RICHARD Venn Bloodstock paid €54,000 on Tuesday at Arqana to acquire Ardissone, a nine-year-old daughter of Mataline and carrying her second foal to Kapgarde.

These sires are among the best in France and are well-known to National Hunt breeders in Ireland and Britain too. What made Ardissone more appealing was the fact that her half-brother is Al Ferof and he won again at the weekend when capturing the Grade 2 Peterborough Chase at Huntingdon. A point-to-point winner at Athlacca and a bumper winner when trained by Liz Doyle, he then joined Paul Nicholls and enjoyed great success, winning at Grade 1 level over hurdles and fences.

He could also have been a Grade 1 winner on the level but he found just one too good for him in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham. The winner that day was Cue Card.

Al Ferof’s Grade 1 victories came in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham and the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase at Sandown. He has won almost £425,000.

One of five foals from his dam Maralta, a winner on the flat at three, Al Ferof is the best of them, His half-sister Ardissone only won once, over jumps at Pau, but she was placed in a listed race at Auteuil.

While his first five dams are all winners – how often can you say that about National Hunt pedigrees here? – and all have bred winners, they have been short on black type. The first appearance going further back is under the fourth dam when one of the eight winning offspring was placed in a listed race.