THE ongoing focus on three-year-old hurdles and growing obsession with French-bred horses has, in part, been influenced by the Cheltenham Festival. Everyone wants a winner there, so the fact that three-year-old hurdles and France were the leading source of the 2024 Festival’s Grade 1 winners held some sway.

That changed last week, when Irish-bred horses matched France’s tally of five Grade 1 winners, while the British celebrated a recent best with three.

More notably, though, Lossiemouth was the only Grade 1 winner who began her career in three-year-old hurdles. Overall, four of the week’s 28 winners debuted in three-year-old hurdles.

Four-year-olds who began their careers between the flags did best on the whole, and won four Grade 1s, despite the misfortune of former pointers Constitution Hill and Jonbon. Three top-flight winners debuted as four-year-olds in bumpers, while two were five-year-olds. While I agree there’s a need for an improved three-year-old hurdle programme in Ireland, last week supported the theory that three-year-old hurdles are not the be-all and end-all.

In this publication on February 14th, Bryan Mayoh discussed the French versus Britain/Ireland debate. After analysing the sires and dams of the best horses, he surmised that French-bred horses weren’t overachieving due to their pedigree. In his own words: “Unless hundreds of breeders all over France are far more skilled than their equivalents in Ireland and Britain, superior breeding is not the prime reason for the relative success of French-breds.”

Instead, he attributed their success to the likelihood that they started over obstacles at an earlier age than their British and Irish counterparts. I don’t disagree that starting younger is beneficial to some horses, but I found his theory disrespectful to French breeders, and to the horses they were producing.

Alternate avenues to success

The increasing success of French-bred horses on British and Irish tracks has, inevitably, led to an increase in their numbers at the respective countries’ store sales, and we are now seeing how those French-bred horses fare in our system.

Of the five French-bred Grade 1 winners last week, just one began their career in France (in a three-year-old hurdle). Three debuted as four-year-olds – two in point-to-points and one in a bumper, while the other started between the flags as a five-year-old.

I actually found it amusing that Mayoh used a stallion’s race performance as a way of judging breeders’ decisions. If a Group 1 win was all it took to make a stallion, then standing stallions and breeding racehorses, whether they be flat or National Hunt, would be much easier. Twelve sires were responsible for last week’s 13 Grade 1 winners, and seven of those never won a Group 1.

The only stallion who sired more than one winner last week was, however, a top-class racehorse himself. Quadruple Group 1 winner and Horse Of The Year, Golden Horn, sired his first two top-flight winners, Golden Ace and Poniros, before he had sired a Group 1 winner on the flat.

The son of Cape Cross began his career at Dalham Hall at a fee of £60,000 and, after dropping to £10,000, was purchased by Jayne McGivern’s Dash Grange Stud in the summer of 2022, when he had 13 individual National Hunt winners to his name.

Transferred to Overbury Stud, that figure has now risen to 64 and, of his 53 starters this season, five are blacktype winners and seven are blacktype performers. However, it’s worth remembering that his runners are out of quality mares – Golden Ace was bred out of a listed winner at a fee of £60,000, while Poniros was bred off a fee of £40,000.

Overachievers

Kudos, then, to Valirann’s Grade 1 winner Lecky Watson, whose dam was covered when Valirann’s fee was private, but was presumably in the ballpark of the €2,000 and €1,500 fees he’s been advertised at. Formerly at Whytemount Stud, and now at Tullaghansleek Stud, Valirann is enjoying his best season to date, having sired his first Grade 1 winner in December, when Potters Charm gained his fifth consecutive win in the Formby Novices’ Hurdle.

Valirann’s race record isn’t as impressive as Golden Horn’s, but he did win four of his five career starts, two of them at group level. What the pair do have in common, though, is a fine pedigree. An Aga-Khan homebred, Valirann is a half-brother to Prix de Diane heroine Valyra, out of a listed-winning Linamix mare from the talented family of Val Royal.

Bambino Fever was conceived when Jukebox Jury stood for €6,000 and, though she didn’t sell at the sales, it’s fair to say that her younger siblings should now reward breeder Geoffrey Thompson.

Jasmin De Vaux’s sire Tirwanako has done it the hard way – between 2009 and 2017, only 29 foals were recorded. His dual Cheltenham Festival winner hails from a crop of 21 foals, while the multiple Grade 1-placed Gabynako and Grade 2 winner Adrimel were two of 10 foals in 2015. In his first season at Knockhouse Stud, Tirwanako covered his biggest book to date, with 44 foals recorded, who are now four-year-olds.

It’s safe to say he wouldn’t have been given much of a chance if he began his stallion career in Ireland – he was only a listed winner, there is no group winner under his first three dams, and his sire Sin Kiang made little impression.

French breeders’ lack of concern with fashion, and spreading their broodmares across various stallions, also helped the likes of Walk In The Park, whose first seven crops peaked at 34 foals and dropped to as low as nine, 13, 16 and 18.

It takes two to tango

Of course, stallions are only half the equation, and the French programme for National Hunt mares is widely believed to be a major factor in their success, and has influenced programmes and incentives in Britain and Ireland.

Of the 13 Grade 1 winners last week, three were out of unraced mares, five were maidens and another five were winners. Of the winning dams, one was a multiple listed winner over hurdles, another was a listed winner and group-placed on the flat, while Marine Nationale’s dam was rated 97 on the flat (her son is by a failed flat sire in French Navy).

In 2024, the 14 Grade 1 winners were produced by four unraced dams, three maidens and seven winners, two of which gained blacktype. The previous year, the argument for racing mares was even stronger, with all of the Grade 1 producers having raced.

Some may argue that, if some mares remained maidens, or only won minor races, that it has little influence on their suitability for breeding, but I disagree. Racing a mare, or any horse, reveals unsoundness, whether it be of mind, limb or wind. It’s also the belief of Willie Mullins, as reported by Lissa Oliver from the ITBA for this publication.

Mullins said: “When you look at the French stores, you can go back two or three generations and all the dams ran. You can see soundness on the page, even if there is no blacktype. We’ve trained crooked horses that have won, but I won’t forgive an oil painting with only one runner on the page.”

Fashion is temporary

While all this can be considered by breeders, it also gives hope to those shopping on a smaller budget at the store sales, as leading sires and pages filled with blacktype didn’t guarantee you a winner at Cheltenham. It also made for some inspiring prices when last week’s winners were offered unraced.

Of the 13 Grade 1 winners, 10 went through the ring and only one cost over €100,000 as an unproven horse (Kopek Des Bordes, €130,000). Of the 28 races over the week, 18 were offered unraced at public auction, and just three of those cost over €100,000. To put that in perspective, 196 horses cost €100,000 and upwards at British and Irish store sales between 2020 and 2023, and they are now aged between five and eight years of age.

Some of last week’s victors sold for more once they had gone some way to showcasing their ability, though private sales mean it’s unclear how much more. However, of the Grade 1 winners, Golden Ace was bought by her current owner for 12,000gns, Lecky Watson was sourced by Willie Mullins and Harold Kirk for €60,000, while Bambino Fever couldn’t find a buyer at €30,000.

National Hunt Cup winner Haiti Couleurs also went unsold as a store at €2,800, while Cross Country hero Stumptown cost €12,500 as a three-year-old. Jasmin De Vaux, now a dual Cheltenham Festival winner, cost Stuart Crawford €28,000, while Jango Baie cost €2,000 more, and would later sell for £170,000 after winning his point-to-point for Mick Goff.

I find results like these particularly heartening at a time when many have focused on the growing gap between the leading stables and the smaller operations. It also proves that those breeding for the sales ring – i.e. with only commercial appeal in mind – could find their fortune short-lived, after the high-priced progeny fail to live up to expectation.

It wasn’t just the top-priced three-year-olds that were absent from last week’s podium, but also the “star” point-to-pointers. Jango Baie’s most recent price of £170,000 was, in fact, the highest price paid for any point-to-point winner who delivered last week. Jimmy Du Seuil cost €200,000, but that was after winning a three-year-old bumper in France, while flat recruit Poniros sold for 200,000gns.

Caldwell Potter was already a Grade 1 winner over hurdles, when selling for a record sum of €740,000, so it’s unsurprising that the Golden Miller (Novices Handicap) winner took the title of the most expensive winner of the 2025 Festival.

After partnering Caldwell Potter to an all-the-way win, Harry Cobden said: “We got a bit of stick because of his price tag, but he’s proved everyone wrong – he’s cheap now, isn’t he?” Paul Nicholls, meanwhile, said: “It’s irrelevant what they cost.” I can’t say I agree with either of them, no matter how priceless a Cheltenham Festival winner is said to be.

More money, more problems

The lack of success last week for any ultra-expensive point-to-pointers doesn’t bode well for the highest bidders at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale, which took place after racing on Thursday. Of the 23 lots sold, 17 cost upwards of £100,000. Given the amount of Irish success last week, it was surprising that Gordon Elliott was the only Irish trainer whose name featured in the sales results.

Bloodstock agent Ed Bailey and Harry Derham were surprise buyers of the two highest-priced horses. The sale followed Derham’s only two Festival runners being beaten in the manner predicted by prices of 50/1 and 66/1.

Though Derham has made a bright start to his training career, he hasn’t enjoyed much success with expensive purchases. At the Caldwell Dispersal Sale topped by Caldwell Potter, he and Bailey spent £320,000 on Imagine and £170,000 on Mollys Mango, and has yet to win with either of them.

Derham learnt his trade with Paul Nicholls, who recently admitted that he is reexamining how he sources horses, following a lack of big-race success. Nicholls had one winner at Cheltenham and went 12 months without a Grade 1 winner, until Pic D’Orhy won his second consecutive Ascot Chase.

That was despite significant spends with agent Tom Malone, with whom he spent €5,965,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale and Goffs Arkle Sale for the last four years. Then there’s the £1,747,000 they spent at last year’s Goffs UK Summer Sale, to retain horses being sold by owner Chris Giles, not to mention numerous six-figure horse-in-training buys and private purchases.

Admittedly, champion trainer Willie Mullins and his agent Harold Kirk are hardly scraping the barrel at the sales, but last week proved that you needn’t have a big budget to hit the highs, nor will breeding a commercial prospect necessarily reward you in the long term.