A BUMPER winner on her debut for her breeder Philip O’Connor and his co-owner John Hallahan, Roseys Hollow caught the eye of many, and when she next appeared on the track she was sporting the colours of J.P. McManus.
She has started four times for the Limerick native and now looks to have booked her trip to Cheltenham following her second success over hurdles, running out a comprehensive winner of the Grade 3 Solerina Mares Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse.
Roseys Hollow has been trained throughout by Jonathan Sweeney for whom this was a third Grade 3 win, all gained with mares.
Roseys Hollow is fully deserving of her first blacktype success, and it almost certainly will not be her last. She has now gone one better than her only other sibling, Masons Daughter (Sandmason). That mare was a smart bumper runner who won twice in that sphere and finished second in the Listed Total Enjoyment Mares Flat Race at Fairyhouse. Sent hurdling, she won two of her three starts over the smaller obstacles. Masons Daughter was covered last year by Wings Of Eagles (Pour Moi).
Roseys Hollow and Masons Daughter are the first two foals, runners and winners for their dam Saoirse’s Sister, a daughter of Hubbly Bubbly (Mr Prospector). She was bred by Paul Rothwell at Lacken Stud where her sire, and later Sandmason, stood. Saoirse’s Sister is one of eight foals from her dam Supreme Troglodyte (Supreme Leader) and that mare’s only produce to show any ability.
In fact, Saoirse’s Sister did not make her debut until the age of seven, in a bumper at Clonmel, but she carried Philip O’Connor’s silks to success. Thankfully, despite three disappointing runs subsequently, she was given a chance at stud.
Saoirse’s Sister has an unraced five-year-old, Who’s Houdini (Beat Hollow), in training with Martin Brassil and he sold as a store for €90,000. There is a four-year-old gelding by Carlotomix (Linamix), a two-year-old son of Sandmason (Grand Lodge) and a yearling colt by Fascinating Rock (Fastnet Rock) following on.
While talent in the family may have skipped a generation, this is not a one-horse pedigree. Though she herself was only placed a few times, Supreme Troglodyte had four siblings who won on the track. One of these was Our Siveen (Deep Run) and at stud her best offspring was the hugely-popular Big Zeb (Oscar). Winner and placed in the Grade 1 Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham, all but two of his 13 victories were over fences, six times at Grade 1 level.
Another of Supreme Troglodyte’s siblings is her full-sister Pat’s Darling (Supreme Leader) and she is the dam of Pats Fancy (Oscar) who, having won over hurdles in November, was runner-up in the Grade 2 Bristol Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham the following month.
Roseys Hollow is yet another, as if it were needed, advertisement for the fine sire Beat Hollow has been, whether with his runners on the flat or over jumps. A triple Grade 1 winner in the USA after he had captured the 10-furlong Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris, Beat Hollow is from a family of good stallions and the odds of him being a success at stud were short.
He will forever be known for his son Wicklow Brave, surely one of the most versatile horses to have graced a racecourse in recent years. This Group 1 Irish St Leger winner gained his biggest success over obstacles at the Punchestown Festival when he won the Grade 1 Champion Hurdle. He was unbeaten in three starts over fences before losing his life racing in the USA.
Wicklow Brave is joined by the Australian Group 1 winner Beaten Up and the Group 1 winning juvenile filly Proportional as winners at the highest level on the flat by Beat Hollow who stood in more recent times at Ballylinch Stud. The Khalid Abdullah homebred had started his career at Banstead Manor Stud.
Over jumps Beat Hollow has shown himself to be no less successful, and horses such as Minella Indo, Cinders And Ashes and Hollow Tree have been among his best runners. His son Sea Moon is at Burgage Stud.
Ivan Denisovich comes in from the cold
REMEMBER Ivan Denisovich? The son of Danehill (Danzig) raced in the colours of Sue Magnier and partners, having been bred in Ireland by Irving Cowan.
He and his wife Marjorie raced Ivan Denisovich’s dam Hollywood Wildcat (Kris S) and she was the champion filly of her year at three in the USA. The filly, also bred by the Cowans, was unbeaten in her first four starts at two before her juvenile campaign was brought to a premature end thanks to injury.
Though placed on her first five starts at three, Hollywood Wildcat did not manage to win and the Cowans moved her from Emmanuel Tortora to Neil Drysdale in California.
She appeared rejuvenated by the switch and won five stakes on the bounce, culminating with victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita which she won from Paseana and Sky Beauty.
Raced on for two more seasons, the only time Hollywood Wildcat finished out of the first three was when sixth as she tried to win back-to-back Distaffs. Her 12 career wins, in 21 starts, included two other Grade 1s, both at Hollywood Park. They were the Gamely Handicap and the Hollywood Oaks.
Hollywood Wildcat is one of four mares who won a Breeders’ Cup race and went on to breed a Breeders’ Cup winner. Her son War Chant (Danzig) landed the Breeders’ Cup Mile and shuttled between the USA and Australia for a few years before settling down under. There he is sire of almost 40 stakes winners, one of them a Group 1 winner.
Ivan Denisovich won a Leopardstown maiden and the Group 2 July Stakes at two, both over six furlongs, running second to Silca’s Sister in the Group 1 Prix Morny. He added to his win tally at three, stretching to a mile in the Listed Solonaway Stakes at the Curragh, having run third in what was, in hindsight, a poor edition of the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot. Ivan Denisovich travelled stateside and was runner-up in the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes at Arlington.
Retired to stud at Coolmore, he saw his fee tumble in the space of four seasons from €9,000 to €3,000, and few would have rued his move to Chile. Ivan Denisovich was attractive to breeders there as one of his grandam’s half-sisters bred a Group 1 winner in Chile and went on to establish a good family of producers in the country.
Ivan Denisovich is on the radar this week following a breakthrough Group 1 win for his son Preparante in the Alberto Vial Infante, his first attempt at a stakes race having won two of his four previous starts. Preparante is a third winner at that level, among 13 stakes winners, for his sire and both of the others were rated champions in Chile, Nuevo Maestro and Marie Madelaine.