NOEL and Valerie Moran spoke at length with me earlier this year, talking about their love for racing, their hopes for the future, and at the weekend in Navan they had the sort of success that their huge investment in Bective Stud, and in young stock at the sales, fully deserved.

Wingmen, whose pedigree is profiled on the following page, kicked off on Saturday with victory on his hurdling debut, and later Found A Fifty (Solskjaer) won the Grade 2 Bar One Racing Fortria Chase. The Bective homebred The Yellow Clay (Yeats) continued the winning run with success in the Grade 3 Monksfield Novice Hurdle, and then Better Days Ahead (Milan) made a winning debut over fences, with the promise of better to come.

Solskjaer (Danehill) stood for just two seasons in Ireland at David Stack’s Coolagown Stud after his importation from South Africa. His son Shogunner was runner-up there in the Group 1 Sansui Summer Cup, while seven more of his sons and daughters were stakes-placed. He has had few opportunities in this part of the world, but he is responsible for a star, in the shape of Found A Fifty.

The seven-year-old gelding earned Thomas Fahey a Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Breeder of the Month award after he won the Grade 1 novice chase at Leopardstown last Christmas, and then affirmed his class when adding the Grade 1 Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree. He has been runner-up three times at Grade 1 level, including at Cheltenham in March.

Found A Fifty won his only point-to-point at four, 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 the Bective Stud silks and trained by Gordon Elliott. He was placed that day, won over hurdles and was graded-placed, and now he has won five of his eight chases, being second on the other three.

Family affair

Mark Fahey partnered the dam of Found A Fifty, Fillmein (Gone Fishin), 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 had been 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, and the frustrating Field Robin (Robin Des Pres) who placed 11 times, including in a Grade 3 hurdle, but never managed to win a race.

When I interviewed Noel and Valerie Moran, Noel was keen to speak about one horse. He said: “We are now beginning to see some of our homebreds running, and we had our first winner, The Yellow Clay, last year, and that was very special.”

I pressed them to pick a favourite racehorse, and Valerie stayed close to home for her choice. “For me it has to be The Yellow Clay, the first of our homebreds to win. He won his first two bumpers, including a listed race at Limerick, and at Cheltenham was sixth in the [Grade 1] Champion Bumper. It has been special to watch him grow into the horse he is today.” After the interview The Yellow Clay rounded off his season when runner-up in the Grade 1 Champion Bumper at Punchestown.

Imagine how proud Noel and Valerie will have been when, at the weekend, The Yellow Clay ran out a 10-length winner of the Grade 3 Monksfield Novice Hurdle, his second start and second win over the smaller obstacles.

This was Gordon Elliott’s seventh win in the last 10 editions of the race, and he won it also with Death Duty, Samcro, Fury Road, Fakiera, Hollow Games and Croke Park.

The Yello Clay

Bective Stud is run for the couple by Michael Lynam, and I recall his delight when The Yellow Clay won the Listed Kevin McManus Bookmaker INH Flat Race at Limerick last year. The team had persevered with the gelding’s dam Winning Indian, an unraced daughter of Indian Danehill (Danehill).

That mare went to stud in 2009, but had a hit and miss decade before foaling The Yellow Clay, her first winner. Hopefully she will add to that in time, as she has a four-year-old filly, The Queen Of Zim (Getaway), a two-year-old gelding Speedy (Crystal Oceans), and a yearling colt by Jukebox Jury (Montjeu).

Winning Indian is a half-sister to four bumper winners, three of which went on to win over hurdles and/or fences. Their dam Winning Sally (Lancastrian) is a half-sister to Dainty Daisy (Buckskin), That mare bred the Grade 1 hurdle winner Dedigout (Bob Back) who was twice runner-up in Fairyhouse Grade 1 chases, the Powers Gold Cup and the Drinmore Novice Chase.

Winning Sally is a daughter of Winning Nora (Northfields). Bred for the flat, Winning Nora won twice at three when trained by Kevin Prendergast for Mrs Maria Mehl-Muelhens, after whom the German 2000 Guineas is named. After that she moved to Dessie Hughes and won a number of races, before being acquired by Denis Reddan. Michael Hourigan took over the training reins and the mare gained a listed hurdle win at the now defunct Tralee, while she was runner-up in the Kerry National and third in the Galway Plate.

Bective Stud had a welcome, and indeed, first Cheltenham Festival winner in March when Better Days Ahead (Milan) made amends for near misses by Firefox and Found A Fifty on the opening day of the meeting, leading home an Irish clean sweep in the concluding race of the meeting, the Martin Pipe Hurdle. He finished third when stepped up in class for the Grade 1 War of Attrition Novice Hurdle at Punchestown.

Perfect start

Now the six-year-old gelding has made the perfect start to his chasing career with a fine defeat of Slade Steel at Navan. He has now won under all National Hunt codes, a point-to-point, bumper, two hurdle races and a chase.

Bred by TJ Nagle, Better Days Ahead was sold by Lakefield Farm to Warren Ewing for €47,000 at the Goffs Land Rover Sale, and then was resold for £350,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale two years ago – and that wasn’t the top price on the night!

Better Days Ahead is one of four racecourse winners, all by Milan (Sadler’s Wells), out of the placed point-to-pointer Bonnie And Bright (Topanoora), though she also has another two point-to-point winners, and four more offspring who have been placed on the track. Of the 10, Better Days Ahead stands out.

Bonnie And Bright had three winning siblings, the best of which was The Bishop Looney (Oscar), a graded winner over hurdles and fences. His best wins were both at Cork, one being the Grade 2 Paddy Power Cork Grand National. Skip back to the fourth dam and up pops such as Breedsbreeze (Fresh Breeze), a talented runner who won a pair of Grade 1 races, the Tolworth Hurdle and the Feltham Novice Chase.