THERE was a plethora of high-class racing over the Christmas period, and this week I am taking a brief look back at all the winners of Grade 1 races over that period, in alphabetical order.
CALDWELL POTTER (FR) (2018 g. by Martaline ex Matnie, by Laveron)
Bred by Francois-Marie Cottin, Caldwell Potter won the Grade 1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown in fine fashion, and this was just the first time he had competed in a blacktype contest. The victory was especially meritorious for his unraced dam.
Caldwell Potter is one of five graded National Hunt winners from the first five foals for Matnie. The star is Mighty Potter (Martaline), a full-brother to the rising star Caldwell Potter, and this dual Grade 1-winning hurdler who won the race his younger brother captured at Christmas, is also also a dual Grade 1-winning chaser.
Matnie’s first produce was French Dynamite (Kentucky Dynamite), and he won the Grade 3 Pierce Molony Novice Chase at Thurles, and was placed at up to Grade 1 level.
French Dynamite was followed by Indiana Jones (Blue Bresil), and he cost bloodstock agent Alex Elliott a cool €280,000 as a three-year-old at the Osarus Maison-Laffitte National Hunt Sale in 2019. He too is a Grade 3 winner over fences and was placed in a Grade 1.
Caldwell Potter is next and was a €200,000 Goffs Land Rover Sale graduate. The year younger mare Brighterdaysahead (Kapgarde), the star of the 2022 Derby Sale when she sold for €310,000, won a Grade 3 mares’ hurdle at Down Royal last year, one of her four victories to date. She remains unbeaten and is worth a goldmine, even if she never raced again.
With a couple of youngsters by Doctor Dino (Muhtathir) in the wings, Matnie could become one of the most influential mares to come through the French breeding sector. She is a half-sister to The Dabbler (Presenting), placed a couple of times in Grade 2 chases. He is the only winning produce of Lirfox (Foxhound), nine times successful in France before joining Martin Pipe and adding three wins over fences. She was placed in a Grade 2 novices’ hurdle at Aintree.
CAPTAIN TEAGUE (IRE) (2018 g. by Doyen ex Dancingwithbubbles, by Supreme Leader)
Some weeks ago I wrote that ‘The Corrib Racing-bred Captain Teague is a name to watch for this season’. His most recent victory has done nothing to dispel that belief.
A €19,000 foal purchase at Tattersalls Ireland by Levittstown Farm, and a successful €70,000 pinhook as a three-year-old at the Goffs Land Rover Sale when selling to Milestone Bloodstock, he won his only start in a point-to-point and joined Paul Nicholls. Successful on his bumper debut, he was third in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper at Cheltenham to A Dream To Share.
On his hurdling debut he won the Grade 2 Persian War Novices’ Hurdle at Chepstow in outstanding fashion, giving his trainer a fourth win in the race in the past decade. Surprisingly beaten by Minella Missile at Cheltenham in November, he put things right in the Grade 1 Challow Novices’ Hurdle at Newbury, giving Nicholls a sixth win in the feature.
Cheltenham in March is now firmly back in the picture, and it was there that Captain Teague’s half-brother, Sky Pirate (Midnight Legend), won the Grade 3 Grand Annual Chase. Both graduates of the point-to-point field, Captain Teague and Sky Pirate are out of the Supreme Leader (Bustino) mare Dancingwithbubbles, a three-time winner who was placed in a listed bumper and hurdle race.
Dancingwithbubbles is a daughter of Cheltenham’s Grade 1 Cleeve Hurdle winner Kate’s Charm (Glacial Storm). That versatile mare, who went on to win over fences, bred two blacktype horses among her three winners.
Captain Teague is another reminder of what a good sire Doyen (Sadler’s Wells) was. Retired from stud duties at the end of the 2022 season, the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner is a Group 1 sire on the flat and a Grade 1 sire over jumps. Other jumps stars include Banbridge, Beacon Edge, and Battleoverdoyen.
CONSTITUTION HILL (GB) (2017 g. by Blue Bresil ex Queen Of The Stage, by King’s Theatre)
We are running out of superlatives to describe Constitution Hill, who extended his lifetime unbeaten run to nine, including a point-to-point, when he won the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle at Kempton for the second time.
Constitution Hill was bred by Sally Noott, and Barry Geraghty bought him with Warren Ewing as a foal at Tattersalls Ireland for €16,500, and sold him to owner Michael Buckley at the Goffs UK Spring Sale in 2021 for £120,000. Noott cashed in and sold the gelding’s dam Queen Of The Stage for £340,000 in an online sale to Jayne McGivern, wose intention was to cover her by Golden Horn (Cape Cross).
Queen Of The Stage won twice over hurdles, and was placed in a listed mares’ hurdle at Sandown. Constitution Hill is her first foal, and she is the dam of a second winner, Land Genie (Flemensfirth) who won a bumper last year. The mare has a yearling full-sister to Constitution Hill on the ground. Queen Of The Stage is out of the winning hurdler Supreme Du Casse (Supreme Leader), the only one of her dam’s three foals to race. The next dam Pede Gale (Strong Gale) bred three winners and was a sibling to six, the best being the Grade 2-winning hurdler My Sunny Glen (Furry Glen).
With more than 700 mares covered at the Cashman family’s Glenview Stud in the past three seasons, the name of Blue Bresil (Smadoun) will continue to make an impact for many years to come. He has earned his reputation as a star in the sales ring and on the racecourse by getting quality runners from smaller crops in his early years at stud. His 20 blacktype winners include other Grade 1 stars such as Good Land, Inthepocket, Blue Lord, L’Autonomie in France and Mick Jazz.
DINOBLUE (FR) (2017 f. by Doctor Dino ex Blue Aster, by Astarabad)
Dinoblue has no inbreeding in her pedigrees going back five generations. This daughter of the leading French sire Doctor Dino (Muhtathir) is a granddaughter of the listed hurdle-placed mare Blue D’Avril (Pistolet Bleu). She will eventually be an easy mare to mate.
A winner over hurdles, Dinoblue has truly blossomed since she has gone chasing, and her Grade 1 win in the Paddy’s Rewards Club Chase at Leopardstown was her fifth success over the larger obstacles, and her fourth and most important in a blacktype event. Her placed efforts include running second in the Grade 3 Grand Annual Chase at Cheltenham.
The JP McManus-owned Dinoblue led home a 1-2-3 for the owner and trainer Willie Mullins in the Grade 1 contest.
Bred by ML Bloodstock, also the breeders of State Man, Dinoblue is one of a pair of winners out of Blue Aster, the other being the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper runner-up Blue Sari (Saddex). That day the gelding, also representing McManus and Mullins, was beaten less than a length by Envoi Allen. However, he failed to build on that early promise, winning once over hurdles and fences subsequently.
Given that Dinoblue and Blue Sari have been runners-up at the Cheltenham Festival, it is appropriate that one of their close relations was victorious there. Royal Auclair (Garde Royale), a half-brother to Dinoblue’s grandam, won the Grade 2 Cathcart Chase. For good measure, the ill-fated Brindisi Breeze (King’s Theatre) appears in the fourth remove of the pedigree, and he won the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle 12 years ago.
Doctor Dino’s success as a stallion is well known to readers of this column, being highlighted on a regular basis. However, it is worth saying that Dinoblue became his eighth Grade 1 winner over jumps, joining Docteur De Ballon, La Bague Au Roi, Master Dino, Royal Margaux, Sceau Royal, Sharjah and State Man. This year he will stand for €22,000 at Haras du Mesnil.
FOUND A FIFTY (IRE) (2017 g. by Solskjaer ex Fillmein, by Gone Fishin)
Solskjaer (Danehill) stood for just two seasons in Ireland at David Stack’s Coolagown Stud following his import from South Africa. Though he failed to sire a stakes winner there, his son Shogunner was runner-up in the Group 1 Sansui Summer Cup, while seven more of his sons and daughters were stakes-placed.
Now he has finally made the breakthrough and his Thomas Fahey-bred son Found A Fifty made up for his defeat at the hands of I Am Maximus in the Grade 1 Drinmore Chase at Fairyhouse and landed the Grade 1 novice chase at Leopardstown at Christmas. While Found A Fifty stays a trip, the offspring of Solskjaer in South Africa showed their best form at up to a mile.
Found A Fifty won his only point-to-point at four in the silks of Maureen Fahey, trained by Mark Fahey, and he was then sent to the Tattersalls Cheltenham December Sale the following month where he was unsold in the ring at £180,000. When he made his bumper debut a year later he was in new silks and trained by Gordon Elliott. He was placed that day, won over hurdles and was graded-placed, and now he has won two of his three chases.
Mark Fahey partnered the dam of Fund A Fifty, Fillmein, to her three victories, a point-to-point and a couple of hurdle races at Ballinrobe and Sligo. Fillmein is also the dam of a point-to-point winner, but she had been quite a disappointment at stud until the emergence of Found A Fifty, now the best winner in the family in four generations.
That said, there are plenty of winners on the pedigree page, and Fillmein’s siblings include Rathmuck Native (Definite Article), a bumper winner and a Grade 3-placed, dual hurdle winner.
GAELIC WARRIOR (GER) (2018 g. by Maxios ex Game Of Legs, by Hernando)
Winner of the Grade 1 Guinness Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick, the manner of Gaelic Warrior’s victory was overshadowed by the spat between the winning rider and his cousin. Take nothing away from the winner, he is a special horse.
Foaled in Germany, his only unplaced run in 11 career starts was on his debut. Placed twice in France, he has only been beaten twice in eight outings for Willie Mullins, and both times at the Cheltenham Festival, denied a short head by Brazil in the Grade 3 Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle and last year when runner-up in the Grade 1 Ballymore Novices; Hurdle. He also won the Grade 1 War Of Attrition Novices’ Hurdle at Punchestown.
His sire Maxios moved to Castlehyde Stud to stand as a jumps sire in 2020, and breeders like him a lot judged on his book sizes. He has every opportunity to become a champion sire in this sphere, and has already made an impact with the likes of Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle winner Quilixios and now Gaelic Warrior. This year his fee is only €4,000, surely a bargain.
Don’t forget too that he has sired a couple of Italian Grade 2 hurdle winners, the Cheltenham Festival winner Aramax, successful in the Grade 3 Fred Winter Hurdle, and others, while on the flat he can claim a Group 1 winner in Diamanta, winner of the Preis der Diana-German Oaks. .
Gaelic Warrior was bred by the Niarchos Family, and they bred and raced Maxios (Monsun) too. A private purchase at the BBAG September Yearling Sale for €9,000, Gaelic Warrior has a number of full-brothers following on, the now three-year-old costing Willie Mullins and Harold Kirk €46,000 as a foal, the two-year-old selling for €60,000 to Bronson Racing, and there is also a yearling too.
GALOPIN DES CHAMPS (FR) (2016 g. by Timos ex Manon Des Champs, by Marchand De Sable)
Crowning glory of the 2023 Cheltenham Festival was the victory of Galopin Des Champs (Timos) in the Boodles-sponsored Gold Cup. Expected to cap his championship season with victory at Punchestown was not to be, and he was beaten by Fastorslow.
The latter inflicted a comeback defeat on Galopin Des Champs in the John Durkan last November, but any doubts about the gelding’s wellbeing or ability were put to rest when he beat Gerri Colombe by 23 lengths in the Grade 1 Savills Chase at Leopardstown. His tenth win in 16 starts pushed his earnings to more than £900,000.
Summarising the family of Galopin Des Champs doesn’t take long, as he and his full-sister Flute Des Champs (Timos) are the only blacktype horses in four generations on his dam’s side of the equation. The mating of Timos with the four-time flat winner Manon Des Champs, a daughter of Marchand De Sable (Theatrical), has therefore been rewarding, and the listed Auteuil chase winner Flute Des Champs was born a year before her Grade 1 winning full-brother. Manon Des Champs bred three winners in all.
A son of Glenview Stud’s Sholokhov (Sadler’s Wells), Timos was a listed winner in France at three and four, but put in his best performances in defeat, beaten a length by Allied Powers in the Group 2 Grand Prix de Chantilly and running third to Duncan in the Group 2 Prix Foy. He failed to attract decent books of mares and has just a handful of winners from very limited runners.
GRANGECLARE WEST (IRE) (2016 g. by Presenting ex Hayabusa, by Sir Harry Lewis)
JP and Leonard King bred Grangeclare West, and the gelding was a three-time sale ring visitor. As a foal, Richard Frisby spent €29,000 at Goffs to buy him, he resold as a three-year-old at the Derby Sale from Glenwood Stud to Joey Logan Bloodstock for a profitable €62,000, and finally Denis Murphy sold him to Cheveley Park for £430,000.
It is all eyes on Cheltenham now for the gelding after his six-length beating of Corbetts Cross in the Grade 1 Fort Leney Chase, sponsored by Neville Hotels, at Leopardstown. He has a smart race record overall to date, winning his only start between the flags, his sole bumper start at the Punchestown Festival, and two of his four starts over hurdles. He looked exposed over the smaller obstacles when disappointing in a pair of Grade 2 starts.
The dam of Grangeclare West was purchased as a six-year-old, having placed in a few bumpers, by JP King for €6,000, carrying Coeur Joyeux (Beneficial). The breeder got his money back when that gelding sold as a yearling for €15,000, and he went on to win a couple of races over fences, and be placed in Grade 2 chases at Punchestown and Naas.
Hayabusa, the dam of Grangeclare West, is the dam of three winners, while her sons Ashton Court (Court Cave) and Hands Of Stone (Shantou) were placed eight and seven times respectively. Hopefully the twice-placed Grangeclare North (Presenting) can give the mare a fourth winner, and there are lots of young stock waiting in the wings. This is a female line that throws up at least one good horse every generation.
Hayabusa’s half-brother Gunner Welburn (Gunner B) won the Listed Rowland Meyrick Chase and placed in the Grade 3 Welsh Grand National, and their dam Vedra (Carlingford Castle) was a half-sister to the Cheltenham Festival winner Celtic Giant (Celtic Cone), successful in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Chase.
HEWICK (IRE) (2015 g. by Virtual ex Ballyburn Rose, by Oscar)
Few horses have captured the imagination of the racing community, and an even wider non-racing public, than the bargain-buy Hewick. He kept the fairytale alive with his success in the Grade 1 King George VI Chase at Kempton on their Boxing Day, our St Stephen’s Day.
People keep mistaking the price he cost at the Goresbridge in October 2017. The price was €850, and he has now won well over £600,000. What a bargain he was and what a selection by Rachel O’Neill on the day.
Hewick is out of the unraced Ballyburn Rose who also sold at Goresbridge, for €300 as a foal and €1,400 five years ago. Hewick was bred by William Quinn in Castledermot, Co Kildare, and the mare now has a two-year-old son of Affinisea (Sea The Stars) who was bought by Shark Hanlon for €25,000 as a foal, and a yearling colt by Jet Away (Cape Cross) who cost Hewick’s owner TJ McDonald €20,000 at Goffs in December.
The Group 1 Lockinge Stakes winner Virtual stood for a few seasons at Cheveley Park Stud before moving to Woodlands Stud in Galway. Hewick is by some way his best runner under both rules. On the dam side of the family, the Galway Plate and American Grand National winner comes from a female line cultivated by Jim Mernagh over many years.
Ballyburn Rose is a daughter of three-time hurdle winner Bramble Fair (Montelimar). That mare was disappointing at stud, but she was one of two winning offspring from the unraced Gold Label (Deep Run). The only offspring of her dam Bardicate (Bargello) not to race, she bred a couple of winners and is third dam of Martello Tower (Milan), winner of the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham. Hewick’s fourth dam Bardicate was a twin, unraced, and produced a dozen foals headed by Deep Bramble (Deep Run) who won the Grade 1 Ericsson Chase.