IN the ‘science’ of breeding racehorses, there are always many contraditions and random successes occuring through the most unlikely of matings.

You might not have expected a daughter of the 2007 Arc de Triomphe winner to be mated with the top sprinter and source of speed Caravaggio, to produce a top two-year-old filly but that is what Dylan Thomas’ daughter Arya Tara did with her progeny Agartha winning the Group 2 Debutante Stakes impressively last week.

And the evening before in Killarney, Dylan Thomas was also the dam sire of the bumper winner San Salvador. His daughter Angel Chorus mated with El Salvador produced San Salvador. Both were bred by Annemarie O’Brien.

Increase open air numbers

AN evening spent up in the heights of Crockafotha Hill was good for the soul this week, out in the late summer sun. With 500 racegoers plus owners allowed it was still obvious that far more people could have been safely permitted to attend. The crowd was mixed but a pretty accurate guess would say that at least 99% of them should have by now been vaccinated and of course everything was outdoors.

It’s become tiring and monotonous quoting attendances at GAA and soccer matches, not to mention the amounts indoors in large shopping centres but hopefully some progress will be made this week. If elected representatives and government continue to give the deaf ear to our appeals, they can expect a blind eye from us when an election ballot paper appears.

DOES a horse’s name matter? There’s something about a short one word name on a good horse that somehow appeals to people and is enduring. News came that the Nigel Twiston-Davies trained chaser Beau passed away this week. He raced in the early 00s and was one of the four left standing as events unfolded in that never-to-be-forgotten (never-to-be-repeated) Grand National of 2001. Some of the more amusing Twitter comments this week showed people never forget a good horse.

Martin Chapman@MartinChapman12

The sight of Carl Llewelyn chasing after him when the reins went in that National is still one of the most enduring memories of that race!

Carole Owen@ocarole28

We named our cat after him, sadly he passed away years back.

(This must be tweet of the week!)