IT was with mixed emotions that I recently received the stud-book for Diana Vasicek’s Kenilworth House Stud. Until recently Diana and her husband Joerg ran this operation in unison, aided significantly by their manager Gerry Ross.

Joerg’s untimely death came as a great shock to his family and many friends in the industry and he was remembered with great fondness at the recent ITBA national awards when Diana and Gerry were presented with the leading chaser award for Carlingford Lough.

That six-time Grade 1 winner is well represented among the 16 quality mares at Kenilworth House, with three half-sisters based there. They are Aventia, Turica and Vindonissa. The first of that trio is a daughter of Bob Back and therefore a full-sister to the Grade 1 Tolworth Hurdle winner Thisthatandtother.

Leading the way among the five flat broodmares are the Group 1 winners La Collina (Phoenix Stakes and Matron Stakes), and the champion Irish two-year-old filly and Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Termagant.

The stakes-placed Topka is dam of Group 2 Prix Hocquart winner Top Trip, also placed in the Ascot Gold Cup, while What A Picture is a stakes-producer and is joined on the roster by her daughter Majenta.

The Grade 2 winning hurdler and Champion Hurdle placed Bilboa carried Joerg’s colours and she has just turned 20. Seven of her first eight foals visited the winners’ enclosure, and the only one not to do so was the Definite Article mare Bisoguet. She was however placed seven times over jumps in France and joins her dam at stud.

Amber Light’s first three foals are winners and she is a daughter of the Irish Grand National winner Ebony Jane. Amber Light was a point-to-point winner, as was her half-sister Ebony Palm.

Theatre Guide is one of the many stars this season for Colin Tizzard and his full-sister is the winning point-to-pointer Erins Stage, while the Grade 2 Peter Marsh Chase winner The Outlier’s bumper and hurdle winning half-sister Shuil A Hocht is dam of two winners with her first two runners.

The broodmare band is completed by a pair of AQPS mares, the six-time winner Bambouzle who is expecting her first foal, and the three-time winner Quaspia who is from the family of Irish Grade 1 winning chaser Notre Pere.

With 14 foals due in the coming weeks and months, it will be a busy springtime in Newcastle, just outside Clonmel.