Maureen Mullins

Kilcruit (Ire), 2015 g. by Stowaway out of Not Broke Yet, by Broken Hearted

FEW wins at Punchestown will have given Willie Mullins more pleasure surely than to land a Grade 1 with a horse bred by his mother Maureen. Kilcruit’s victory in the ITM - Supporting Irish Store Sales Champion INH Flat Race is the culmination of half a century of involvement in the winner’s pedigree by Mrs Mullins.

First or second on all five of his starts to date, Kilcruit is a son of Stowaway, Ronnie O’Neill’s self-made stallion. The sire of Monkfish, Put The Kettle On and now Kilcruit was crowned the champion National Hunt sire for the 2020-21 season, a great accomplishment.

Kilcruit is the second Grade 1 Punchestown Festival winner from this family. Maureen Mullins didn’t breed the other, Scotsirish, but the Mullins connection was maintained as he was trained by Willie! Kilcruit is one of just a pair of foals from his dam, and both are winners.

Maureen and Paddy Mullins took ownership of Tongue Twister in the early 1970s. Her first foal was Parijatak, and she, along with other daughters, have all contributed to the success story. Parijatak won six times and her best offspring, Sayparee, won the Scottish Champion Hurdle. Sayparee’s full-sister bred the Grade 1 winning chaser Scotsirish.

Tongue Twister’s daughter Whisht won three times and produced two blacktype winners. Another daughter was six-time winner Inarticulate. She had two named foals, both winners, and her daughter Can’t Think What is the grandam of Kilcruit.

Cathal Ennis

Minella Times (Ire), 2013 g. by Oscar out of Triptoshan, by Anshan

TO breed an Aintree Grand National winner is a dream come true. Cathal Ennis is the latest to do so, at his family’s Quill Farm near Kilbeggan. It was at Kilbeggan that his interest in a particular mare who ran no less than 11 times at the track, winning twice, was fuelled.

She was Triptodicks who raced six times in point-to-points and was runner-up on three occasions, made one unsuccessful start on the flat, raced 29 times over hurdles and won three, including a three-mile listed handicap hurdle at Listowel, and then ran no fewer than 49 times over fences, recording eight wins.

Triptodicks, through her unraced daughter Triptoshan, is the grandam of Minella Times. Cathal purchased Triptoshan after a visit to Liam Norris’ Woodfield Farm Stud, the breeders of Irish Grand National winner Freewheelin Dylan and the Grade 3 Aintree winner Hometown Boy.

Minella Times is by some way the best of the four winning offspring, her only runners, from Triptoshan. The others are bumper winner Cruiseaweigh, the National winner’s own-brother, their full-sister L’Attendue, and half-brother Black Gerry.

There is an unraced Kayf Tara five-year-old Malton Groove out of Triptoshan. He was sold for €55,000 as a foal and resold at the Derby Sale last year for €160,000. Other young stock out of the mare are a three-year-old Kayf Tara filly and a two-year-old daughter of Flemensfirth. Ennis still has the two-year-old, while he also had the foresight to acquire L’Attendue and she has just had her first foal, a colt by Doctor Dino.

Seamus Cooney

Belfast Banter (Ire), 2015 g. by Jeremy out of Sumtin Nice, by Simply Great

JEREMY, the much-lamented former Irish National Stud and Garryrichard Stud stallion, just keeps turning out quality winners, and three of his four Cheltenham victories were achieved in Grade 1 races – Appreciate It, Black Tears and Sir Gerhard. The Cheltenham quartet was made up of Grade 3 County Hurdle winner Belfast Banter, and he too has gone on to win a Grade 1, capturing the Top Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree.

Belfast Banter is no stranger to the sales ring. He sold by Seamus Cooney to Timmy Hillman for €10,000 as a yearling at Tattersalls Ireland, resold at the Goffs Land Rover Sale for €28,000 to Patrick Turley and Mark O’Hare, and then, after running second in a point-to-point at Oldcastle, was sold to Fergal O’Neill’s Direct Bloodstock for just £30,000 at a Tattersalls Cheltenham sale.

Belfast Banter is the second foal out of Sumtin Nice. He is followed by the unraced Soldier Of Fortune four-year-old Fine Margin, his two-year-old full-sister, and a yearling filly by Mount Nelson.

In spite of not showing anything herself when racing, Sumtin Nice was always destined to be bred from, her older sibling being Dun Doire. He visited many winners’ enclosures, being successful twice over hurdles, seven times over fences and three times between the flags. His biggest win was in the Grade A Thyestes Chase at Gowran Park, and he was also one of Ruby Walsh’s many Cheltenham Festival winners.

Dun Doire’s unraced full-sister Lady Rene bred a pair of mares who earned blacktype when placed in such races.

Breandan Long

Skyace (Ire), 2015 f. by Westerner out of Graigace, by Milan

THERE is no ‘rags to riches’ story like that of the ‘Shark’ Hanlon-trained Skyace. She gained her fifth and most important success at Fairyhouse in the Grade 1 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Novice Hurdle Championship Final. The €60,000 winners’ purse pushed her earnings to some €120,000.

She was adding to a Grade 3 success at Down Royal and victory in the Listed Voler La Vedette Mares Novice Hurdle at Punchestown.

Put in training with Willie Mullins, Skyace showed plenty of ability when she was placed on all her three starts in bumpers at Ballinrobe, Galway and Tramore. Sent to the Tattersalls Ascot Sale in November 2019, she was sold for an unbelievable £600 to ‘Shark’ Hanlon.

Skyace is the first of four fillies for her unraced dam, the second being a four-year-old full-sister. Her youngest is a yearling by Mahler. Graigace was also bred by Breandan Long and is a daughter of Ace Ciel who won a Thurles bumper on her racecourse debut. She in turn was one of three winners from Vital Touch, a hunter chase winner at Downpatrick who won four point-to-points.

Another winning daughter of Vital Touch was Erkindale Touch. That mare landed a Fairyhouse bumper and was runner-up in another from just three starts, while her offspring are headed by the listed chase winner A Genie In Abottle who was third in the Grade 1 Champion Novice Chase at Punchestown.