CONEY Island landed the Grade 1 Bar One Racing Drinmore Novice Chase and connections will be hoping he can follow in the hoofprints of recent past winners such as Valseur Lido and Don Cossack. The Pat Tobin-bred five-year-old son of Flemensfirth is the first winner for his unraced Milan dam Millys Gesture but he comes from a female line that is awash with top-class National Hunt performers.

That said, the family has recent origins in Moyglare Stud, one of the world’s foremost private breeding operations. Coney Island’s third dam Temporary Lull was an unraced own-sister to the leading American runner Martha Stevens, and she bred the Grade 2 winner Wait Till Monday and is grandam of the Grade 1 Canadian International Stakes winner Relaxed Gesture.

Another noteworthy winner from Temporary Lull was the listed flat winner Rare Holiday but he is better known as the Dermot Weld-trained winner of the Grade 1 Daily Express Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. Perhaps buoyed by this National Hut success, one branch of the family reached out to the jumping world and with spectacular success.

Temporary Lull’s daughter Monumental Gesture, by Head For Heights, won on the flat and also was successful twice over hurdles. At stud her four winning offspring included not one but two Grade 1 winning hurdlers. The Be My Native gelding Rhinestone Cowboy was runner-up in the Grade 1 Cheltenham Bumper and then added eight hurdle successes to his career record, including victory in the Grade 1 Aintree Hurdle and the Grade 1 Tipperkevin Hurdle at Punchestown.

Wichita Lineman, a son of King’s Theatre and Rhinestone Cowboy’s half-brother, added further glory to the family when his nine wins under both rules included the Grade 1 Challow Hurdle at Newbury. He added a few Grade 2 hurdle races to the curriculum vitae and later won at Grade 3 level over fences.

Milly’s Gesture is a half-sister to Rhinestone Cowboy and Wichita Lineman, while another half-sister is the unraced Rare Gesture and her winners to date include the listed hurdle winner Me And Ben.

Millys Gesture has a number of young stock on the ground, some of which will hopefully add to Coney Island’s success in the future. Last year Aiden Murphy gave €55,000 for a Fame And Glory half-brother, now a yearling, at Tattersalls Ireland, while Oneliner Stables may have picked up a bargain when they purchased a late-May foaled Leading Light half-brother last month for just €19,000. Coney Island himself was a Tattersalls Ireland November Sale foal graduate, being chosen by John O’Byrne and bought for €34,000.