WHAT a weekend it was for Fast Company and the Burns family. The now Overbury Stud resident Fast Company sired Devonshire who won the Group 2 Lanwades Stud Stakes on Saturday, and less than 24 hours later he had his first European classic winner when Jet Setting landed the spoils in the Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas.

Fast Company stood his first five seasons at Maurice Burns’ Rathasker Stud where he sired a high percentage of winners to runners, popular sales horses and good runners. Prior to this year they included the Norfolk Stakes winner Baitha Alga and Devonshire, a listed winner who was third in last year’s Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas.

Devonshire was bred by Patrick Burns, owner of Newlands House Stud, and sold by him for €100,000 at the Goffs Sportsman’s Sale in 2013.

John Ferguson was listed as the buyer, though the bidding was conducted by Joe Osborne, and the filly was the top priced lot at that year’s sale. Her value was substantially enhanced in the days before the sale when her half-sister Hurryupharriet won a listed race. She, like Devonshire, was trained by Willie McCreery.

Patrick Burns has had a long association with his family and bred Devonshire’s dam Nova Tor. The daughter of Trans Island was sold as a yearling in Goffs to Patrick Haslam for just €5,000 and she went on to win six races and run an amazing 40 times. Her next appearance, demonstrating the ups and downs of the racing game, saw her change hands at the Tattersalls December Sale as a five-year-old for 1,000gns – yes, that is not a misprint!

YEARLING COLT

She is now the dam of two stakes winners, Hurryupharriet (by Camacho) and Devonshire, while last year her yearling colt, also by Fast Company, was bought for €85,000 by Michael O’Callaghan at Goffs. He is named Veneer Of Charm and is a colt worth watching out for.

The story for Patrick started when he paid IR£1,200 for a daughter of Nordico, sold as a filly out of training by Jim Bolger. Named Nordic Living, the filly had raced a few times and she was out of a winning Diesis mare who was a half-sister to the Grade 3 winner and Hollywood Derby placed River Traffic. Nordic Living went on to produce 10 foals, eight of which raced and all of them won. They also included the stakes-producing mare Titian Saga.

Patrick has reinvested in the family as it is one he believes in – always producing tough racehorses. The recent elevation of the pedigree has certainly justified that faith and should Devonshire go one better and land a Group 1 it would not be the first time that Willie McCreery had worked such an oracle with a racemare.