under Rules came with a former pointer, Cootamundra, in 2013 when he scored in the famous Troytown Handicap Chase.
Of the five previous winners I tracked from this maiden since 2010 it is notable that only two crossed the Irish Sea to join Evan Williams (De Faoithes Dream) and Donald McCain (Abbey Storm) and both were winners with the remaining three failing to progress so the hint should be taken if he is sold to take the boat in a few weeks’ time. I wouldn’t give up on him if Berry retains him to train himself and he would be a longer term project when handicapped based on past experiences.
The Chuckmeister
(RPR 87) has a half-brother who won points in the UK and his mother is related to two winners (middle-distance scorers) out of a half-sister to the Scottish National winner Moorcroft Boy.
I am pretty familiar with
The Chuckmeister’s
sire Germany – already responsible for Captain Cee Bee and Faugheen – in that a friend of mine decided to sell a 3yo gelded son of his (the first foal of a mare that won for me on the track) rather than race the progeny and this horse subsequently sold to Willie Mullins for £100,000 after finishing second on its sole pointing start at four. My friend still feels the pain!
Horses To Follow:
Shantou Village
Shanroe Santos
Mr Mountain
Crosshue Boy
Battle Of Clontarf
The Chuckmeister
2 November 2014 – Grennan, Co. Kilkenny
Generally, a low-key weekend on the pointing front………….
I attended this fixture held in a natural amphitheatre by the banks of the river Nore with the ruins of Grennan Castle looking on forlornly. I always like to walk the track at any meeting I attend and this track has fairly sharp bends on its one-mile circuit and there can be a lot of trouble on the last bend before facing the final two fences.
It was the only points fixture held last weekend with a modest crowd in attendance. The action happens very fast and if you prefer to watch the racing in the outfield you need to be wearing your sprinting shoes to get to see the winner being led in. In general, organisers missed a few tricks here and the paying public didn’t feel like they were particularly loved with one gentleman in particular deciding that a loud shouting voice was the best way to deal with recalcitrant youngsters straying unwittingly in front of a few horses being led up. The huntin’ brigade, don’t ya just love ‘em!
4yo maiden:
This was won by Sean (brother of Donnchadh) Doyle’s
Black Sam The Man
and he possessed very average form going into the race in what was the first 4yo maiden hosted by the Kilkenny Foxhounds since they first inaugurated their autumn fixture in 2007. The race proved an embarrassment for the course commentator as he got the winner mixed up with Donnchadh Doyle’s favourite, Native Gamut (carrying the same silks), and only realised his error on the finishing line. Oops!
Connections claimed that a first-time hood transformed
Black Sam The Man
after three previous mediocre runs but I am not tempted to include him in my future watch-list based on a race that boasted very little decent form beforehand and all the runners had looked quite exposed and of little account.
5yo maiden (two divides):
I am also dismissing the performance of Sean Doyle’s
Monbeg River
(helping him to celebrate his first ever points double) in division two on similar grounds to his 4yo winner as he looks very average on what we have seen of him to date and whereas it’s a contest that has thrown up the odd racecourse winner in the past neither this horse’s rating of 84 nor the race’s poor recent record is encouraging.
The winner of division one was won by Kieran Purcell’s
Bold Bachelor
and I have been mentioning Purcell’s good recent run in my latest notes. This horse also won a very modest contest but he is already handicapped under Rules following three runs in maiden hurdles in February and March earlier this year. He’s had one spin in a handicap when well beaten off a high-looking 110 at Wexford in April but following Purcell’s comments about his horses being under a cloud at the time
Bold Bachelor
can be expected to improve significantly from this run hopefully off a lower re-assessed mark. It is not at all unusual for handicappers to show their well-being in points before going on to immediate success on the track and Pat Downey’s winner Dream Crusher from last year’s autumn campaign immediately springs to mind.
Horse To Follow:
Bold Bachelor
Update: The only horse from my list to run under Rules to date was the (now) Donald McCain-trained
Gingili
who scored in a Musselburgh bumper on Friday afternoon at odds of 7/2 (he was available at better prices throughout the day). Apart from being a good start for my Christmas fund it has given a boost to much of the early 4yo form that will come under scrutiny at Brightwells next Friday evening after racing at Cheltenham. A delighted Martin Hassett called me following Friday’s race (his
Jack Steel
had comprehensively beaten
Gingili
in a maiden four weeks ago) and he will be hoping for a bumper payday following this timely boost.
P.S. Whereas the industry is strongly promoting Friday’s post racing Brightwells Sale in a pretty significant way one regular on the sales circuit (handler and agent) expressed the view to me that this sale might suffer on account of the unusually good ground that the winning graduates have been racing on in recent weeks and trainers may be reluctant to take a punt on horses who may have developed “legs” on this unsuitable ground. He also opined that he thinks the sale is chock-full of end of year "yellow-pack" four- and five-year-olds and that any decent horse that has appeared has already been sold privately (he may have a point as there have been some notable private sales, some even from last weekend). However, as this man is usually a seller here and has no representative this time round I am reserving my own judgement for now.
Week 6
Maralin, Co. Down
4yo maiden:
Our old friends in Dunraven Stud (home of Brian Boru) are also standing another Coolmore National Hunt cast-off stallion in Bach here since 2011 and he sired the winner of this maiden in
Baby Bach
trained by Stuart Crawford. It’s hard to know what to make of the race as
Baby Bach
seemed to contest the race on the back of very modest form in three previous runs although in beating an unraced son of Beneficial (cost a very modest €4,500 as a yearling) one is left guessing as to the exact value of the performance. With doubts about the sire – he never really produced much from serving probably in excess of one thousand mares in his Coolmore days – I am disinclined to get excited about this fellow’s future prospects. A rating of 88 seems generous to me.
Bach has only sired the winner of six previous 4yo maidens and David Pipe subsequently bought and trained the best two of them – Shaking Hands and Shoegazer won 13 races between them – and only in the event that this horse turns up in Nicholashayne would I reverse my opinion of him.
5yo maiden:
One of my absolute bug-bears in racing is the number of times connections misspell horses’ names and I‘m afraid Irish national hunt owners are particularly guilty of this crime. I will keep my beady eye on such matters and woe betide the offenders!
Stilletto
(!), a son of Westerner, nonetheless was a previously unraced impressive winner here (RPR 89) for yet another trainer from County Wexford, Andrew Latta, who was helping his grandfather (William Powell-Harris) celebrate a home-bred winner from a dam line that extends back some time for his owner. It’s a pedigree that doesn’t really catch the eye depending on a very good chaser in the eighties, Proud Bishop, who was a full-brother to Stilletto’s grandam albeit she won a point and was placed in three bumpers for Powell-Harris and the dam also won a point. The dam’s best previous foal, Eastern Witness, won a point maiden in 2013 for the exact same connections and this horse was subsequently bought by Venetia Williams for £15,000 but looks like he needs to improve (after 5 starts) to win. I expect that the sire Westerner will ensure plenty of interest in this horse if and when he is sold.
When following this horse, who seemed to impress all the right judges, bear in mind that he won on very testing ground that only saw four of fourteen starters complete. This race was previously won by Shanroe Society – a horse I mentioned in connection with a recent Jimmy Lambe winner recently – in 2011 but the best recent graduate was Henry de Bromhead’s five-time winner, Buckers Bridge, considered good enough to contest this year’s Aintree Grand National.
Postscript: Roger Brookhouse is obviously not one for horse’s names with perfectly spelling and he forked out £130,000 for
Stilletto
at Brightwells last Friday. No trainer has yet been chosen and the horse is been given a short break before commencing his track career.
Ballinaboola, Co. Wexford
4yo maiden:
William Codd bought
For Instance
(by Milan) privately at the Brightwells Sale last April (officially “not sold” at £25,000) following a third placing in a Carlisle bumper earlier that month when trained by Tony Coyle and he looks like he will get a quick return on his investment. He was a nice winner here beating a fancied newcomer from Donnchadh Doyle’s yard and is almost certainly sales bound.
Codd won this race in 2009 with Mike Towey (won two for Peter Bowen) and in 2010 with Lowparklad but this horse didn’t race again for 27 months and obviously had his problems after making £62,000 at a subsequent sale-the joys of the jumping game! I got positively delirious about
Need To Talk’s
victory in 2012 as it was a pedigree I know and love but although he fetched £230,000 subsequently he’s only had the one poor run since for Paul Nolan to whom JP McManus sent his new acquisition. Alas, it looks as if he has some serious problems and time is catching up quickly. (I generally have my own private ranking of winners based on a number of my own personal preferences and this horse would have been one of my all-time top ten selections).
Given the deluges hitting Ireland at present and now that these horses are racing on what we would recognise as genuine winter, jumping ground I expect the level of ability and subsequent sales interest to increase.
For Instance’s
pedigree suggests that winning a bumper would not be a high priority as all the best family performers excelled over staying distances and I suspect that will be the case here.
Postscript: £85,000 was the reward for Codd at Brightwells recently and
For Instance
is now with Jojo O’Neill having been knocked down to agent Ross Doyle.
Finally, I was very pleased to note from a recent publication that Paul Nolan has far from given up on
Need To Talk
(“a good horse with a real good engine”) and he was given time off after losing his action on his only start. The pedigree I am so keen on had a particular penchant for winning at Christmas time and it wont surprise me in the least if lightning can strike again.
5yo maiden:
“Doing what it says on the tin” is a favourite quote of mine from a winning handler when his son of Kayf Tara had scored in a 5yo maiden on testing ground some years ago. The contents of same tin can still be relied upon and Enda Bolger, trainer par excellence of big and sturdy banks and cross-country staying performers, introduced a Kayf Tara newcomer here (
Rosstemple
) who won although perhaps not quite in the manner expected of an odds-on favourite. The immediate reaction is that he didn’t beat a whole lot and it will be interesting to see where he goes next.
This is not the customary owner/handler looking for a sales result – his owner, John Power, dispenses gems of legal wisdom to the “powers”-that-be in Coolmore – and it would be safe to assume that if this horse is of much account he will run, in time, in the green-and-gold of one Mr McManus, a sometime neighbour (tax rules permitting!) of the winning owner. Another alternative is that
Rosstemple
will remain as a pointer/hunter chaser and provide a conveyance of some class to the very useful amateur Kevin Power, son of same legal-eagle. To strangle another quotation to death “the proof of this particular pudding will be in the eating!” It has to be said that Enda Bolger spoke in fairly glowing terms about the horse following this victory so far be it for me to question his belief (“the dream is alive and the future bright”) in this horse.
In a similar vein to today’s 4yo maiden winner this horse hardly strikes me as a bumper type and I often can’t see the point in running many of these winners in bumpers where they race usually for less than one mile after an inevitable early crawl.
Update: My faith in
Need To Know
continues unabated following another victory here in the Open at what I considered generous odds of 3/1 thanks to the presence of “talking horse” Mossey Joe. Connections now seem to think they have a genuinely valuable and saleable commodity so future moves will be followed with interest and he holds an entry for Brightwells.
Update:
Need To Know
was a letdown for connections at Brightwells (one of a few on the night) and having bid him to £75,000 they were forced to take him home again. Time will tell if their reserve was just too high or if someone missed a future Cheltenham winner.
Kilworth, Co. Cork
Jonjo Bright and J T McNamara have been high profile jockey casualties in recent years and this meet was run as a fundraiser for the Injured Jockeys’ Fund and, as such, there is no past autumn history to rely on. Kilworth’s main meeting is held in March every year. This venue in County Cork was the first meeting of the year in what is referred to as the “southern circuit” and traditionally it is home to some of the strongest stables involved in the game. The biggest names from this region would be Robert Tyner (who tragically lost his son Jack in a fall on 1st February 2011 at a point-to-point fixture in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford), Jimmy Mangan (Grand National winning trainer), Liam Burke, Michael Winters and Paul Cashman. One can expect this meeting to produce some explosive sales results over the coming weeks and, more likely than not, the principal results will contain decent future track performers.
4yo geldings maiden:
Amber Gambler (by Doyen) trained by Pat Doyle
It was Co. Tipperary-based Pat Doyle, who scored with a sales-bound 4yo son of Brian Boru,
Fact Of The Matter
, a few weeks back, that produced an impressive winner here in Amber Gambler albeit there were a couple of hard luck stories in evidence in the race also. He is a German-bred son of Doyen (standing in Germany a few years back) who is now standing at Sunnyhill Stud in County Kildare and he was specifically placed there by Darley to replace the great Old Vic who died in 2011. Doyen’s first crop are still just seven-year-olds and he is promising to deliver top quality national hunt racehorses. Alan King has handled Doyen’s best two representatives to date in Kumbeshwar and Valdez.
The owner of
Amber Gambler
, vet Walter Connors, bought a number of horses in Germany a number of years ago and this win was the third horse to win for him from three purchases. Given the popularity (and cost) of French-breds at present this might well signal a change in tactics for some who may perceive better value in Germany.
Amber Gambler
has a predominantly flat pedigree but with his sire being a son of Sadler’s Wells it will be no surprise if he has very decent ability under jumps rules. Doyle was of the opinion that his horse was a very good jumper who would have plenty of improvement to come.
Update:
Amber Gambler’s
win on winter ground was timely and propitious coming as close as it did to Brightwells. Gearoid Costello (partner of Rebecca Curtis) was impressed enough to give £125,000 for him and it was a sweet result for the vendor.
5yo maiden:
Vinalhaven (by Lavirco) trained by Pat Doyle
The very same owner/handler connection scored with another German-bred in this maiden and according to his handler “he could be very good”. His sire is responsible for twelve-time winner Mikael D’Haguenet among others so he is bound to be popular if sent to the sales ring.
Vinalhaven’s
pedigree is a little difficult to decipher but four siblings have won over jumps in France which is very encouraging. A rating of 93 is the highest so far this season for a 5yo maiden winner. (
Shantou Village
, on 90, remains the top 4yo maiden.)
Horses to Follow:
Stilletto
For Instance
Rosstemple
Amber Gambler
Vinalhaven
Need To Talk
Week 7: Affane and Corbeagh House
Corbeagh House, Co. Longford
The Hunt responsible for this fixture has been plagued with bad weather in recent years with only one previous autumn meet to their credit in 2010. Corbeagh House represents a new venue and a very poor entry of just 34 participants points to potential shortages in runners as a result of the major cull in broodmare numbers in Ireland in 2009/10 brought on by the recession that ravaged the country back then. 2010 did see both a four- and five-year-old maiden on the card won by lowly-rated horses that both went on to modest handicap success under rules and, coincidentally, local trainer Gordon Elliott was responsible for the 4yo winner.
4yo maiden:
What is one of the ultimate in self-indulgences in racing? Spending $13.1m on a yearling? Buying a foal at any cost to deny a competitor? Retaining a jockey based on loyalty rather than ability? Obviously there is no precise answer in this sport-of-kings but for me it could be the sheer luxury of covering a national hunt mare with a top-class, nay world-class, flat stallion. However, one word of caution is that you probably need to be on first name drinking terms with one John Magnier if Sadler’s Wells was your chosen poison or, indeed, Galileo today…..and, yes, it most definitely happens.
We know that Sadler’s Wells is the progenitor of world class flat stallions (Galileo, Montjeu, High Chaparal etc) and this sire-of-sires is also responsible for many of the leading jumps stallions of today in Old Vic (r.i.p.), Milan, Kayf Tara etc so it was probably inevitable that at some stage he would be sent a national hunt mare or two to see if he could produce a champion hurdler or Gold Cup winner from a “genuine” jumping pedigree. He has obviously produced many jumping stars (none better than Istabraq) but what intrigues me is the record of the few mares that were not visiting him to produce flat winners but the specific ambition was a jumping star. Not many breeders got this opportunity and it seems to have been restricted almost entirely to the occasional mare owned either by Magnier, J P McManus and the occasional wealthy “outsider”. The results were as expected and J P produced a Gold Cup winner in Synchronised while Magnier bred an Irish Grand National in Cane Brake from a relatively small sample size.
There is also an element of this indulgence involved today with Galileo and David Johnson sent his multiple-winning jumps mare Lady Cricket in 2006 and it produced Swing Bowler who won his first five races for Johnson and David Pipe including a lowly Wincanton bumper on his debut in 2011-what a certainty that was! I imagine Johnson paid handsomely for this privilege whereas I wouldn’t be so sure about McManus in earlier times.
In a very roundabout way this brings me to the winner of this 4yo maiden which was
Cogryhill
(by Presenting) trained by Gordon Elliott.
Cogryhill
, out of a Shalford mare, is already a full-brother to two female bumper winners for Elliott and Nicky Henderson and a half-sister by Revoque has won for races for Fergal O’Brien. The second generation is eye-popping in that the dam is a half-sister to the McManus/Jonjo stalwarts Wichita Lineman (won twice at the Festival) and Rhinestone Cowboy (won everything bar Cheltenham success). This is an exceptional pedigree for the point-to-point scene and a further half-sister to
Cogryhill’s
dam is by Galileo (from a 2007 cover and which started my delve back into Sadler’s Wells pedigrees) but, unusually this gelding, named Wild West, could only manage four places from eleven starts for Jackdaws Castle connections so it doesn’t always work!
Cogryhill
was a €26,000 purchase by Wilson Dennison (more usually associated with Colin McKeever) and it will be a major surprise if this winner (given a promising rating of 90) isn’t already in a horsebox on his way to Jonjo’s.
5&6yo maiden:
Far more prosaic material in this race won by the 6yo
Court Frontier
(by Court Cave) and trained by a relatively unknown Alan Fleming who trained privately in the UK for a spell. He is owned by Barry Connell (of Our Conor fame) who is a bit of “a law unto himself” when it comes to spending his money on racehorses.
Court Frontier
is already handicapped over hurdles (103) (placed four times from 11 starts under Rules for Conor O’Dwyer) but I’d rather not see him so exposed to be of interest.
Affane, Co. Dungarvan
4yo maiden:
Jetstream Jack (by Beneficial) trained by Eoin Doyle (rated 91)
With a rating of 91, a sire of some substance in Beneficial, a race with a record of consistently throwing up horses of quality (Rule The World, Western Warhorse, Ballysteen, Lackamon and Benbane Head) this Eoin Doyle-trained winner simply has to be followed. Out of a winning dam (bumper and two hurdles) who is a half-sister to four other winners he cost a hefty €36,000 at last year’s Derby Sale. What’s not to like?
For the remaining unconvinced or unconverted Doyle has previously trained and sold point winners of the calibre of Champagne West and Village Vic-both high class scorers for Philip Hobbs-so when Doyle says “he could be as good as any I’ve sold” we probably should pay attention.
5yo maiden:
Heron Heights (by Heron Island) trained by Donal Hassett (rated 88)
It’s taken this horse five starts to win his maiden which is always a concern. A €12,000 3yo, on the plus side is his half-brother Witness In Court, a point winner who’s been a good servant to Donald McCain (3 wins from 2m-2m5f) and a horse who convinced me I had the game by the throat the day he won his maiden hurdle at Sedgefield in December 2012. The unraced Dr Massini dam is a half-sister to Make A Stand (also by Witness Box) who won no less than 16 races for Peter Bowen all over distances in excess of three miles. One can see why Witness In Court was by Witness Box but, ironically, it was only when he was dropped in trip that he seemed to shine. In my experience the “distance” predictability of jumpers is a far less certain outcome than a flat counterpart pedigree.
The sire does get bumper winners and the statistics on previous 5yo winning maidens are as follows: from 15 such winners 12 have run under rules with 9 winning. Just over half contested bumpers and Otago Trail (rated 90) and Bishops Road (rated 91) were the only two successful in this sphere. The point ratings of the two winners suggest that the horses had a touch of class between the flags and I venture that
Heron Heights
, on 88, would not be in this category. Heron Island’s track-winning 5yo maiden pointers tend to be a middle-of-the-road bunch on the track in general. Derek O’Connor seemed to suggest on Sunday that the horse appeared to have bumper ambitions (take with a pinch of salt?) but he has some serious stats to overcome to justify this remark.
Horses To Follow:
Cogryhill
Jetstream Jack
Update on other sales from Brightwells (previous nominations):
I think many of my predictions in terms of the recent Brightwells Sale were borne out and you needed a good recent performance on winter ground aided by a popular sire to hit paydirt.
Jack Steel
: sold reasonably well for £33,000 considering no-one wanted the sire. Handler convinced he has sold Lucinda Russell a good horse. Lucinda’s best ever point acquisition was Brindisi Breeze.
Need To Know
: Not sold at £75,000 and was probably on the boat home the following day. What does not sold mean specifically? A reserve too high? Greedy connections? An underbidder at £74,000 and he was sold privately in the bar afterwards? No interest in him at all and the bidding was entirely fictitious? Public auctions are notoriously unreliable and who on earth knows what transpires unless the horse changes hands? Why on earth would you bid for an auction lot not knowing beforehand when the horse will be on the market. (Easier ways to “win the watch” in my opinion).
Fact Of The Matter
: a win on good ground and a sire rejected by Grange Stud suggests getting £42,000 for this winner was, ultimately, a good result and a reasonable return on a €16,500 investment. The horse will join Jamie Snowden and in recent times he has bought three winning 4yo maidens and two, Lough Derg Way and Present View, have been quite successful for him.
Black Jack Rover
: this 88-rated son of Vinnie Roe was bought by Donald McCain for £40,000. McCain buys large numbers of pointers at public auction although there is a debate abroad at present that his horses are not running as well as they have in the past. Perhaps someone will have an opinion on this?
Lovely Job
: £30,000 (to Donald McCain) probably is a fair reflection of this fellow’s value given an unknown sire and a mid-October victory.
Kerisper
: strangely, this potential one-hundred-grander was withdrawn from the sale and may have been sold privately, was under the weather at the time or may turn up in one of the December sales. One thing’s for sure, he’s unlikely to race in Wilson Dennison’s colours again.
Shantou Village
: ticked a lot of boxes but perhaps a win on good ground kept the interest in check. Fetched £80,000 and this 90-rated winner will now be trained by Neil Mulholland who handled King Helissio (4yo autumn winner from 2012) in the past-won a maiden hurdle at 25/1 on his second start under rules.
Shanroe Santos
: The agent Tom Malone bid £50,000 for this fellow but I’m uncertain of his new home. Jimmy Lambe will not be plotting handicap coups with this winner and I thought £50,000 was a decent price in the circumstances.
Mr Mountain
: £60,000 to the final bid of Tom Malone who was busy on the night. No new home earmarked as yet.
Crosshue Boy
(by Brian Boru): Not sold at £48,000 and looks overvalued at this sort of price. I’ll be surprised if he hasn’t changed hands privately since for a more realistic offer.
Battle Of Clontarf
: another unsold Brian Boru gelding (at £22,000) and one can see that the market will reject certain sires after a period of time.
The Chuckmeister
(5yo by Germany): another Tom Malone purchase, this time for £43,000 and another “fair” return for connections.
Stilletto:
Roger Brookhouse is obviously not one for horse’s names with perfectly spelling and he forked out £130,000 for
Stilletto
last Friday week. No trainer has yet been chosen and the horse is being given a short break before commencing his track career.
For Instance:
£85,000 was the reward for Codd at Brightwells recently and
For Instance
is now with Jojo O’Neill having been knocked down to agent Ross Doyle.
Amber Gambler’s
win on winter ground was timely and propitious coming as close as it did to sale time. Gearoid Costello (partner of Rebecca Curtis) was impressed enough to give £125,000 for him and it was a sweet result for the vendor.
Excuse me for muscling in on this thread, but I note that a Bartlemy 4yo maiden from May 18th has yielded two winners under Rules from two runners in Potters Corner (Chepstow in September and the second there Rainy City has won since) and Im Too Generous (impressively at Musselburgh yesterday). Worth looking out for the Bartlemy winner
Kilcrea Vale
who I understand is now with Nicky Henderson.
Rob
Excuse me for muscling in on this thread, but I note that a Bartlemy 4yo maiden from May 18th has yielded two winners under Rules from two runners in Potters Corner (Chepstow in September and the second there Rainy City has won since) and Im Too Generous (impressively at Musselburgh yesterday). Worth looking out for the Bartlemy winner
Kilcrea Vale
who I understand is now with Nicky Henderson.
Rob
Hi rob, to be honest I’m very pleased to get some response as it feels like I’m talking to myself here most of the time!
What may generate more debate is following them as they run but I know I simply wont have the time to post updates here as the season progresses. So its every man or woman for himself!
I didn’t have the time last year to follow the pointing graduates as closely as I’d have liked so I don’t have the in-depth knowledge on the season as I’d like. That 4yo maiden has only had two renewals (first run in 2013) and, ordinarily, one would expect a late May maiden not to be too promising for the future but as this aspect of the pointing scene is so very competitive those provisos aren’t as strong as in the past. Nonetheless I would expect horses of the rated range 110-110 to come from them. Pat Doyle trained the winner and said he expected the horse to be much stronger for the run/win. Highflyer paid £100k for him and, as you say, he’s with NH. The downside to being in such a high-profile stable is the price will always be too short and contesting egg-and-spoon races will see him starting odds-on.
Week 9 – Week ending 23 November 2014 (four fixtures)
From the glens of Antrim to Tipperary’s Golden Vale.
Toomebridge (Co. Antrim)
4yo maiden
Naming a horse
Kilcullen Flem
(86) is enough to turn me off my early morning cornflakes reminding as it does about……….well, never mind! The Donnchadh Doyle-trained son of Flemensfirth was a very lucky winner here and came into this race on the back of modest form so I can’t have him on my mind at the moment. It hasn’t been a bad little contest over the years with four of its seven previous winners having scored under Rules with the best of the lot being last year’s 130-rated winner Katachenko, trained by Donald McCain. I will introduce you to the significant performer in this race at a later stage.
5yo maiden
Infrontofthejudge
(86) was scoring at his sixth attempt in maidens and he appeared to beat a fairly modest bunch of opponents and I cannot find a reason to recommend following his subsequent exploits given a very weak pedigree and a little-known sire in Clerkenwell.
Glenbane, Co. Tipperary
5&6yo maiden:
The recent history of this race has been unremarkable and it looks as if this year’s winner, the Ted Walsh-trained
Salsa Sensation
(85), does not have obvious claims to reverse this trend. It’s a race open to both five and six-year-olds and this fact alone suggests a lack of quality.
Salsa Sensation
is by Luso who at one stage threatened to be the “next big thing” but his expensive purchases have generally disappointed and the horse now stands at an obscure stallion farm in the UK.
4yo maiden:
At last something to note from last weekend and another maiden that produced one of my “top ten” horses to follow over the last seven years in the Pat Doyle-trained Famousandfearless. Unfortunately he took a while to learn the winning habit for his new trainer David Pipe having been bought privately by David Johnson and an acquaintance of mine banked a very healthy sterling cheque in the following weeks. This has been a race populated by some classy track performers over the years and includes such notables as Royal Reveille(Ted Walsh), Moonlight Drive (Sean Quinn) and Nicky Henderson’s River Maigue. In fact when this race was a three-way divide in 2012 that included Famousandfearless, David Pipe also bought Sail By The Sea for £85,000 at public auction and this lightly-raced, injury-prone sort has scored a very impressive novices hurdle victory on only his second (and latest start). The irony wasn’t lost on me!
This year’s winner,
Indy Five
(a son of Vertical Speed trained by Pat Doyle and rated 90), was a very unlucky last fence faller at Rathcannon in late October and he started at a remarkably generous 7/2 here as the market was all over an unraced son of Presenting also trained locally by Sam Curling. He won in “fine style” off a fast pace and cost his US-based owner Roger O’Byrne (brother of John who buys JP McManus’s stores and Demi who is a major cog in the Coolmore machine) a modest €10,000. His unraced dam is a half-sister to bumper/useful 2m1f-2m4f hurdle/chase winner Father Matt (trained by Noel Meade) out of half-sister to good hurdlers Carobee and Winter Squall. His sire Vertical Speed probably accounted for his low-ish purchase cost as he has been a modest jumps sire and transferred to a small stud in Ireland from France in 2006. None of his pointing winners (from just 7 winners) ever managed to win on the track and in fact the best two, Fight Away Boys (won on this weekend as a 5yo last season) and Moores Road, have shown signs of temperament issues. On the positive side he is capable of producing a decent winner in the shape of Philip Hobbs Horizontal Speed who numbered a bumper amongst five victories so far but the good horses are few and far between. It’s interesting to read all the rave reviews about
Indy Five’s
performance (“future bumper winner” etc.) without any reference to his sire and coming from these heavyweight quarters the sales result will be very interesting indeed.
Lingstown, Co. Wexford
5yo maiden:
Roadie Joe (g by Golan trained by Brian Jordan)
In 2012 Mac’s Return (91) won a division of this maiden and joined Paul Nicholls for £165,000-it’s been money badly spent. Similarly, Brian Jordan’s most high-profile point winner to date was the 2012 5yo maiden winner, Outlawed Tunes, who subsequently joined Noel Meade (for Michael O’Leary) at a cost of £140,000 and, that too, looks not to have been the wisest investment. Jordan’s horses have tended not to be up to performing on the track with distinction. These two tales of woe are enough to make me wary of
Roadie Joe
(a modest RPR of 86) and he’s likely to be sold now. Like most pointers that head for the sales, if he finds a new home in the UK he will probably be capable of success at a modest level but he’s not for me.
4yo maiden:
The afore-mentioned Brian Jordan won a division of this race with Ravastree in 2010 and he went on to achieve a single modest handicap chase win for Charlie Longsdon. I would say that, in general, it is a race worth paying some attention as it has seen the likes of Alfa Beat (won a Kerry National), Sea Of Thunder (rated 144) and Desertmore Stream (four-time winner for Gigginstown and controversial trainer Philip Fenton) on its roll of honour in recent years. Philip Fenton, who is about to start a two-year suspension shortly for steroid abuse, trained this year’s winner,
Highway Storm
(by Stowaway), and it looks like it was his last throw of the dice for some time. It seems to be his own horse so he may get a decent payday to help his finances now that he has been put out of business. Fenton explained that
Highway Storm
loved the soft ground and has a bright future. A rating of 90 gives him plenty of respect too. The dam side of the pedigree is very weak but the sire ticks all the right boxes for the sales agents. At least the trainer hasn’t lost his sense of humour as he remarked: “Great stuff! Now let’s get a photograph as it may be the last one for some time!”
Boulta, Co. Waterford
4yo maiden:
Dr Waluigi (g by Shirocco trained by Eoin Doyle)
Of the last eleven winners of this race only three have failed to score under Rules: two of these had injury problems and the third managed a good second in a Limerick maiden hurdle. A good race rather than a great race (as one of Ireland’s most popular soccer pundit is prone to say) but it has produced winners of the calibre of Ballyalton (five-time winner and second to Faugheen at this year’s Festival), Oscar Fortune (hat-trick winner for Jonjo) and Native Gallery (consistent four-time winner for Ben De Haan) so the winner has to be noted every year.
This year’s winner provides something of a puzzle as
Dr Waluigi
receives a rating of just 85 – the lowest rating for a 4yo this autumn season. This rating was based on what seemed a very average renewal (he had been a well-beaten 5th on his reappearance three weeks earlier following two poor bumper runs earlier in the year) but I can think of a few reasons why he might be seriously under-rated at this mark. Firstly, he has a fantastic pedigree being by Annie Power’s sire out of a 12f winning mare and from a very immediate Aga Khan family that is full of winners and whose stoutness ensure they are hardy recruits to jumping. Secondly, he beat an unraced Stowaway trained by one of the game’s shrewdest operators Thomond O’Mara and thirdly the third home, Robin Of Locksley, is trained by
Jack Steel’s
trainer, Martin Hassett and he thinks quite highly of his horse even if he left him a little disappointed here – he looked a winner turning in. Next, Eoin Doyle is in tremendous form and produced
Jetstream Jack
to win impressively a week previously and, finally,
Dr Waluigi
was strongly fancied for his first start in a Limerick bumper last March so had been showing all the right signs at home presumably. A horse I will be keeping a close eye on from now on and he’s likely to be selling at Brightwells in a fortnight’s time.
5yo maiden: :
This race hasn’t shone in recent times although I think it can produce one of the handicapping certainties of the season based on my researches of past seasons! As the Danny De Vito character famously says in “L.A. Confidential”:
Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush………….
This year’s winners were
Welcome Bach (g by Bach trained by Alan Tobin) and Mai Fitzs Jack (g by Acambaro trained by Mary Louise Hallahan).
The latter (rated 88) had been a nice second last season to Westend Star who joined Donald McCain for £125,000 who has yet to reappear so
Mai Fitzs Jack
had already given a clear indication of ability. He subsequently disappointed when sent off an odds-on favourite when falling at Bandon last March and this was his first run since then so the trainer has done a fine job getting him back to his best. Hallahan’s previous exploits in points don’t offer many clues about this fellow’s future prospects but my educated guess, based on her eight winners under Rules over the past five seasons is that this horse can potentially win a hurdle race or two for her. It’s clear from her previous victories that although her horses have mostly won handicap hurdles they are doing their best also in maiden hurdles and 25% of her wins have come in this category. My hope is that this horse will continue to campaign for Hallahan and this may even include an abortive attempt to sell him over the coming weeks.
Mai Fitzs Jack
would be my idea of a handicapping plot if I were in control.
I discussed the winning Bach 4yo
Baby Bach
a number of weeks ago and, unsurprisingly, he was let out unsold at Brightwells recently. He received an upbeat commentary from his trainer Stuart Crawford in a recent stable tour – going for a bumper and “jumps well” – but it’s probably significant he has failed to change hands post sale or privately in the interim. This winning 5yo gelded son of Bach,
Welcome Bach
, is an unknown quantity as he is trained by a very low-key handler in Alan Tobin and my guess would be that he may stay pointing in an effort to win a winners’ event. My research data tells me 5yo winners-of-one require a very specific increased rating before they are of interest on the track so I will not be following this horse in the foreseeable future. A delve into his pedigree doesn’t offer much encouragement to change my mind.
Horses To Follow:
Indy Five
Highway Storm
Dr Waluigi
Mai Fitzs Jack
Week ending 30 November 2014 (four fixtures)
Rockfield, Co. Roscommon
4yo maiden:
The noticeable trend from this particular race, albeit that there have been three abandonments since 2008, is the fact that almost all winners remained with their handlers and went on to score under Rules. The best of a motley bunch to appear on course was unquestionably Portrait King who won the 4m1f Eider Chase in 2012 for a division 4 trainer, Michael Phelan, and has unfortunately been very injury prone since.
Anyone reading my blog for clues for what is unstated should note that I have a stack building for last year’s winner whose time on the racecourse proper is fast approaching, a horse that cost a whopping €130,000 as a 3yo and has spent the first six months of his career running for peanuts in point-to-points but has made the progression from maiden winner to, symmetrically, a winners-of-one, -two and –three-a most unusual feat for a, now, five-year-old.
This year’s winner is a French-bred and the curiously-named “
American
” trained in County Cork by Robert Tyner. Hailing from this stable there is a reasonable chance that
American
(rated 87) will remain under the care of Tyner and continue the recent winners’ tradition of winning for him under Rules.
I have to say it was one of the strangest finishes I’ve seen in years as the jockey of the original first-past-the-post Always On The Run seemed to try to deliberately steer the promoted winner into “the middle of next week” and it seemed to me one of the most foolhardy manoeuvres I have ever witnessed in a horse race. If it happened at Punchestown or Plumpton it would be a Twitter thread running on full-tilt for days on end. The officiating stewards reversed the placings of the first two home and such decisions are a very rare occurrence in pointing races.
Although French-bred, the previously unraced
American
is by a German stallion, Malinas (by Lomitas by Niniski by Nijinsky to try to give the sire-line some context), who was second in the 2004 German Derby and currently has two top class runners representing him in Black Thunder (fell going well in this year’s RSA-trained by Paul Nicholls) and Medinas who recently won Newbury’s G2 Long Distance hurdle for Alan King. He cost a reasonable-looking €15,500 and the dam-side offers plenty of encouragement as
American
is a half-brother to many French middle-distance winning jumpers with plenty of black-type on the page.
American’s
owner, in the absence of an absent Tyner, who is enjoying a very good spell with his runners at present, was ebullient after the race and big things are clearly expected of this horse as “we think an awful lot of him and he has a big future”.
There is no 5yo maiden run on this card.
Kirkistown, Co. Down
4yo maiden:
Only four runners turned up for this event and it was won by
Minmore Lodge
– by Flemensfirth – trained by the Wexfordian Sean Doyle (responsible for an October 4yo winner
Black Sam The Man
who didn’t impress me and who subsequently changed hands for the £15,000 bid by his new trainer John “Shark” Hanlon – and they say shark by name, shark by nature!)
The small field makes deciphering the race a little more difficult unfortunately because the race history has a stellar cast. Every horse that won a division since 2008 and has competed under Rules has won under Rules including David Pipe’s 2014 Cheltenham scorer Ballynagour and Annacotty who collected the 3m Feltham Chase for Martin Keighley last Christmas. Incidentally, Keighley seems to manage to get his hands on a few very promising graduates each season.
On this record alone one has to include
Minmore Lodge
(rated 88) on any watch-list and, especially so, since he was a very good second behind a previous selection,
Cogryhill
, only two weeks earlier. Clues as to his exact ability are scarce with an “impressive” display yet he was “forced to work hard for victory” and, remarkably, in the absence of the winning trainer, the successful jockey said that “they think a lot of him”!
He looks very well bought once again for just €13,500 as his three full-brothers (a breeder with a share in Flemensfirth?) have all won on the track and are of some account. They tend to need middle-distances and upwards to win and haven’t had the speed to win bumpers. You can’t ask for much more close up on a jumping pedigree. Winning jockey “Bon” O’Neill was very complimentary about the performance and like all winners hailing from these quarters he will be offered for sale at public auction.
5yo maiden: “THUNDER AND LIGHTNING”
There are an interesting number of diverse angles to this winner.
General Principle g by Gold Well trained by Stuart Crawford
Crawford has now won three of the last four runnings of this race a fact I must confess I was unaware of prior to last Saturday because 5/1 looks a very generous S.P. to me. This previously unraced horse received a hat-load of plaudits from the on-course reviewing journalist and a nifty rating of 90 to accompany the luuuvvvvv! Crawford’s other two previous winners were Mill Bay (an unpromising rating of just 82 was borne out by five unsuccessful starts under Rules) and Call Box who collected a winners’ event one year later before graduating successfully to the track and immediately scoring in a beginners chase for Crawford.
Call Box had been handicapped over hurdles prior to his second pointing win (a rating of 100 was a very significant marker) and he subsequently scored three times in handicap hurdles from an initial winning mark of just 90 (and subsequently 111 & 118). Incidentally the chase win earned him an opening chasing mark of 122 from which he was unable to add to his steeplechasing tally. A half master-class in training! Incidentally, Crawford trained Ballynagour to win the 2010 4yo maiden here and, as you should know, this horse won this year’s Byrne Group Plate at the Festival.
Crawford bought
General Principle
for €20,000 as 3yo for former Antrim trainer Roy Wilson and he is a full-brother to Saints And Sinners, winner of 2 hurdles and a chase (2m1f-2m5f) for Mick Easterby, and the 2002 mare Bella Mana Mou who collected four wins (2.5m-3m) for Michael Cullen and it’s a good stout chasing pedigree. Gold Well is increasingly popular as a stallion – he’s an unraced brother to Montjeu – and he recently transferred to the Coolmore roster thanks to the exploits of Holywell, among others.
The horse’s owner, Roy Wilson, is also worth a mention as he formerly trained both between the flags and under rules and he successfully graduated the winning pointers Flemross and Seriatim to success on the track during his career which now seems at a lull. After
General Principle
scored so impressively Crawford stated, “I bought him for his owner Roy Wilson at the Doncaster Sales two years ago and he is a very nice horse who could go anywhere” so I hope he remains in the same partnership for his approaching racecourse career. In an interview I have read Crawford was of the opinion that the horse needed “reasonable ground, otherwise we might try him in a bumper but he could go any route” which I must confess leaves me a little puzzled as to the exact interpretation of this.
Finally, before departing the scene I want to relate the quotation from the afore-mentioned Roy Wilson after he had trained his ex-winning pointer Flemross to win his first handicap hurdles on his seventh attempt: “He is a front runner so that keeps him out of trouble. I didn’t know how fit he was today. He is a summer horse so we will keep running him now. He needs thunder and lightning, thunder to wake him up and lightning to make him go.”
Lisronagh, Co. Tipperary
4yo maiden
Itsnothingpersonal – by Beneficial trained by Edward O’Grady
O’Grady’s fortunes have dipped dramatically in recent years rumoured to have been catalysed by his spurning of advances from Gigginstown (on their very specific terms) and a reported falling out with JP McManus. He was one of the greats of Irish National Hunt training and I, for one, hope that he returns to the big time.
It was particularly sad that he felt compelled to issue a statement last year around the time of the summer store sales denying that he had retired and he’s probably one of the biggest sufferers from the steep dip in the Irish economy that saw many of his clients go bust. O’Grady has won 18 races at the Cheltenham Festival but for me he will always be associated with Golden Cygnet who threatened to be possibly the best hurdler of all time but died tragically after a fall in the Scottish Champion Hurdle. It makes me gulp to realise this all happened back in 1978!
This autumn fixture was first run in 2010 and, ironically, its first winner and most expensive auction horse at £130,000, Dramatic Duke, was a failure for Jonjo O’Neill. However, all five subsequent winners have scored under Rules and three of them managed to win on their racecourse bow at odds of 11/2, 5/4 and 16/1. A rating of 90 suggests that
Itsnothingpersonal
has the scope to be a decent horse inside the rails.
A seeming bargain at just €8,500 as a 3yo he is owned by O’Grady’s son and is a half-brother to a very smart sort of Robin Dickin’s, Garrahalish (Presenting), who has scored four times. Indeed, after he won his novice chase at Towcester in October, Dickin was predicting great things for him. These two horses have been a great boost to the pedigree as the dam’s five previous foals to race had all looked very pedestrian. The dam herself won at a modest level on the flat and over hurdles but she is a half-sister to four winners of 16 races in what is a predominantly flat pedigree.
Itsnothingpersonal
had started favourite on his only previous pointing start last May and confirmed the high regard in which he is held by this performance. O’Grady wasn’t giving much away on future plans but he will surely train him personally under Rules as his ammunition in recent times has been quite limited. The perfect result for him I imagine would be to sell the horse and for him to remain in training in Ballynonty.
5yo maiden
Florida Calling by Presenting trained by Denis Prendergast
Coincidences are where we look for them and Prendergast happens to be the man that handled Dramatic Duke (mentioned above) who was the expensive 4yo flop at Jackdaws Castle in 2010/11. Denis Prendergast operates a private buy-to-sell operation for his patron Terry Ryan and they have struck gold in the sales ring since they geared up their commercial operation in 2010 and they have produced a total of 8 younger winning maidens that have secured top dollar from Paul Nicholls and, particularly, Jonjo O’Neill. Their best graduates have been No Loose Change (a late developing 6yo who scored four times for Nicholls) and Handy Andy, who has been a consistent sort for Colin Tizzard.
Curiously, Jonjo O’Neill has trained nothing but expensive flops from this source and Dramatic Duke (£130,000), Pepper Canister (£170,000) and Oficial Ben (£120,000) have all failed and a £240,000 purchase by Paul Nicholls (Italian Master) only managed a single victory for Dan Skelton after he left Ditcheat. All in all a very poor record for Prendergast’s protégés and one would be very wary of his stock were it not for the exception to every rule! Free Expression won the very last 4yo maiden of the year run in 2013 for Prendergast and he has been a real star so far for Gordon Elliott and JP McManus (interesting that he wasn’t sent to Jonjo after being acquired privately by McManus) winning all three of his hurdling starts and it looks as it Cheltenham 2015 beckons.
Back to this contest, and it hasn’t been a great source of winners although the Champion Hunter Chaser, Salsify, won in 2010. Its other claim to fame is a winning hurdler from 2012 who is poised to win in his first start in a handicap chase at Limerick this coming Christmas (!) and last year’s winner, Final Pass, has already won over hurdles for Donald McCain.
This year’s winner,
Florida Calling
, had failed to finish in two starts at four and he appeared to beat a modest bunch of opponents in this contest although a rating of 91 suggests he impressed the race-readers. Furthermore, being by Presenting he would prefer better ground and his trainer was of the view that this “lovely horse with much better to come” could go for a bumper if he’s not sold. So far, the “going for a bumper” would not appear to be a particularly regular route for the trainer and its long odds-on he appears in a sale.
Florida Calling’s
sales catalogue page will read very well as the winning dam is a half-sister to Moon Over Miami (eight-time winner for Charlie Mann) and Presenting Lisa who is currently making waves as a promising 5yo prospect in mares’ events this autumn.
If history is repeated – or at least the successful version of it – this horse will soon run in the green and gold hoops of McManus but is probably unlikely to be sent to Jackdaws Castle to be trained. However, if past racing trends are to be relied upon he will be no more than a modest winner under rules.
Ballindenisk, Co. Cork
4yo maiden:
Ballybane by Acambaro trained by Carl Dore
The unfamiliar sire appeared vaguely familiar and I realised he was also responsible for
Mai Fitzs Jack
about whom I wrote last week and who I regard as capable of doing a job for his current connections at a particular level. Although I didn’t review the sire then my less than effusive endorsement of the youngster was caused by the lack of familiarity with Acambaro. He is a German-bred grandson of Lyphard who transferred to Ireland in 2008 and his first crop of Irish-breds are now 5yo’s. He has a lot of catching up to do to feature as an obvious sales attraction and for this reason I am reluctant to take much of an interest in
Ballybane
.
Carl Dore has trained a few 4yo maiden winners over the years and his best horse, by far, was Alfa Beat who he trained to win a point-to-point and he landed a serious touch with this horse on his first venture into handicap hurdling company. The horse subsequently became a cash dispenser for master gambler Charles Byrnes before winning a Kerry National a few years ago. In my opinion
Ballybane
does not have the necessary credentials to be an obvious sales target.
However, I will probably be far more interested in him if he remains with present connections as their handicapping history offers some possibilities. As I write I will probably include him in my horse-tracker as a rating of 88 gives him a chance and he did manage on the day to beat representatives from all the in-form yards. The race has a very good record of producing track winners also and with the exception of a Jonjo O’Neill representative (again!) all recent winners have scored well under rules including Indian Castle, Carraig Mor, Al Alfa, Danandy and Hard To Swallow.
5&6yo maiden:
“I can’t spare this man, he fights.”
Battle Of Shiloh by Shantou trained by David Kiely
Shantou has already been responsible for the winning 4yo,
Shantou Village
this season – an £80,000 purchase by Neil Mulholland – and as an anorak-wearing American Civil War amateur historian, if names count for anything this son of Shantou deserves to be a Gold Cup winner! He has a decent if recently quiet pedigree with the unraced Soviet Star dam being out of a half-sister to the 2000 Cheltenham bumper winner Joe Cullen.
Handler David Kiely started off the 1994 Grand National winner Miinnehoma in points and is part of the Waterford “Kiely” dynasty, fronted by John Kiely, who is no slouch when it comes to training jumpers and is often referred to as “king of the bumpers”. In recent times David Kiely has produced just two winners from a relatively small number of pointers namely She Ranks Me and Grouse Lodge and these horses won 12 races between them under rules for Donald McCain.
Battle Of Shiloh
is due to sell at Brightwells next weekend and he will surely be on McCain’s shopping list. Incidentally, once again if you discount a Jonjo O’Neill acquisition, Benzel – from 2013 but perhaps early days as yet – all three previous winners ran to a high standard on the track (average OR was 130) including the aforementioned Grouse Lodge from 2011.
The above quotation is by none other than Abraham Lincoln who made this comment when under pressure to remove General Ulysses S. Grant as head of the Army of the Tennessee in the aftermath of the
Battle Of Shiloh
which, incidentally, he won!
Horses To Follow:
American
Minmore Lodge
General Principle
Itsnothingpersonal
Florida Calling
Ballybane
Battle Of Shiloh
Week 10 – week ending 7 December 2014
Dromahane, Co.Cork
If point-to-point racing has a spiritual home Dromahane would be easily vying for top spot and it’s a location surrounded by many of the top handlers in the country and indeed is not far from where the first “steeplechase” is recorded as taking place as far back as 1752. “El Gran Senor” himself, Michael Vincent O’Brien, was born in the area and trained in Churchtown prior to his move to a farm called “Ballydoyle” over five decades ago and where he trained the occasional winner.
4yo maiden:
This was only the first time this autumn that a 4yo maiden had to be divided and, coincidentally, a divide was also required at Tattersalls Farm the following day-probably a case of trainers unleashing “youngsters” before their fifth birthdays just around the corner.
My Hometown by Presenting trained by Enda Bolger
This winner was a huge whisper beforehand and scored at odds of 2/1 on and in the process was awarded the highest rating for a 4yo this autumn of 93. Owned by J P McManus and named after a song by Bruce Springsteen in honour of the seriously injured J T McNamara –one of the stalwarts of the pointing jockey scene for many years – if intentions count for anything this horse should be good. He cantered home here and I hope that he remains with Bolger who describes him as “a very promising sort”. He is out of a Niarchos-bred mare who changed course to visiting jumping sires a number of years ago and has produced five winners although nothing really of note and none managed to win a bumper somewhat unusually given the flat pedigree. The dam is however a sister to two very good jumpers in France. There’s no doubting this horse has very good potential and he will be followed until events prove otherwise.
Fairly Legal by Beneficial trained by Robert Tyner
For a trainer who’s been leading handler for three of the past six years Robert Tyner certainly doesn’t rely on 4yo maiden winners to thrive either economically or under rules. He has only trained a handful of 4yo winners over the past eight years and I cannot trace that a single one of them has been sold on. Tyner’s main reputation is as a trainer of sturdy chasers so perhaps it’s not at all unusual that he doesn’t buy young, precocious bumper types to train and relies on the traditional old-fashioned, slower maturing Irish national hunt types. He can be usually relied upon to have a well-handicapped chaser ready to unleash every year at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival.
The winning 4yo’s he has trained include Boss Croaker (won two handicap hurdles and was very astutely campaigned prior to these wins), That’s the Dream (single chase win) and Sir Abbot who collected a maiden around this time last year and is developing as a useful hurdler for Tyner and JP McManus. I’m pretty certain his 4yo Mount Brandon that won on New Year’s Eve last year is a slow-maturing type and I will be keeping a very close eye on him in handicap hurdles over the coming weeks and months as his ptofile is reminiscent of the afore-mentioned Boss Croaker.
The win of Sir Abbot possibly heralds a slight change of course as Tyner has produced two 4yo winners in recent weeks and I wrote about the promising
American
just last week.
Fairly Legal
now commands respect (rated a very respectable 90) and he collected a division of this maiden in which four horses were backed to win. He stated after the race: “I’ve always loved this horse and he has been showing a lot at home”. Bought by connections at the 2013 Goffs Land Rover sale for a lumpy €31,000, the winner is owned by connections of perennial pointing champion jockey Derek O’Connor, who rode him, and he may well change hands before very long which, as I mentioned above, would be unusual for Tyner. JP McManus would be an obvious point of contact as he has been a good supporter of Tyner over the years and has invested in his stock and retained Tyner as the trainer of choice.
I do feel that Tyner’s traditional profile is changing at present and I will watch developments on the 4yo front with interest.
5yo maiden:
Another divide to keep me busy! It’s a race that has also been divided in the past and is capable of producing good horses to win on the track with Sraid Padraig (139) and Our Island (130) being the best two graduates since 2010.
Definite Outcome by Definite Article trained by Eoin McDonagh
Not a lot to go on here from a stable that was producing only it’s second ever winner. The horse is sales-bound and will be under the radar wherever he turns up on account of unfashionable origins. Out of an unraced King’s Threatre mare (bonus point) who was related to a dual handicap hurdle winning mare out of a very nice mare who won no less than nine times.
A rating of 88 is respectable and he is one for those who prefer to follow a very dark horse. He made a respectable £35,000 at the Brightwells December sale and is on his way to Rebecca Curtis.
Incidentally, McDonagh’s only previous winner was the 5yo Topper Thornton who joined Colin McBratney for £30,000 last May and could well be another plot in the making as I rate the trainer who is based in Co. Down.
At The Doubble by Oscar trained by Ronnie O’Leary
now with Peter Niven having been acquired at Brightwells on 12 December for £33,000.
From a low-profile handler to a low-profile trainer. O’Leary usually is given a handful of horses to prepare on behalf of J P McManus and of six previous 5yo maiden winners he has trained, four were owned by McManus and two (from three) of these subsequently scored under Rules for Jonjo whilst the fourth won a maiden hurdle for Mouse Morris. Of two horses he sold on, one of these managed to score three times for Rebecca Curtis so, all in all, not a bad record for his graduates.
At The Doubble’s
new trainer, Peter Niven, does not have a record of buying Irish pointers in the past (at least not that I can trace from his winners) and it will be interesting to see how he fares with this horse bought for a regular client. Niven manages to win with about one runner from every fourteen starters so it’s not what one might describe as “prolific” record.
I simply have to believe that there is some reason that this horse has been christened “doubble” as the alternative of a misspelled straightforward word is appalling. Race reports do not record post-race if this is indeed the case. Anyhow,At The Doubble
(86) was a fortunate scorer when the most likely winner fell at the last but the “winner” tag probably added a few thousand to his value thanks to a modicum of luck on the day.
Horses To Follow:
My Hometown
Fairly Legal
Definite Outcome
At The Doubble
I am a little behind thanks (more like "no thanks!") to festive late nights and hangovers so hoping that some upcoming free time allows me to bring matters up to date. I am also working on a list of horses that I deemed "eye-catching" this season without actually winning together with horses that have perked my interest as I studied the record of winners from previous runnings of the autumn maidens. Added to this is the recent December sale at Brightwells and I have plenty to keep myself busy.
I do see the (now) declared
Black Jack Rover
nenni and my approach to these first-time-outers is to take an each-way price when available although that looks unlikely here. A close watch on early and late markets is a necessity. There have been quite a number of new recruits declared to run in Ireland also and, at this stage, I am expecting to punt
Venitien de Mai
following a decent second in a Clonmel maiden hurdle recently. My cash will also be invested on John Joe Walsh’s
Hard Bought
at Limerick this Christmas where he has been laid out for a race at a course the trainer targets every year.
7 December 2014
Cregg, Co. Tipperary
This is probably one of the only fixtures that is run on very decent ground each year as the venue has extremely good drainage and the fixture was moved from October to December this year to avoid unseasonably firm ground.
4yo maiden:
With the exception of last year’s winner, Lock Towers, every winner of every division since 2008 has scored under rules and Lock Towers is threatening to keep that record in place as he has been placed on three of his first four starts. 2010 produced the two best performers in Distime and Baby Shine and what was notable about Baby Shine’s win is the fact that she was a mare beating her male peers, a very rare occurrence indeed. Another nugget of note is the fact that last year’s winner, Lock Towers, was a £20,000 recruit to join Ben Pauling whereas Jonjo O’Neill gave £80,000 for the runner-up, Flinstone (trained by Eoin Doyle), and not for the first time he seems to have overpaid for an “ordinary” Irish pointer. This is not a one man vendetta against Mr. O’Neill but he (or his buyers) surely do have a patchy record when it comes to buying pointing prospects as I have “pointed” out repeatedly in recent weeks.
Double Captain by Marienbard trained by Eoin Doyle
This is a local track to Doyle and he has produced horses to run well here in the past including Flinstone (2nd in 2013-see above) and Lucinda Russell’s useful Island Confusion who won a division in 2012. The trainer is using point-to-points to supplement his struggling training business and a useful job he is doing. This is Doyle’s third maiden winner this season following earlier wins for
Dr Waluigi
and
Jetstream Jack
although he was probably very disappointed with the “unsold” tag attaching to
Dr Waluigi
at the recent Brightwells sale. In fact I just see that
Double Captain
also failed to sell last week at the same sale and this has prompted an acquaintance of mine to remark that the hitherto flush cash available for the winning pointers seems to be getting a little scarcer.
Double Captain
(rated 88) is out of an unraced half-sister to the very useful staying chaser Mr Top Notch (won a Leopardstown Chase and the leading Irish pre-Cheltenham RSA trial in 2007) but of six previous siblings not a single one made it to the track so that would be of concern. The stallion, the 2002 Arc winner, is a completely unknown quantity in that he has returned from stud duties in Japan where, presumably, he was a failure, and his first Irish crop are now 4yo’s. This was his first national hunt winner of any description. Prior to the
Captain
failing to sell for £48,000 his highest-priced progeny is a rising 4yo who Mouse Morris gave €46,000 for at this year’s Derby Sale. All in all,
Double Captain
is something of an unknown quantity and it’s probably unsurprising that he was unsold as the bar may have been set too high. Having personally experienced many unsold lots over the years my philosophy freely given to many breeders and pinhookers is “never bring them home!”
5yo maiden:
Another interesting little contest that produces future winners and the horse I learnt most from in the past was the privately-trained Jim Will Fix It whose win here in 2010 signalled that the horse was in terrific form – following two very ordinary unplaced runs over hurdles and a look of little appeal already attaching to him – and he proved to be enormously lucrative to follow in his subsequent racecourse appearances. This is a trend oft-repeated and it especially applies to inmates from very untrendy stables who are liable to start at very attractive odds.
Dalia Pour Moi by Daliapour trained by John Halley
As mentioned in a previous piece, John is the head vet in Ballydoyle and extracts tremendous enjoyment from his handling of point-to-pointers with regular successes every year. A last fence faller at Glenbane two weeks ago when looking a winner (his only previous start had been tailed off in a Punchestown bumper last April)
Dalia Pour Moi
(rated 89) made amends in stylish fashion having made virtually all the running on this very nice going. The grey son of Daliapour is surely sales bound and, not surprisingly, was bred for flat racing. A sixth foal, he is a half-brother to French 1m5f claiming winner Equa; his dam was fourth over 9.5f from three starts and is a half-sister to Group-placed 1m4f winner Kharizmi and 12.5f winner Kharimata out of 1m2f Group 1 winner in Italy so Dalia Pour Moi is bred to go a bit. Daliapour, a son of Sadler’s Wells has produced the nice Poungach (won five for Paul Nicholls) and the four-time scorer Aupcharlie who was third in the 2011 Cheltenham bumper. This was Daliapour’s first-ever runner between the flags. One can expect this horse to change hands over the coming weeks.
Tattersalls Farm, Co. Meath
4yo maiden-two divisions:
Only run since 2012, King Rolfe (90) and Tell Us More (90) are two previous winners who joined high-profile outfits in Tim Vaughan and Willie Mullins and who have been doing well for them.
Drumlee Sunset by Royal Anthem trained by Sean McParlan
The father and son trainer/jockey combination of Sean and Noel McParlan (based in County Down) produced an impressive winner in Drumlee Sunset (rated 90) who may now contest a bumper in the same colours. The same team produced Drumlee Lad to win a 4yo maiden at Fairyhouse last May although I cannot trace that this horse has changed hands since (unsold at £38,000 at the final Brightwells sale at the tail-end of last season).
Postscript:
the bould Drumlee Lad turned up in a maiden hurdle at Down Royal on St. Stephen’s day and duly obliged at 4/1.
Drumlee Sunset
has a pedigree of some note being a second foal (first filly was unraced) out of an unraced Bob back mare who is a full-sister to eight-time winner The Jigsaw Man (including 2m listed hurdle) and dual 2m scorer Tisseman. In turn, her unraced Be My Native dam was a half-sister to Nicky Henderson’s Stormyfairweather who won the 2m5f Cathcart at Cheltenham in 1999 and 2000 and four other winners of thirteen races. This is the highest-rated Royal Anthem to win a point maiden (previous best was Brian Ellison’s improving winner The Grey Taylor) and
Drumlee Sunset
does seem to have a good engine. It’s pretty certain that decent ground will be needed for him to show his best.
The trainer has only trained one course winner (from very few runners) over the past seven years but the winner was notable in that in landed a serious touch in a bumper first-time-out before being sold on to J P McManus and Charlie Swan. I had hoped that the McParlan’s might follow this route with their latest winner but note that Roger Brookhouse was impressed enough to pay £130,000 for him last week at Brightwells. As the horse reportedly had only schooled three times prior to this win he looks to have oodles of improvement in him and if the togs out for a class 6 bumper in darkest Devon or similar I would probably be very interested in him.
Yorkhill by Presenting trained by Colin McKeever
This winner took little finding as he was unlucky in running two weeks earlier (similar to Dalia Pour Moi) and he “kept on well” to win at odds of 2/1 albeit he lost his closest challenger who ran out at the second last. Additionally, he was an expensive €41,000 acquisition as a foal by McKeever’s main patron, Wilson Dennison, on account of his sire Presenting and an unraced Saddler’s Hall dam who is closely related to 2m1f-3m1f hurdle/smart chase winner Offshore Account, useful 2m1f-3m hurdle/chase winner Dooneys Gate and a half-sister to high-class chaser The Listener & smart chasers Fork Lightning and Distant Thunder.
Sure to join a big stable in England he (rated 87) also looks a potential star of the future.
5yo maiden-two divisions:
The race saw Capote (87) and Maximiser (91) score in two of the three divisions last season and both are performing very well for Jonjo O’Neill (doing well at a cost of £75,000 for Trevor Hemmings) and Simon West respectively. What I find interesting is that compared to O’Neill, West would be relatively unheralded which allowed his 91-rated recruit to start at 10/1 on his winning debut under rules and trainer fashion – or lack of – often offers an opportunity to snaffle very decent odds on racing debuts.
Island Master (89) by Turtle Island trained by Liam Burke
The Cork handler belatedly opened his account for 2014/15 with victory for a gelding contesting his eighth race including a bumper (beaten 42L) on his most recent start last May. I am not hugely enthused by the winner although Burke did opine that “he will make a fine chaser in time” so I will include him for the long haul as he’s now expected to go hurdling possibly after contesting a winners’ event.
Personally, I believe it’s an indication that Burke’s horses are in rude health – he also had two seconds on the same card – and I think he could easily win a race or two on the track over Christmas at a decent price or two. He hasn’t been in the best form of late so a winner would be extremely profitable if it can be found.
Kayf Supreme (87) by Kayf Tara trained by Jim Dreaper
Bred to stay, this horse was bought by present connections for a whopping £115,000 after he ran second in a point last November behind a winner trained by the very same Jim Dreaper. The winner,
Venitien De Mai
, is one of my strongest fancies to win races and obviously Dreaper thinks very highly of him to encourage Alan Potts to purchase
Kayf Supreme
. Strangely, it has taken him four subsequent runs to win his point-to-point although he has been running respectably in those contests.
Dreaper, whom I mentioned in my very first blog, is very much a believer in educating his horses in points has produced some really nice sorts like Royal De La Thinte, Goonyella and Venitien De Mai for Alan Potts in recent years and I would be very keen to include
Kayf Supreme
(rated 87) in this select band now that he has won his maiden. If he follows recent trends he is likely to contest winners’ events before heading to the track although it appears it is now more likely he will start his hurdling career early in the New Year.
14 December 2014
Borris House, Co. Carlow
This was a new autumn fixture for the Carlow Farmers Foxhounds (they normally race in early spring) and they were handsomely rewarded for their pluckiness with 105 runners from 140 entries necessitating 3 divides and all the maidens – four, five and six-years-old and upwards required two divisions. Given my eye as self-appointed guardian of the Queen’s English I can simply relate the news that the divisions of the older horses’ maidens were won by Rebel Benefit and, remarkably, Royal Benifet, truth being stranger than fiction.
The new well-supported fixture meant much-needed funds for the Hunt but, obviously, no previous history to aid us in our search for future winners.
4yo maiden:
Raise A Tail (88) by Definite Article trained by Mark Fahey
There are more Fahey’s from the same midlands family involved in racing in Ireland than there are peas in a pod and the names of Seamus, Jarlath, Peter and Paul will be familiar to most Irish racegoers. Mark Fahey hails from the very same pod (a version of the Irish twelve apostles?) and last Sunday he saddled
Raise A Tail
to win division one of this maiden before rushing to Navan to saddle Golden Plan in the handicap hurdle and finally donning his amateur-jock silks and finishing fourth in the bumper for Jessica Harrington. All in all, not a bad day’s work although he’s probably a lazy basket at heart.
He has trained a few pointers since 2012 (two of his previous three winners have won under rules) and has trained two winners himself under rules and although he handled Golden Plan to win a 6yo maiden in December 2012, that Goldmark gelding had won a Tramore bumper before the month was out for his uncle Peter. Could lightning ever strike (almost) twice with Tramore scheduled to race on New Year’s Day?
Raise A Tail
paid a compliment to his conqueror
Minmore Lodge
(joined Donald McCain for £40,000 after the recent sale) from the maiden at Kirkistown a few weeks earlier although on this occasion the market decided that, as it had been just a four-runner event, the contest lacked depth and he was allowed to start at a drifting 6/1. He jumped poorly at times and his rider briefly lost an iron after a mistake at the second last so he did well to score on the day as he needed a decent turn of foot to collar the leader on the run for home.
He has a very nice, dependable pedigree as the dam won a point and two modest handicap hurdles for Jarlath Fahey in 2007 and she is a half-sister to 5 winners of 16 races including the mare Rathmuck Native – winner of a solitary bumper for Peter Fahey – who is also by Definite Article so he shares the same father with his mother’s half-sister! History would suggest heavy ground would be unsuitable for
Raise A Tail
and that victories will come in unheralded events on days that the world won’t be watching. Apparently there will be a post-race family enclave to decide on the horse’s future with the grand matriarch Maureen holding the casting vote.
Fingerontheswitch (89) by Beneficial trained by Donnchadh Doyle
Another winner from the Doyle production line this 2/1 winner had nice placed form behind
Gingili
(bumper winner) and
Shantou Village
(£80,000 purchase) on his only two previous starts. He had failed to sell (as maiden-placed) at the Brightwells November auction so he is probably heading back to this venue in January with more realistic prospects of selling.
His pedigree offers a little hope being by Beneficial and he is a half-brother to The Bomber Ryan, a winning pointer who is very well handicapped over hurdles – provided he hasn’t retired. His Crash Course second dam won three times over hurdles and one expects that
Fingerontheswitch
will do whatever winning is in him over staying trips on soft/heavy ground.
5yo maiden
Get Involved (87) by Milan trained by Sean Doyle
Form figures of “PU, UR, 8” hardly inspired confidence prior to this two-division contest and an examination of his pedigree – eighth foal and no siblings have ever placed on the track out of an equally winnerless dam line – offered little encouragement there so there will be no great clamour for this horse if and when he turns up for sale. If connections can recover his cost of €14,000 as a store three-year-old they may regard is as a “result” after an unpromising start to his career. The second-placed horse from this maiden catches my eye and he is another added to a long list of less-obvious track-winning potential material but I’m not giving away all my secrets.
Hitman Hearns (89) by Milan trained by Liam Kenny
A double for Milan in this divided maiden but likely to feature more for modesty than brilliance I would venture that a winner’s rating of 89 is generous. This was the gelding’s ninth start although his improvement has been credited to a wind operation earlier in the year after he had failed to complete in six previous starts. His pedigree is quite respectable and should he progress through the winners programme next spring (he needs good ground) he might be a summer horse to follow in time but not an obvious candidate for now.
Boulta, Co. Cork
This was an additional fixture for the United Hunt having run their traditional autumn meeting on 23 November, just three weeks earlier. Another very healthy entry saw 95 runners and (groan!) another divide in the two geldings’ maidens.
4yo maiden
Hawkhurst by Flemensfirth trained by Denis Leahy
This was Leahy’s first time to visit the winners’ enclosure this season and he boasts a very respectable 19% strike-rate with all his runners since 2007. His winning maidens have been very popular with Donald McCain but, ironically, it was the 2012 4yo winner, Desertmore Stream (£105k), that he did not purchase that turned out to be the best of Leahy’s graduates who won four races for Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown outfit. Dan Skelton also picked up the four-time winner, Ballincurrig (£50k), from this quarter. McCain’s winners have tended to be lesser lights and include Beeves, Oscatara (£55k), Dreams Of Milan ((£65k) and Blackwater King (£85k) who have all won at a lower, more modest level. Blackwater King, incidentally – who has won a Kelso hurdle – was from the same ownership as Hawkhurst.
Leahy himself also trains a few for the track and he managed to squeeze a handicap hurdle out of his winning 5yo, Handsome Dan, a rare winner tracing back to September 2012. If he does have another rules winner lurking in the shadows of his Charleville, Co Cork yard it might well be the mare, Rosygo, who collected a mares’ maiden in 2013 and hinted at some decent ability in a Clonmel maiden hurdle some weeks ago when running out of her mare-only class and against a Mullins’ hotpot to boot. When she won her maiden she was spoken about in terms of a mares’ bumper. I advise a weather-eye on her.
Hawkhurst
picked up a very decent rating of 92 in coming home alone from three unraced maidens and showed plenty of class to win in very a very flattering style. There’s little doubt he was a class apart here and the form of the vanquished will be followed closely to confirm this very catching first impression. He has all that would be asked of a maiden winner being a full-brother to the top-class winner Muirhead (Grade 1 hurdle and Munster Chase National winner) who was fifth in Punjabi’s 2009 Champion Hurdle. He cost €41,000 as a foal and will be in great demand when he turns up at public auction although the trend nowadays is to sell the VIP ones privately once the phone calls start from the big cheeses of the jumping game. My guess is that he will soon be a Gigginstown starter and will be “flying high” for Mr. O’Leary.
Just Cause g by Court Cave trained by Michael “Mouse” Morris
Mouse Morris really only lives for the big horseracing occasions nowadays and following his ascent of the Gold Cup peak with War Of Attrition in 2006 everything he does since happens with a sense of anti-climax. He continues to enjoy the patronage of many of the bigger owners in the game, including War Of Attrition’s owner Gigginstown Stud, and division two of this 4yo maiden saw the launch of the latest arrow attempting to hit a variety of Cheltenham targets over the next few years.
Mouse does use the point-to-point circuit as a launch-pad and usually is not the greatest fan of bumpers in a horse’s education. War Of Attrition fell in his only start in a point while his top-class First Lieutenant and Rule The World (still no forlorn hope for top honours according to Mouse himself when I ran into him recently and a horse I have great faith in personally). In fact Rule The World was Mouse’s only previous 4yo maiden winner since 2007 so I would put great store in this son of Court Cave to defy a relatively modest rating of just 87 when he starts his career under Rules. Morris gave €60,000 for
Just Cause
as a 3yo at the Tatts Derby Sale in 2013 and he is an own-brother to Willie Mullins’ Clondaw Court, unbeaten in all five of his competitive starts including a point victory in 2012 for Colin Bowe. In fact, Clondaw Court may yet turn out in time to be his father’s best track representative an honour currently held by Martin Keighley’s Champion Court.
Just Cause’s
dam won a chase over three miles and she in turn is a half-sister to a mare who won five times over a trip.
Just Cause
had finished third in a maiden earlier in the year for Gordon Elliott and the same owners (Gigginstown) and he merely confirmed here what he promised to do last March.
There’s no doubt in my mind he will win races and hopefully we will all be on when he does.
5yo maiden:
Queer Times g by Zagreb trained by Donal Coffey
Jumping historians or enthusiasts will immediately recognise a play on the name of Vincent O’Brien’s 1955 Grand National winner, Quare Times, whilst those of a PC bent will perhaps raise an eyebrow for some other reason entirely. Alternatively, anyone searching in an encyclopaedia for a definition of “quare” will have to rely on me that it is often used in the context of “well shure, he’s a quare one!”
All I can say about this trainer – based in Midleton, Co. Cork, home of the
nonpareil
Jameson whiskey – is that he has been practising his art for 15 years and anything that wins a point maiden for him should be followed closely and this advice applies both to horses sold on and the few horses he retains to train privately under Rules. He has a superb record training winners between the flags and under Rules and from a very modest sample has produced horses of the calibre of Presenting Copper, Copper Bleu, Gurtacrue and the excellent mare Top Madam.
Of five siblings of
Queer Times
, including a full-brother, all have won on the track (including three who managed to win a bumper) and the dam won a bumper for Di Haine on her first start.
This horse, winning on his third start and rated 89, was impressive and wherever he goes, he should be followed.
Bigbadjohn g by Vinnie Roe trained by Garrett James Power
Following a nice fourth (rated 83) behind
Battle Of Shiloh
two weeks earlier
Bigbadjohn
(87) scored by 3L with a staying performance on this his fourth attempt at breaking his duck. He jumped poorly and only managed to beat a horse that was beaten out of sight in a Cork bumper last August. Out of a four-time bumper/hurdle/chase winner (at a modest level)
Bigbadjohn’s
siblings to date have been a forgettable bunch and this offers a chance to recoup some of the €22,000 the dam cost in 2005.
I can find no compelling reasons to add him to my tracker.
Horses To Follow:
Double Captain
Dalia Pour Moi
Drumlee Sunset
Yorkhill
Island Master
Kayf Supreme
Raise A Tail
Fingerontheswitch
Hawkhurst
Just Cause
Queer Times
******************************************
A happy New Year to one and all…and nenni. Sorry about
My Hometown
being such a short price yesterday!
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