IN 2011 the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes winner Stowaway, a son of Slip Anchor (Shirley Heights), was the busiest stallion in Ireland or England, covering 324 mares, and he was popular until his death of a suspected ruptured artery in 2015 at the age of 21. This huge book of mares was almost 10 times the number he had covered three years earlier. Why the sudden interest?

Well, the third crop by Stowaway contained the Grade 2 hurdle winner Western Leader, and the fourth crop was headed by Hidden Cyclone, a multiple Grade 2 winner over hurdles and fences. These two horses were the forerunners to a number of Grade 1 winners who were waiting in the wings, so to speak, and the stallions’ loss was most keenly felt at Ronnie O’Neill’s Whytemount Stud in Kells, Co Kilkenny where he stood for his entire career.

His death in February of 2015 came after he had covered a single mare, resulting in a filly foal. His last full crop are now five-year-olds and the stallion is in the news after a sparkling weekend of success which saw him sire three blacktype winners at Cheltenham and another at Punchestown.

Bred at Hesmonds Stud, Stowaway was an inexpensive yearling purchase for Darley at just 25,000gns. In the care of Michael Jarvis at two, he made a late-season debut in a six-runner maiden at Newcastle, carrying the colours of Mohammed Bin Sendi. He won the mile event by four lengths and transferred to the care of Saeed bin Suroor.

Beaten half a length on his three-year-old bow, he was soon back to winning ways, landing the Group 3 Gordon Stakes at Goodwood before beating the subsequent St Leger and Coronation Cup winner Silver Patriarch in the Great Voltigeur Stakes at York. He didn’t run in the final classic of the season and instead was the mount of Frankie Dettori in the 10-furlong Group 1 Dubai Champion Stakes, where he was fourth behind Pilsudski.

Stowaway’s only other career start saw him win at Nad Al Sheba in a strongly contested mile and a half conditions race. His short racing career, consisting of just six starts, showed that he was a horse of considerable ability, and he remained in the ownership of Godolphin, presumably with some top-level targets in mind. Sadly he never raced again and two years later was acquired for stud duties.

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He started slowly at Whytemount, but once Stowaway’s progeny started to race, and win, breeders began to take notice. Ronnie O’Neill told The Irish Field: “It was about 2009 before the first really serious breeder came here for Stowaway, and it was hectic after that with him. He became very popular.” His final three years at stud saw him cover books of 306, 280 and 230 mares.

The first star for Stowaway was Champagne Fever, winner of the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper at Cheltenham before going on to add the Grade 1 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. In all he won four Grade 1s and was bred by Ronnie O’Neill. Champagne Fever was followed a year later by another O’Neill-bred, the Grade 1 Lexus Chase winner Outlander who compiled a total of three successes at that level.

Since their emergence the top-level winners have kept coming, and they include The Worlds End, Champagne Classic, Fiddlerontheroof, and a pair of Grade 1 winners at the most recent Cheltenham Festival, the Cyril O’Hara-bred Monkfish and the Arkle Chase winner Put The Kettle On. The latter was one of the quartet of big-race winners for Stowaway last weekend.

The six-year-old Put The Kettle On landed the Grade 2 Shloer Chase, her third graded chase win at Cheltenham, and she was brave in victory as she brought her tally of victories to eight, with four placings, from just 14 starts. She is a fine advertisement for the value to be got from racing a mare and her winnings of some €210,000 are a great return on the €22,000 Put The Kettle On cost Keith Phelan as a three-year-old in the Goffs Land Rover Sale.

Put The Kettle On is a half-sister to a single winner in Carningli (Old Vic). He won two bumpers and a pair of hurdle races for Rebecca Curtis and showed the family’s love for Cheltenham when runner-up in a listed bumper there. The pair are out of Name For Fame (Quest For Fame) who was bred and raced successfully by Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms. Sold as a four-year-old for 8,500gns, she then won over hurdles at the age of six and earned blacktype when third in a Grade 3 novice hurdle at Tipperary. Put The Kettle On was bred by Charlie Purcell’s Butlersgrove Stud in Co Kilkenny.

The Shunter

Paul Byrne’s The Shunter, a seven-year-old son of Stowaway, announced his arrival on the hurdling scene with a three-length win in the Grade 3 Greatwood Handicap Hurdle. This seven-year-old, bred by James O’Connor, is now a three-time winner, having been successful over fences. He is the first of just three foals out of the Gulland (Unfuwain) mare Tornado Lady who was placed in a point-to-point, beaten a dozen lengths into second place, from 14 starts on the track and between the flags.

While this might look unimpressive in terms of ability, Tornado Lady’s point-to-point winning full-brother Sumkindasuprstar (Gulland) gained the best of his four chase wins at the age of nine when surprising his more highly-rated opponents in the Grade 2 Webster Cup Chase at Navan. His half-brother, Florida Express (Florida Son) took a little longer and at the age of 10 won the Listed Imperial Call Chase in Cork. Their dam, the unraced Rockababy (King’s Ride) was a half-sister to Grade 3 winning chaser D’Argent (Roselier).

Jean Corrigan

What a wonderful tribute Stowaway’s eight-year-old son On The Blind Side paid to his breeder, Jean Corrigan, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Sold as a foal to Paul Cashman in Rathbarry Stud for €20,000 at Tattersalls Ireland, he won a point-to-point a couple of weeks before selling for £205,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale in early 2017.

A bumper and chase winner, On The Blind Side has been at his best over hurdles and his victory in last weekend’s Listed Paddy Power Handicap Hurdle adds to previous successes in the Grade 2 Hyde Novices’ Hurdle at Prestbury Park and the Grade 2 Winter Novices’ Hurdle at Sandown.

Up to the time of her death Jean had also enjoyed great success with On The Blind Side’s year-younger half-sister Well Set Up (Gold Well). She beat the boys to capture the Group 3 Kerry Group Cork Stayers Novice Hurdle at Cork and added a Grade 3 mares’ hurdle to her tally of five wins. Jean bought Such A Set Up (Supreme Leader), the dam of Well Set Up and On The Blind Side, for just IR2,100gns as a foal in 2000 at Goffs and she was unraced, being covered at four. She had six offspring, three of which were named and both her runners have been blacktype winners. Such A Set Up had just one winning sibling and that was the Grade 2 Cleeve Hurdle winner Knockara Beau (Leading Counsel).

Fury Road

What a good-looking store Fury Road was when offered for sale by his breeder Ken Parkhill at the 2017 Derby Sale. The then half-brother to multiple bumper winner and subsequent winning hurdler Monbeg Worldwide (Lucarno) realised €205,000 when sold to Aidan O’Ryan. Fury Road won a point-to-point at four, added a bumper last year and is now a four-time winning hurdler.

His win in the Grade 2 Celebration Hurdle at Punchestown is his second at that level, and in March he was third to another son of Stowaway, Monkfish, in the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Spa Novices’ Hurdle. Fury Road, Monbeg Worldwide and hurdle and chase winner Rebel Royal (Getaway) are all sons of the unraced Molly Duffy (Oscar), a half-sister to Grade 1 winner City Island (Court Cave).

Their dam Victorine (Un Desperado) did not race but her half-brothers Morley Street and Granville Again, sons of Deep Run (Pampered King), both won the Champion Hurdle. This is also the family of the 2020 Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper winner Ferny Hollow (Westerner).