WHEN Shanagh Bob (Mahler) sold a year ago at the Tattersalls Cheltenham December Sale, it provided quite a fairytale story, and subsequent events have only added to the tale.

The pinhook result of that sale went to the O’Donovan family from Mallow, Co Cork. They bought a Mahler (Galileo) gelding for €10,000 at the 2021 Tattersalls Ireland August Sale and, named Shanagh Bob, he was an impressive winner of a Ballindenisk point-to-point before selling for £200,000 to David Minton of Highflyer Bloodstock.

Shanagh Bob was trained by John O’Donovan and his son Chris rode the four-year-old to victory at Ballindenisk. Chris told reporters in the post-sale interview: “Me and my girlfriend [Joanna Walton] ride out in the morning for a variety of people, and do the horses in the evenings; sometimes they nearly need headlights on! The whole family is involved. Thank God it has worked out well. It is brilliant when it pays off.

“People tell you that you are going to get this and that, but you never know until they go in. Our biggest result before sold for £60,000. We are very happy.”

Of Shanagh Bob, he added: “He has always from day one looked a good horse; we are thrilled. He has never put in a bad piece of work, from day one he has been a pleasure. He was in very early and it was luck! Hopefully, he goes on to do some great things.”

Minton also spoke on the day and said: “I have waited for him, I loved the horse yesterday, and I love him even more today. His performance last Sunday was very good.”

Facile winner

Well, Shanagh Bob, bred by Aaron Doocey, was a facile winner on his hurdling debut at Plumpton last month, but faced a much tougher task at Cheltenham at the weekend, battling well to land the Grade 2 Bristol Novices’ Hurdle. All eyes are now on a return to the venue in March. This was blacktype winner number 19 for Mahler, winner of the Group 3 Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot, runner-up in the Group 1 St Leger and placed in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup.

Eight starts, three in bumpers and five over hurdles, for Exit Bob (Exit To Nowhere) failed to yield even a placed run, but a Grade 2 win for her son Shanagh Bob means that her record on the track is now forgotten. She has four winning siblings, while her unraced half-sister Accordion To Bob (Accordion) bred the listed hurdle winner Too Scoops (Alderbrook) and is grandam of the Grade 2 Aintree bumper winner Dysart Enos (Malinas).

Cheltenham winners with light pedigrees

BRED in France by Andre Rousseau, Fugitif took his wining tally to five, all but one of them over fences, when he won the Grade 3 December Gold Cup Chase at Cheltenham at the weekend. Back in March he chased Seddon home when runner-up in the Magners Plate Chase at the same venue.

Fugitif is a son of Ballingarry (Sadler’s Wells), a Group 1 winner in France at two for Aidan O’Brien and one of his classic hopes for 2002. He contested a pair of classics, chasing home Rakti in the Group 1 Derby Italiano and then completing a 1-2-3 for Ballydoyle in the Irish Derby, behind High Chaparral and Sholokhov.

A further success at the top table followed in the Grade 1 Canadian International Stud. He then moved to the USA and enjoyed Grade 3 successes. Ballingarry died in 2020 but he has made his mark on National Hunt racing, principally in France where the majority of his 19 blacktype winners have been. His son Diego Du Charmil won a Grade 1 chase at Aintree, while Cap York was successful in the Grade A Leinster National at Naas.

Fugitif is the sole winner to date for the winning mare Turaine (Arvico). This is a family in which you have to trawl back to the fourth dam to find the next piece of blacktype form.

Broadway Boy

Another of the weekend’s big race winners, and with even less blacktype in four generations, is the five-year-old Broadway Boy. Bred by John Leahy, the son of Malinas (Lomitas) is showing a distinct preference for racing at Cheltenham. There he gained one of his three victories over hurdles, and two of his three wins over fences. In the latter case, these were in listed and Grade 3 races, and he was also runner-up to Flooring Porter in October.

A €12,000 foal purchase by Rathbarry Stud, Broadway Boy resold at the Goffs UK Spring Sale from Rathmore Stud for £22,000 to his current trainer, Nigel Twiston-Davies. Apart from unseating his rider once, Broadway Boy has not finished out of the first four in 11 starts, and has winnings of £130,000. He is the first winner for his unraced dam Broadway Theatre (King’s Theatre), and she was the only offspring of the unraced Blue Solitaire (Bob Back).

There are a few winners in the next two generations of the family, but it is only when you get back to Broadway Boy’s fifth dam that anything of note appears.

Shade Oak’s Telescope firmly fixed on success

A WEEK after writing about the breakthrough blacktype success for Telescope (Galileo) with Grade 2 Navan Novice Hurdle winner Slade Steel, the Shade Oak Stud stallion doubles up with his five-year-old son Harvard Guy gaining his second success at the Co Meath venue, significantly in the Listed Tara Handicap Hurdle.

Michael Hyde, acting for owner JP McManus, paid €85,000 for the gelding at the 2021 Goffs Land Rover Sale from Lakefield Farm, quite a profit on the £8,000 he realised as a just-turned yearling from his breeders, Shamrock Bloodstock.

Harvard Time is the first winner for his dam Chico Time (Presenting), a useful runner who won a point-to-point, a hurdle races and three chases.

Chico Time and the Grade 1-placed Knock On The Head (Flemensfirth), runner-up in the Galway Plate, are the only two foals out of Hilldalus (Mandalus). That mare’s grandam bred a number of smart performers, and half of her six winners won blacktype races. Two of that trio warrant special mention.

Hill’s Pageant (Welsh Pageant) was sent to what was then West Germany to win a Group 3 race, the most important of his six wins on the flat. He also won three hurdle races and a chase, and was runner-up in the Group 1 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham. His older half-brother Homeson (Bustino) was a smart hurdler, placed in a number of listed races over the smaller obstacles, but his single blacktype win was over fences.

Telescope

Peter Hockenhull’s Shade Oak Stud in North Shropshire is where Slade Steel’s and Harvard Guy’s sire Telescope (Galileo) stands, and is within easy reach of anyone heading on the ferry to Holyhead. There he stands with Logician and Dartmouth.

Bred by Barronstown Stud and raced by Harry Herbert’s Highclere Thoroughbreds, Telescope won the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot by seven lengths from Hillstar, the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes at York, was runner-up to Taghrooda in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and placed behind Australia and The Grey Gatsby in the Group 1 Juddmonte International.