WHAT a memorable opening day to the 2025 Aintree Festival it was for trainer Willie Mullins. The seven-race card contained four Grade 1 races, and horses trained by the multiple champion handler won all four, two of them with mares.

Mullins won the opening Grade 1 Manifesto Novices’ Chase last with Il Etait Temps, and did so again this time with the French-bred Impaire Et Passe (2018 g. Diamond Boy). Bred by Haras de Peyre and Mrs Pascale Papon, Impaire Et Passe has now amassed five Grade 1 wins, three over hurdles, and his sire stands at Con and Claire O’Keeffe’s Kilbarry Lodge Stud in Waterford. Diamond Boy is also sire of the dual Grade 1 chase winner L’Homme Presse.

A winner on the flat at Nancy, Impaire Et Passe was sold at an Arqana Online Sale for €155,000 to Highflyer Bloodstock. He is the first foal for his dam who was placed six times on the flat and over jumps in France. Impaire Et Passe has been joined on the winners’ listing by his half-sister Joliepoule (Cokoriko) who won twice in France, and last year’s three-year-old winner Linstant (Tunis). His family is light on winners, and the only other blacktype performer in the first four generations is Foudre Delta, also a son of Diamond Boy (Mansonnien) and successful in a listed hurdle race.

A listed winner over hurdles at Auteuil last year as a three-year-old, Murcia (2021 f. Doctor Dino) gained just her second career win with victory in the Grade 1 Boodles Anniversary Juvenile Hurdle in the colours of Kenny Alexander. The owner and Peter Molony were on hand to welcome her back, and they have on their hands both a valuable race filly and a hugely exciting broodmare prospect. By one of the great French stallions in Doctor Dino (Muhtathir), Murcia’s female family is outstanding.

Bred at Haras d’Etreham with partners, Murcia is the first foal and winner for Delle Et Chic (Poliglote) who placed over hurdles. Her grandam New Saga (Sagamix) won three times on the flat but earned blacktype when placed in a listed hurdle race. Third dam Newness (Simply Great) was a listed chase winner, but she is the dam of two talented racehorses and successful sires in No Risk At All (My Risk) and Grade 1 hurdle and chase winner Nickname (Lost World). There are few pedigrees in France to match the impact and success of this female line.

German success

It was a great first day of Aintree for French breeding, with five of the seven races taken by horses bred there, but one of the quartet of Mullins winners was the German-bred Gaelic Warrior (2018 g. Maxios), albeit by the Niarchos Family. He won the Grade 1 Aintree Bowl in the hands of Willie and Jackie Mullins’ son Patrick.

Last year Gaelic Warrior put up a stunning performance to demolish Found A Fifty and Il Etait Temps in the Grade 1 Arkle Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham, having won the Grade 1 Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick. The highlight of his four hurdle wins was victory in the Grade 1 War Of Attrition Novice Hurdle at Punchestown. Previously at the Cheltenham Festival he was beaten a short head in the Grade 3 Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle and finished second in the Grade 1 Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle.

Bred and raced by the Niarchos Family, Maxios (Monsun) moved to Castlehyde Stud in 2020, and his first Irish crop are four-year-olds. Gaelic Warrior was a private purchase at BBAG as a yearling for €9,000. He is the only winner for his twice-raced dam Game Of Legs (Hernando). Willie Mullins has Gaelic Warrior’s four-year-old full-brother Sparkling Wit (Maxios), bought as a foal with Harold Kirk for €46,000.

Drama again

What a disappointment for connections of Constitution Hill that he failed to stay on his feet in the Grade 1 Aintree Hurdle, leaving more questions than answers for race watchers. Hopefully he is okay and makes it to Punchestown, but it could be a case of drawing a line in the sand for now. He lives to fight another day in any case.

Lossiemouth (2019 f. Great Pretender) has done very little wrong in a racing career that spans 14 starts, yielding 11 wins and two runner-up finishes, and she has earned more than £700,000 since she joined Willie Mullins.

Eight of her career wins have been at Grade 1 level, three at Cheltenham, and she is a superstar. Bred by Elevage des Vallons and Ian Kellit, she was unsold as a yearling when a bid of €15,000 might have bought her.

Great Pretender (King’s Theatre) is well-known in these parts for the likes of triple Grade 1-winning chaser Greaneteen, three-time Grade 1-winning hurdler Benie Des Dieux, Dortmund Park, Great Field, and Ptit Zig. Lossiemouth is the second winner from Mariner’s Light (Gentlewave), one of 10 winners out of Lady Glitters (Homme De Loi) who best offspring was dual Group 1 winner Lord Glitters (Whipper).

Amateur’s National

The Randox Foxhunters’ Open Hunters’ Chase over the Grand National fences is one of the racing highlights for amateur riders, and was won by the Joe O’Shea-trained Gracchus De Balme (2016 g. Manbolix). How his sire’s name got by the naming authorities is amazing! Unraced, it seems that Manbolix (Linamix) sired less than 30 foals in his lifetime, with only a small handful winning.

Bred by Jean-Luc Henry and Alain Targot, Gracchus De Balme has a good family on the dam side, but you have to go back a few generations to find it. The gelding came to notice when Kieran Purcell sent him out to win a point-to-point on his debut at four in Lisronagh, and a few days later sold him at a Goffs UK Yorton Farm Sale to Aidan O’Ryan for £80,000. He won another point-to-point last year, and has been successful three times on the racecourse.

Gracchus De Balme is one of two foals out of the unraced Olympe De Coudray (Cachet Noir), and her unraced dam Tiptop (Tip Moss) had six foals, none of which did anything. If you go back to Gracchus De Balme’s fifth dam, she is the third dam of the Cheltenham Festival winner Monkerhostin (Shining Steel).

Double up

For the second year in a row, Sans Bruit (2018 g. Triple Threat) won the Grade 3 Red Rum Chase at Aintree. Successful six times in France at up to Grade 3 status, he has won just twice since he moved to Paul Nicholls, each time at this meeting. Bred by Louis Baudron in France, Sans Bruit is a fine advertisement to Triple Threat (Monsun) who stood last year at Ger O’Neill’s Capital Stud, his first season there, but died after being injured in his paddock.

Baudron bought Sans Bruit’s dam, the dual Swedish winner Swedish Dancer (Teofilo) for €9,000 at the end of her racing career. The Aintree winner is one of his dam’s two offspring. Swedish Dancer was bred in partnership by Corduff Stud, John Corcoran and June Judd, and comes from the family of the three-time US Grade 1 winning mare Golden Apples.

Triple Threat won the Group 2 Prix Eugene Adam in France and the Grade 2 Monmouth Stakes in the USA, and was Grade 1-placed in Canada. He is also sire of the Irish Grade 3 chase winner Mister Policeman.

Twomey strikes

When Paddy Twomey produces a runner in a bumper, watch out. Seo Linn (2020 f. Order Of St George), bred by Glashare House Stud, added the Grade 2 Goffs Nickel Coin Mares Bumper to an earlier win in a listed bumper at Cheltenham, and she could well now go on to win some blacktype on the flat. She has the pedigree to do so, and she is a fine advertisement for her sire, being a member of his first crop.

Seo Linn is among 10 winning progeny out of Persian Filly (Persian Bold), winner of three races in Italy after being purchased as a foal for 7,000gns, and that listed-placed mare sold as a five-year-old for 48,000gns. Seo Linn is a half-sister to two stakes winners in Italy, one of whom is Permesso (Sakhee). While he won a pair of listed races, he was runner-up in both the Group 1 Derby Italiano and Group 1 Premio Roma.

There is another Grade 1 winner under Seo Linn’s first dam. Her half-sister Permalosa (Nayef) won twice in Italy where her best offspring is Live Your Life (Turati). He was quite a star of the jumping scene there and his nine career victories included four Grade 1 wins, three in Merano and one in Milan.