TWENTY years ago, at the Goffs Land Rover Sale, Bobby McCarthy spent €7,000 to purchase a three-year-old daughter of Old Vic (Sadler’s Wells) out of the unraced Moon Storm (Strong Gale).

While the sale was staged in June, Bobby took the filly, later named Old Moon, back to The Beeches Stud in Tallow, Co Waterford, and she was covered weeks after by Flemensfirth (Alleged), whose first crop at the time were just five-year-olds. That crop had as its star Total Enjoyment, winner of the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper at Cheltenham, and that was to be the first of many star performers for the dual Group 1 winner.

Mating Old Moon with Flemensfirth was to prove a winning formula, responsible for a long list of winning offspring. Indeed, Old Moon had 13 foals by him in 15 years, and it was one of the last who gave Irish breeding a great fillip at the Dublin Racing Festival, being the sole Irish-bred winner among the eight Grade 1 races run over the two days.

Ballyburn (Flemensfirth) is the twelfth produce of Old Moon, her sixth winner on the racecourse, one of the mare’s stars in the sale ring, and he is now winner of the Grade 1 Brave Inca Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown, sponsored appropriately by Tattersalls Ireland who sold the winner.

Familiar colours

Now racing in the familiar colours of Ronnie Bartlett, who owns him in partnership with David Manasseh, Ballyburn was sourced as a foal by the astute scout Ian Ferguson for €80,000 at the 2018 Tattersalls Ireland November Sale. By then two of the colt’s full-brothers had blacktype, Noble Endeavor (Flemensfirth) as a Grade 2 chase winner at Leopardstown, while Minella Daddy (Flemensfirth) was placed in a few listed chases in England.

Even though Ballyburn is a Grade 1 winner over hurdles, and an immense talent, it is not too soon to be dreaming of what heights he can attain over fences. He showed his first glimpse of talent in public when he was a smart winner of a four-year-old point-to-point at Loughanmore for his handler Colin McKeever, the venue being home to Wilson Dennison who sponsored that contest. Dennison and Bartlett are close friends.

Transferred to the care of Willie Mullins, Ballyburn made two starts in bumpers, both times at Punchestown, and on the second occasion he had stablemate, and fellow Grade 1 winner last weekend, Dancing City, six lengths in arrears at last year’s festival meeting. In December, on his hurdling debut, Ballyburn had to settle for second best to Firefox, but he made no mistake over the Christmas period when slamming the opposition by 25 lengths to win his maiden at Leopardstown.

Odds-on

Back at that venue, Ballyburn went off favourite for the Grade 1 Tattersalls Ireland 50th Derby Sale Novice Hurdle, and won as an odds-on favourite should. He will now be many people’s idea of an Irish banker at the great Cheltenham meeting next month, and he is certainly one of the best young talents about.

After many years of having Flemensfirth as her sole mate, Old Moon now has stock by other stallions at The Beeches Stud. Her four-year-old daughter is by Wings Of Eagles (Pour Moi), while she has two fillies, a three-year-old and a yearling, both by Crystal Ocean (Sea The Stars). The yearling would appear to be her last produce, and Old Moon only failed to have a foal three times in 19 years at stud.

When Old Moon was sold as a three-year-old, her small price was in large part due to the fact that neither of her older siblings had done anything, though there were some half-brothers following on by the leading sires of the time.

Bobby McCarthy gambled on their likely success, and it is no surprise that he was proven right. In fact, seven of Old Moon’s younger siblings were later winners, Warden Hill (Presenting) being the best of them. He was runner-up in the Grade 1 Feltham Novice Chase.

Stands out

One thing that stands out in this female line is the fact that all of the dams are by leading sires whose influence remains potent to this day. Warden Hill was out of the unraced Moon Storm (Strong Gale), and that mare was a daughter of the unplaced Luminous Run (Deep Run). The latter mare had three winning offspring, while her grandson Tully East (Shantou) won at the Cheltenham Festival.

The fact that Luminous Run showed little on the track was a surprise, given that she was an own-sister to the Grade 1 hurdle winner Mole Board (Deep Run) and the listed hurdle winner Deep Dawn (Deep Run). They are out of the bumper winner Sharpaway (Royal Highway), and readers will now recognise this as a great Marshall and Ken Parkhill female line.

Sharpaway’s unraced daughter Sparky Sue (Strong Gale) has established her own powerful branch of this family. Her son The Railway Man (Shernazar) won the Grade 1 Dr P J Moriarty Novice Chase at Leopardstown, and over hurdles was runner-up at the same track, a lucky one for the family, in the Grade 1 Deloitte and Touche Novice Hurdle. Sparky Sue’s grandson Puffin Billy (Heron Island) and granddaughter Zuzka (Flemensfirth) were successful in Grade 2 and Grade 3 hurdle races respectively.

Distinction

Another member of Ballyburn’s family performed with distinction at the weekend in Leopardstown.

Bob Olinger (Sholokhov) lost nothing in defeat when running a fine second to State Man in the Grade 1 Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle, over a distance short of his best trip. He is a dual Grade 1 Cheltenham Festival winner, over hurdles and fences, and won a second race at that level over hurdles at Naas. Sparky Sue is his third dam.

If one could ever say that a horse was bred to be a Cheltenham Festival winner, Ballyburn fits the bill. Not only has his female line enjoyed some of its best results at Prestbury Park, but his sire is familiar there too.

However, success there in March would be the first for a son or daughter of Flemensfirth out of a daughter of Old Vic. That cross has also produced Grade 1 hurdle winner Minella Cocooner, Grade 2 hurdle-winning mares Queenohearts and Alletrix, Ballyburn’s full-brother Noble Endeavor, and the Grade 3 chase winner Shrapnel.

As mentioned previously, Total Enjoyment was the first of Flemensfirth’s Grade 1 or A winners under National Hunt rules, and she and Ballyburn are among a total of 106 blacktype winners for the stallion. It is always worth recalling Flemensfirth’s Grade 1 and A winners, stretching from Total Enjoyment to Ballyburn. For ease of use, the list is published as a table on this page.