WITH the sales season in full swing, it’s a very busy time for the Newtownabbey-based bloodstock agent Kevin Ross and his wife Anna who not only are attending sales and looking after their children but have 11 pre-training horses riding out at Mount Top Stud.

Better-known for the many top National Hunt horses they have sourced, the couple are becoming increasingly involved in the flat market and were delighted when Isabella Giles won the Group 2 Shadwell Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket last Friday.

This win came on the heels of the Belardo filly’s Group 3 victory in the Prestige Stakes at Goodwood in late August.

Now the winner of four of her five races, the two-year-old is trained by Clive Cox for Paul and Clare Rooney on whose behalf Kevin Ross Bloodstock purchased the filly from her breeder, Ballylinch Stud, at the Goffs Sportsman’s Sale last year.

On Wednesday, the Rooney colours were carried to victory in the ‘Junior’ National Hunt Flat Race at Huntingdon by the Keith Dalgleish-trained newcomer, Arthur’s Seat. The three-year-old Champs Elysees gelding was purchased at the 2018 version of the same sale by KRB.

Among other recent successful KRB purchases was That’s Mad who, having started his career with Richard O’Brien and then moved on to Gordon Elliott, scored on his third start for Warrenpoint trainer Leanne Breen at Cork on Tuesday.

The four-year-old Equiano gelding, who is owned by the Tommy’s Boys Partnership, landed the five-furlong handicap by three-parts of a length under the in-form Gavin Ryan.

Shumaker

On the same afternoon, Templepatrick farrier Paul Traynor saddled partner Karen McNeilly’s eight-year-old Whitmore’s Conn gelding Shumaker to land the opening beginners’ chase at Punchestown while at Dundalk last Friday evening, Gavin Ryan carried the colours of breeder Leslie Laverty to victory in the six-furlong apprentice handicap on the Natalia Lupini-trained Dandy Man gelding Arnhem.

Other northern-bred winners in the period under review include Roseabad who, on her debut, won the EBF Future Stayers’ Novice Stakes for two-year-olds at Bath on Monday for the Mark Johnston yard.

The daughter of Awtaad was bred at the Meadowlands Stud in Downpatrick by Brian and Anne Marie Kennedy out of the dual-winning Daylami mare Dayrose whose previous five winners include the eight-time scorer Dubday (by Dubawi).

At Newcastle on the same day, Dragons Will Rise recorded his second career success in a division of the 10-furlong handicap. The four-year-old Dragon Pulse gelding was bred by Ivan and Eileen Heanen out of the Darshan mare Jaldini, dam also of the nine-time winner Jalmira (by Danehill Dancer).

Over jumps, the Noel Meade-trained Young Ted justified favouritism in the three-mile maiden hurdle at Punchestown on Wednesday. The six-year-old Fame And Glory gelding was bred by Kathleen McKeever out of the Lahib mare Last Of Many.