KITTEN Rock is a rising star in the National Hunt ranks, and although his 12-length victory in the Grade 2 Red Mills Trial Hurdle at Gowran Park last Saturday did not tell us anything new about him, it would be very interesting to see how he might get on in next month’s Grade 1 Stan James Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.

He is currently available in the general 25/1 to 33/1 range for that race, there is also an Easter Monday Grade 2 contest at Fairyhouse under consideration for him, and trainer Edward O’Grady indicated last week that the five-year-old could go chasing next season.

Hurdling and chasing are not what might have been expected of a horse of from his family, although he does share two particular traits with many of his relatives.

It is one whose best representatives tend to earn multiple pieces of blacktype and to become prolific winners.

He only won two from nine on the flat but has won six from eight over hurdles, including a listed contest, two Grade 3s, and now this Grade 2.

Kitten Rock was bred in France by GAEC de la Seguegne and Jean-Michel Campos, and he is a son of the Group 1 winner Laverock (by Octagonal) who has been a member of the Haras de Saint Voir stallion team in recent seasons.

Some of his offspring have been notching up double-digit tallies of wins, his fairly small crops include a mixture of thoroughbreds, AQPS and even Anglo-Arabs, but if Kitten Rock continues to notch up graded race victories then one would imagine that the stallion’s other progeny will attract more attention.

Kitten Rock is a half-brother to the multiple stakes-placed flat horse Volo Cat (by Volochine) and his dam The Cat Eater (by Tagel) is a five-times flat scorer whose stakes-placed full-brother Tagelovitch was successful a dozen times.

His grandam Eau Vive (by Overskate) did not race but has nine successful siblings and they include the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano winner Masterful (by Danzig), the Group 2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte scorer Corviglia (by Cresta Rider) and the Grade 1-placed stakes winner River Rhythm (by Riverman) whose career total reached 11 wins.

Their stakes-placed half-brother Apres Moi (by Filiberto) ‘only’ won three times, but Helene’s Galaxy (by Lyphard) won 12 and the score for Um Algowain (by Lyphard) was 11.

Swing Queen (by Kingmambo) was only placed a few times but of all of her siblings it is she who has made the most notable contribution at stud as her daughter Gallica (by Redoute’s Choice) won the Group 1 1000 Guineas and Group 1 Australasian Oaks in 2008/09 in addition to a couple of Group 2 mile contests at Flemington.

The third dam of Kitten Rock is a French winner called Moonlight Serenade (by Dictus) and her stakes-placed, dual-winning dam Tres Snobe (by Snob II) was also responsible for the stakes-winning pair In The Mood (by Yelapa) and Tuxedo Junction (by Filiberto), who notched up 16 wins between them. Some of these horses are quite remotely related to Kitten Rock but, like him, they are prolific winners and multiple blacktype earners who have helped to put their family in the news.