WHYTEMOUNT Stud stallion Stowaway was 21 when he died and his loss was considerable, something that the recent Cheltenham Festival advertised in style.
Put The Kettle On, the previous year’s Arkle winner, made history by becoming the first of her sex to land the Champion Chase.
Monkfish, also a Grade 1 star there in 2020, extended his unbeaten record over fences in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, his third consecutive win at the highest level. Fiddlerontheroof chased home Monkfish, Telmesomethinggirl easily won the Grade 2 Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, The Shunter won the Grade 3 Paddy Power Handicap Chase, and Kilcruit was a half-length runner-up in the Grade 1 Champion Bumper.
Valirann is a member of the stud’s current team and the quick start he made with his first point-to-pointers suggests that he could have a big future ahead of him, especially as a sire of chasers. His eldest offspring are only five but he is off the mark on the track too.
Knappers Hill won a Chepstow bumper by seven lengths on his debut in October and followed-up with listed success at Ascot, the Paul Nicholls-trained €155,000 Goffs Land Rover Sale graduate his sire’s first blacktype winner. Ronnie O’Neill, owner of Whytemount Stud, bred that half-brother to the Grade C Lartigue Hurdle winner and Grade A Galway Hurdle runner-up Swamp Fox (Windsor Knot) and their Grade 1-placed dual listed chase-winning half-sister Rene’s Girl (Presenting).
The Martin Brassil-trained Panda Boy made a four-and-a-half-length winning debut in a two-and-a-half-mile maiden hurdle at Punchestown at the start of the month. Like Knappers Hill, he is out of a King’s Theatre (Sadler’s Wells) mare. Booley Beach (dam by Gulland) has been placed in all three of her bumpers to date, each with a total margin of defeat of between half a length and four lengths and most recently at Sedgefield on the opening day of Cheltenham.
Valirann, an Aga Khan-bred, lightly-raced son of Nayef (Gulch), came within a short head of being undefeated in a five-race career in France and landed the Group 3 Prix de Lutece and Group 2 Prix de Chaudennay, both over 15 furlongs, on his final two starts.
His half-sister Valyra (Azamour), an unbeaten Group 1 Prix de Diane (French Oaks) heroine, died young, whereas their stakes-winning dam Valima (Linamix) is out of a half-sister to the mile racing star and classic sire Val Royal (by Royal Academy).
Filling Stowaway’s shoes is a considerable challenge for any horse. Perhaps Valirann will be the one to do it.
VALIRANN (FR), Bay 2010. Top rated 3yr old stayer in France in 2013. Won four races, £149,594, from 1½ miles to 1 mile 7 furlongs, at 3 years including, Qatar Prix Chaudenay, Longchamp, Gr.2, Prix de Lutece, Longchamp, Gr.3.
Retired to Stud in 2015, and sire of the winners of 3 races, and £28185 under N.H. Rules, including KNAPPERS HILL (IRE)
Stands at: Whytemount Stud, Kells, Co Kilkenny, R95 KW01, Ireland.
Contact: Ronnie O’Neill, John O’Neill
Telephone: +353 (0)56 7728152 or +353 (0)85 7044031
Email: whytemountstud@gmail.com
Fee: €2,500 colt / €1,000 filly