WHAT a memorable few days it was at Aintree for J.P. McManus and his family. While I Am Maximus stole the headlines, his was not the only big race success celebrated in the famous green and gold colours of the Limerick man.

Some of these wins were extra special, thanks to the winners being bred by Noreen McManus. The Gavin Cromwell-trained Inothewayurthinkin won his first two starts over hurdles in November 2022, and then went without a victory until Cheltenham where he ran away with the Kim Muir Chase.

Now he has stepped up a notch and run out a comfortable winner of the Grade 1 Mildmay Novices’ Chase.

This all happened a day before the Walk In The Park (Montjeu) gelding’s full-sister Limerick Lace started co-favourite for the Grand National, and she was a creditable tenth of the 21 finishers. Also a McManus homebred, Limerick Lace has found her forte over fences, and while she won a bumper and a hurdle race, she has posted five victories over fences, including a pair of Grade 2 races at Cheltenham and Naas.

First blacktype

Inothewayurthinkin was winning his first blacktype race at Aintree, though over Christmas he was placed in the Grade 1 Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick. His half-brother Ilikedwayurthinkin (Yeats) was no slouch and this dual winner over both hurdles and fences was runner-up in a Grade 3 hurdle race at Aintree and in the Grade 2 Mayo Grand National Chase at Ballinrobe.

They are among five winners out of the smart racemare Sway (Califet), and one of those five is a hurdle-winning daughter of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells).

Sway was trained in France by Guy Cherel and she twice won on the flat at three before landing three listed hurdle races among four successes over jumps that same year. She was then bought to race in England, joined Jonjo O’Neill, and won a couple of chases as a four-year-old. Her half-brother Romanesco (Epistolaire) was trained by Gordon Elliott, won a point-to-point, a hurdle race and three chases, but reserved his best efforts for defeats.

Second in the Grade B Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown, Romanesco was placed at Cheltenham in the Kim Muir Chase, and he looked like finishing in the money in the Irish Grand National when he fell at the last, the only horse to fall in the race that year.

Seven races

Inothewayurthinkin’s third dam Quadrige Du Marais won seven races in France, three over jumps, and while she only bred a single winner, she is grandam of Oiseau De Nuit (Evening World).

He was a Grade 3 winner over fences at both Aintree and Cheltenham, at the latter venue being victorious in the Grand Annual Chase. This is also the family of Grade 1 Royal Bond Hurdle winner Farren Glory (Fame And Glory), and Grade 3 hurdle winner Croke Park (Walk In The Park).

The latest Grade 1 winner for Walk In The Park, Inothewayurthinkin was not the sire’s only son to do so at Aintree, and Jonbon won in the McManus colours too. Having cost J.P. £570,000 at the sales, it was assumed by many that he would never win that back. Wrong! He has now banked £750,000, and the eight-year-old is now probably odds-on to reach the million mark.

What a record Jonbon has compiled, six Grade 1 wins among his 14 victories in 17 starts (including a point-to-point), and he was runner-up every time he was beaten, all three times in Grace 1 chases.

He and his full-brother Douvan (Walk In The Park) are the only winners from Star Face (Saint Des Saints), and Douvan visited the winners’ enclosure 17 times, eight of these in Grade 1s. Both Jonbon and Douvan won at the highest levels over hurdles and fences, and at Aintree and Cheltenham.

Mystical Power

Another Grade 1 to come the way of J.P. McManus and partners was the Grade 1 Top Novices’ Hurdle and here the five-year-old son of two greats, Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) and Annie Power (Shirocco), made amends for his sole defeat to date at the hands of Slade Steel in the Supreme Novices’ at Cheltenham. One can only wonder what heights Mystical Power can reach.

Mystical Power is the first foal of the Grade 1 Champion Hurdle winner Annie Power, triumphant in three bumpers before recording a dozen wins over hurdles. Other top-level victories came in the Aintree Hurdle and a trio of mares’ races at Punchestown and Fairyhouse.

Runner-up in the Grade 1 World Hurdle, the only other time she was beaten was when she had the Grade 1 mares’ hurdle at Cheltenham at her mercy. As Ruby Walsh has often said, “that hurt”.

Diamond Boy sparkles at Aintree

WHEN Impaire Et Passe won the 2023 Grade 1 Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, bred by Haras de Peyre and Mrs Pascale Papon, there was a strong Irish connection, as the winner’s sire, Diamond Boy (Mansonnien), stands at Con and Claire O’Keeffe’s Kilbarry Lodge Stud in Co Waterford.

With that win, he became the stallion’s second winner at this level, following the dual Grade 1-winning chaser L’Homme Presse. Now the Willie Mullins-trained six-year-old has surpassed the latter’s achievement, and his Grade 1 Aintree Hurdle victory is his third at the highest level, as last April Impaire Et Passe won the Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown.

A winner on the flat at Nancy, Impaire Et Passe was sold at an Arqana Online Sale for €155,000 to Highflyer Bloodstock and made his way to Willie Mullins. He has now been successful five times over hurdles, including a Grade 2 at Punchestown, and all his placed runs have come in Grade 1 races.

Impaire Et Passe is the first foal and winner for his dam, Brune Ecossaise (Le Fou), and she was placed a total of six times between the flat and jumps in France. He has been joined on the winners’ podium by his half-sister Joliepoule (Cokoriko) who won twice in France last year.

This female line is light on winners, and the only other blacktype performer in the first four generations is Foudre Delta, also a son of Diamond Boy and a grandson of Impaire Et Passe’s third dam.

The five-year-old mare Diva Luna gave Diamond Boy a second Aintree winner when she won the Goffs-sponsored Grade 2 mares’ bumper. Placed on her only start in a point-to-point, Diva Luna made a winning debut on the racecourse when she collected a listed mares’ bumper at Market Rasen. She is a talented mare, and one to keep an eye on.

Sam Curling

Bred by Con and Claire O’Keeffe’s Kilbarry Farm Enterprises, Diva Luna sold to Sam Curling as a foal at Fairyhouse, and for €50,000 as a three-year-old at Goffs to Cobajay Stables. A half-sister to three-time hurdles winner Della Casa Lunga (Champs Elysees), Diva Luna’s four-year-old full-sister Longhouse Gem (Diamond Boy) is with Sam Curling after he purchased her last year at the Derby Sale for €25,000.

Diva Luna is a daughter of the placed pointer Longhouse Presents (Presenting), a half-sister to the Goffs Thyestes Chase winner Longhouse Poet (Yeats). He was the best of the three winners bred by the unplaced Moscow Madame (Moscow Society). In spite of showing nothing on the track, Moscow Madame was a half-sister to Well Presented (Presenting), a Grade 2 chase winner at Naas and second in the Grade 1 Dr P J Moriarty Novice Chase at Leopardstown.

With victories like these, it is little wonder that Diamond Boy saw a massive uplift in popularity last year, covering more than 240 mares. He will surely be as busy again in 2024.