HAROLD Kirk and Willie Mullins didn’t leave the 2020 Tattersalls Cheltenham February Sale emptyhanded, their sole purchase being the wildcard entry Brandy Love, a then four-year-old filly by Jet Away (Cape Cross) from the consignment of the leading vendor Colin Bowe.

Showing the attractiveness of racemares with potential, this €15,000 buy at the previous year’s Goffs Land Rover Sale beat five geldings to win her maiden, and the style of her victory that day attracted the multiple champion trainer Mullins and bloodstock agent Kirk to part with £200,000 for her at the sales.

Brandy Love has made just five trips to the races since, winning her bumper and being placed in a Grade 2 at the Dublin Racing Festival, and now adding a pair of victories over hurdles and being graded-placed. Most significantly though, her latest triumph came in the Grade 1 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Novice Hurdle Championship Final at Fairyhouse, a well-deserved blacktype success.

The six-year-old, bred by Kieran Ryan and Tim Nolan, is from the first crop of Arctic Tack Stud’s Jet Away, and is his breakthrough blacktype winner. Breeders have been flocking to the Wexford-based stallion, and he has all the ingredients one would look for in a potential leading sire.

He is a son of Cape Cross (Green Desert), while his female family is one of the most successeful of recent decades, producing no end of Group/Grade 1 winners and a number of leading sires. This is the family of Dansili, Cacique and Champs Elysees, all by Danehill (Danzig),

Jet Away was a listed winner and group-placed in England, but it was when he went to race in Australia that he gained the biggest of his eight career wins, in the Group 3 Easter Cup at Caulfield. He showed a great likeness for that track and just missed out on a Group 1 placing when he ran fourth in the Grade 1 Caulfield Cup.

Brandy Love is a daughter of the Grade 3 winning hurdler Bambootcha (Saddlers’ Hall) and comes from the family of another leading racemare Seskin Bridge (Laurence O) who raced in the colours of President Patrick Hillery. She is the best runner in a rejuvenated branch of a family that traces to Spring Campaign (Vic Day).

Spring Campaign

Tried without success in a few point-to-points, Spring Campaign proved to be a good matron, breeding seven racecourse winners back in the 1970s and 80s. Many of these were mares, a forerunner to what is happening today, and a number of her daughters went on at stud to be prolific winners producers.

The best of her runners was Credo’s Daughter (Credo), eight of whose 13 wins came over fences. She landed some tasty contests and came close to landing a major win, finishing second in the Mackeson Gold Cup and the Massey-Ferguson Gold Cup, both at Cheltenham. Owned by actors James Bolam and Susan Jameson, she was a hugely popular racemare.

At stud Credo’s daughter proved to be no less able, her best offspring being King Credo (Kinglet). He was a very smart hurdler, winning the Grade 2 Ascot Hurdle and the very competitive duo of the Tote Gold Trophy at Newbury and Sandown’s Imperial Cup.

Credo’s Daughter’s descendants also include the Grade 2 winning hurdler and chaser Josses Hill (Winged Love).

Driella’s influence

Though not in the same league as her sister Credo’s Daughter on the racecourse, Driella (Even Money) did win a couple of times over hurdles. She has had more influence from a breeding perspective, apart from her daughter Seskin Bridge winning races of the calibre of the Thyestes Chase and Leopardstown Chase, and finishing runner-up in the Irish Grand National.

A number of Driella’s daughters have established thriving branches of the family, and the many blacktype winners that descend from her include The Big Dog (Mahler), Psycho (Dr Massini), Saddlers Encore (Presenting), Billyvoddan (Accordion), Rainyday Woman (Kayf Tara) and Russian War (Moscow Society).