RACING at Fairyhouse on Saturday provided great excitement, especially in the first and last races on the card, though for very different reasons. Both of the winners were making their racecourse debuts.

I will start with the bumper winner Kaiser Ball, a French-bred son of the little-known Nom De D’La, a son of Lost World (Last Tycoon) and a Grade 3 chase winner at Cagnes-Sur-Mer as an eight-year-old, the year before he went to stud. A look at the career of Nom De D’La is a lesson in French breeding to some extent, given that he would have long ago been gelded in Ireland or Britain, and now be seeing out his retirement in a paddock somewhere.

From a renowned Wildenstein female family, a look at his pedigree will give some clue as to why Nom De D’La was considered sire material.

He is a full-brother to Nickname (Lost World) and a half-brother to No Risk At All (My Risk), two hugely successful sires of jumpers. There are several other sires in the female line, though none could match the achievements of the two mentioned.

Trained and owned by Jean-Paul Gallorini, Nom De D’La won five times, but did not manage his first success until the age of six. All of his wins came over jumps, on one occasion being successful just a week apart at Auteuil, firstly over fences and then over hurdles. He won more than €265,000 and claimed the scalps of a number of smart performers during his 34-race career. Though winning a Grade 3, he was far from being a superstar.

Nom De D’La went to stud a decade ago, and this year the now 19-year-old is at his fourth location, Haras des Anses, under the management of Marie-Élyse Faivre. While his year-younger sibling No Risk At All commands a fee of €20,000, Nom De D’La is available for a more modest €2,200. He has never sired large books of mares, but three of his first four crops each included a blacktype winner.

Treannahow Stables

Bred by Jean-Louis Berger and his wife Marie-Jeanne, Kaiser Ball appeared in a sale ring at Osarus as a yearling, when he sold for €15,000 to Horse Racing Advisory’s Hubert Barbe. He reappeared as a store in the first Goffs Arke Sale in 2023 from Tony and Marie Costello’s Treannahow Stables, but was unsold at €60,000. The same vendors topped that sale with a €250,000 son of Galiway to Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins.

How appropriate then that Kaiser Ball should be entrusted to Willie Mullins to be trained, and that strategy paid dividends when young Tom Costello (bearing the name of his famous grandfather) guided the five-year-old to a debut success in what looked a very competitive bumper. The same owners, trainer and jockey combination has also tasted racecourse success previously with Asian Master.

The fourth winner for Voix De Monet (Voix Du Nord), Kaiser Ball is a full-brother to Evan Williams’ useful Juby Ball (Nom De D’La) and dual French three-year-old winner Lili Ball.

Juby Ball, winner and runner-up in two starts in bumpers, is unbeaten on both his outings over hurdles this year. His older sibling Fifty Ball (Cokoriko) won three hurdle races and was Grade 3-placed for trainer Gary Moore after his move from France, where he won two bumpers.

Two outstanding runners back in the third and fourth removes of this family are the Grade 1 Sun Alliance Novices Chase winner Rolling Ball (Quart De Vin), and triple French Grade 1 chase winner Rubi Ball (Network), the latter bred on similar lines to Kaiser Ball.

Belated debut

The six-year-old German-bred Great Attitude made a belated racecourse debut in the opening Connolly’s Red Mills Irish EBF Auction Maiden Hurdle at Fairyhouse, and showed that the betting plunge on him was not misplaced when winning for trainer Tom Cleary. Bred by Gestüt Romerhof, the gelding was purchased by Dougie Taylor and Cormac Farrell for €26,000 at the 2022 Goffs Land Rover Sale, and was in the ownership of Taylor, breeder of Samcro, until the end of January. He was consigned by Eoin McDonagh from Shanaville Stables.

Guiliani stands at Gestüt Schlenderhan and this year is his ninth at stud. A son of Tertullian (Miswaki), Guiliani won a German Group 1 at four, and his five victories also included a trip to France to contest and win the Listed Prix Matchem at Maison-Laffitte.

His profile as a sire received a boost when his second crop included his three blacktype winners to date, and all won group races. Tunnes was some way the best of these, landing the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Bayern.

The dam side of Great Attitude’s family is solid. He is the fifth winner for his Seattle Dancer (Nijinsky) dam Good Hope, a useful racemare who was stakes-placed in Germany and France, and she seems to have been sent to a different stallion each year at stud. Her best winner is Group Stage (Maxios) who was runner-up in a listed juvenile hurdle in Scotland.

Among Good Hope’s youngstock is a three-year-old son of Nutan (Duke Of Marmalade) who was sold as a yearling to Drumlin Bloodstock for €8,500. It will come as no surprise to see him reappear in one of the premier store sales this spring.

Good Hope was one of seven winners for her stakes-placed dam Giralda (Tenby), while Great Attitude’s fourth dam Gandria (Charlottown) was even more prolific, producing nine winners.