WHEN Douvan won the 2015 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle it was the first time that racing and breeding fans really started to take note of his sire, Walk In The Park. Later that year another of his sons, Min, started to make an impression in novice hurdles.
In January 2016, Coolmore Stud announced it had acquired the son of Montjeu from France for stallion duties at Grange Stud. Since then, the Walk In The Park success story has developed at a rapid pace, both on the racecourse and in the sales ring, with more Cheltenham success provided by his sons Jonbon and Facile Vega.
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CHELTENHAM 2024 could be the week that finally decides whether Walk In The Park achieves what has looked a certainty at some stage, winning his first National Hunt sire championship.
He is primed to do so, and would be following the hoofprints of many other notable sires who have stood under the Coolmore banner, stretching back to Cottage.
Bred to be a classic winner, Walk In The Park was five lengths away from living up to that dream when beaten at Epsom by the race favourite Motivator. No less a phenomenon than Dubawi was three lengths back in third.
That was the highlight of Walk In The Park’s racing career, one that spanned 14 starts on the flat and, often forgotten, a single outing over hurdles.
Bred in Co Kilkenny at the Burns’ Lodge Park Stud, Walk In the Park was born on January 20th, 2002. He was a member of the first crop sired by Montjeu, a son of Sadler’s Wells who was a star on the track for owner Michael Tabor and trainer John Hammond.
Walk In The Park’s dam, Classic Park, was purchased as a yearling for 30,000gns from her breeder, Lady Halifax, and sent to be trained by Aidan O’Brien, racing in the silks of Patricia Burns.
Classic Park
At three, following a busy juvenile season that saw her win a Curragh maiden on her debut and come closest to a stakes win when denied by a head in the Listed Go And Go Stakes by Desert Ease, Classic Park started her second season with a stakes victory at Leopardstown, encouraging connections to take a chance in the Group 1 Airlie/Coolmore Irish 1000 Guineas.
Two fillies from Ballydoyle fought out the finish, the 20/1 shot Classic Park prevailing over her more fancied stablemate Strawberry Roan.
Walk In The Park was sold from Lodge Park Stud for €130,000 as a yearling, signed for by bloodstock agent Mags O’Toole, the first of three appearances he made in the sale ring. He resold for 270,000gns as a breezer, and at the end of his racing career Walk In The Park was acquired by Marc Semirot for just €195,000. When BBA Ireland bought him as a two-year-old it was for Montjeu’s owner and trainer combination.
While he failed to build on his career-best run in the Derby, thankfully Walk In The Park was given a chance at stud. Five seasons at Haras du Val Raquet and three at Haras des Granges saw his fee decline to just €1,500 in 2015, the year that he burst on the scene with Douvan’s success at Cheltenham.
While one swallow does not make a summer, the astute team at Coolmore and Grange Studs were encouraged to go shopping, and Walk In The Park moved to Ireland.
A number of factors played a strong hand in making the decision to purchase Walk In The Park, who covered small books in France, one being the fact that his stock were in such demand at the sales. There may have been few of them, but they regularly featured among the top lots.
Growing influence
A combination of success on the track, Montjeu’s growing influence as a sire of sires, Min emerging as a real talent just before Walk In The Park commenced his first season in Ireland, the quality of his stock, and the fact that Coolmore’s National Hunt division had placed their faith in him, meant that Walk In The Park covered more than 220 mares in his first season at stud. That year he had turned 16, but breeders simply could not get enough of him. His book of mares was stunning.
In his eight seasons in Ireland, Walk In The Park’s average book size has been 224, and only once, in 2018, did he fail to cover more than 200 mares.
While many others have covered larger books, none can match the quality of the mares who have travelled from all quarters to visit Walk In The Park.
His fee at Grange has never been public, but when you are covering mares of the calibre of Honeysuckle, Annie Power and Epatante, three winners of the Champion Hurdle who all visited him in 2023, then his fee is the least of your concerns.
To say that demand for sons and daughters of Walk In The Park is insatiable is to state the obvious. His tally of progeny selling at public auction for €200,000 or more stands currently at 23 since he came to Ireland, headed by Jonbon.
The £570,000 investment made in Jonbon by J.P. McManus at the Goffs UK November Sale at Yorton Farm has not only been repaid financially, but the Nicky Henderson-trained eight-year-old has given his owners immense pleasure, his dozen victories featuring five Grade 1 races.
Jonbon’s only defeats have come at Cheltenham, at the hands of Constitution Hill, El Fabiolo and Elixir Du Nutz, and hopes that he will right that omission on his curriculum vitae in March are high.
Best runners
Douvan and Min flew the flag for Walk In The Park for a long time, between them winning a staggering 15 Grade 1 races, the former having the edge on Min in terms of their individual contributions.
Jonbon will challenge both if he stays sound and continues with his current streak, while Facile Vega is the best of the runners sired by Walk In The Park since he moved to Ireland. That gelding’s count of Grade 1 victories stands at four.
Given Walk In The Park’s standing in the stallion ranks, and the numbers of runners due in the years ahead, he is set to dominate the tables for some years to come. While he is out of reach for most National Hunt breeders, those who have used him are being rewarded at the sales.
Five of the top six foals sold at the Goffs December National Hunt Sale last year were sons of Walk In The Park, realising between €80,000 and €110,000.
ASKING for 10 offspring by Walk In The Park to watch out for is an almost impossible task. As soon as you mention a recent winner who looks as though he or she could fit the criteria, another is certain to appear. Nonetheless, I will endeavour to highlight a few to put in your notebook.
Aurora Vega
(2018 f. ex Quevega, by Robin Des Champs)
Owned and bred by the Hammer and Trowel Syndicate, and trained by Willie Mullins, Aurora Vega won her first three bumpers this season before finishing fourth - under a penalty - in the Grade 2 mares’ bumper at the Dublin Racing Festival in February. This daughter of the brilliant Quevega is a full-sister to Facile Vega, and is already an invaluable broodmare prospect even if she never stepped on a racecourse again.
Big Stage
(2018 g. ex Ceann Phoil Cailin, by Flemensfirth)
Gordon Elliott cast a vote of confidence in Big Stage when he bought him at the inaugural Goffs UK Coral Gold Cup Sale for £120,000, as he also consigned the gelding. Formerly owned by the Crocodile Pockets Syndicate, he will now carry the colours of Rachel Carthy.
Mags O’Toole bought Big Stage as a store at the Goffs Land Rover Sale in 2021 for €100,000, his value boosted by being the first foal of an own-sister to the Grade 1 chase winner Defy Logic.
Big Stage won on his only outing at Tinahely, and what caught the eye of many that day was the ease with which he disposed of a couple of runners with placed form already.
He put the race to bed quickly and was not extended to land the spoils. A chasing prospect in time, Big Stage is also related to another Grade 1-winning chaser in Strong Promise.
Country Park
(2019 g. ex Glacial Drift, by Rail Link)
One of a trio of point-to-point winners for his sire on the penultimate weekend of November 2023, which also included Big Stage, the Barry O’Neill-partnered, Colin Bowe-trained newcomer Country Park won a four-year-old maiden at Quakerstown.
A €33,000 Goffs December National Hunt Sale foal graduate won by a head, with the rest six lengths and more adrift. In December Country Park sold at the inaugural Goffs UK Coral Gold Cup Sale for £150,000 to Matt Coleman and Jonjo O’Neill.
Country Park is a full-brother to Goodtimecrew, another graduate of the Bowe academy who was sold for £135,000 and won a bumper on his first start for Harry Fry, and has been runner-up on both his hurdle outings.
They are the first two offspring of a bumper-winning half-sister to Wicklow Brave, a Group 1 classic winner and Grade 1-winning hurdler.
Gidleigh Park
(2018 g. ex Lindeman, by Presenting)
Harry Fry has a smart Cheltenham Festival hope in the shape of the Kelvin-Hughes-bred Gidleigh Park. His grandam is a half-sister to Denman, who won both the Gold Cup and the Royal and Sun Alliance Novices’ Chase there in the past.
Gidleigh Park made a pleasing debut in a Chepstow bumper last March and was put away for the summer months.
Fry could not hide his love for Gidleigh Park after the gelding made a winning debut over hurdles in November, stressing that he needed to be patient because of the horse’s size.
Nonetheless, Fry turned him out again a month later at Newbury, and the manner of Gidleigh Park’s victory showed that he is an exciting talent. At the end of January the horse won a Grade 2 novice hurdle at Cheltenham and looks to have booked his spot at the Festival.
Limerick Lace
(2017 f. ex Sway, by Califet)
Homebred by J.P. and Noreen McManus, Limerick Lace has found her forte over fences, and she will be one of the more fancied runners in the owners’ distinctive colours come Cheltenham time.
When she was fifth on her chasing debut, it was the only time Limerick Lace was out of the first three in her nine outings over fences. She followed up her runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Troytown Chase with a commanding victory after Christmas in a listed chase at Doncaster, a race won previously by Zambella (twice) and Ma Filleule.
Limerick Lace is a full-sister to Inothewayurthinkin, who 24 hours before that Doncaster victory was placed in the Grade 1 Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick.
Misteroddsocks
(2020 g. ex Fairy Hill, by Stowaway)
Sold for €125,000 last year as a store to Kevin Ross Bloodstock and trainer Ben Case, this gelding is as yet unraced.
Dick Frisby purchased him as a foal for €44,000. Why pick an unraced horse as one to watch? Well, it is noteworthy that Ross and Case went back to the sales in November and bought the gelding’s half-brother, a colt foal by Blue Bresil, for €88,000.
Misteroddsocks is out of an unraced half-sister to the Grade 1 bumper winner Bellshill, who went on to win a pair of Grade 1 races over hurdles, and another pair over fences. This is also the family of the Champion Chase winner One Man.
Mossy Fen Park
(2019 g. ex Msmilan, by Milan)
Sold by breeder Michael O’Neill for €30,000 as a foal, Mossy Fen Park is from the family of renowned chasers Viking Flagship and Flagship Uberalles.
In the space of two weeks last February, Mossy Fen Park went from being a close-up fourth on his pointing debut to winning at Nenagh for handler Sean Doyle. Sent to Cheltenham the following month, Mossy Fen Park sold for £200,000 and joined Henry de Bromhead.
Beaten by Predators Gold (since runner-up to Caldwell Potter in a Grade 1) on his hurdling debut, Mossy Fen Park justified favouritism in a messy contest at Down Royal the day after Christmas, but the winning rider Darragh O’Keeffe immediately said that he would make a smashing chaser. He is one to note, especially next season.
Nick Rockett
(2017 g. ex Eireann Rose, by Flemensfirth)
Purchased privately after he won his point-to-point for Pat Doyle. Nick Rockett ran up a sequence of wins in early 2023, landing a Thurles bumper, a Naas maiden hurdle, and he was a 15-length winner of a Grade 2 novice hurdle at Fairyhouse.
He was back at the Co Meath track on New Year’s Day to run out an easy winner of a beginners chase, following a promising debut over the larger obstacles.
Nick Rockett is out of a full-sister to Emily Grey, winner of a Grade 3 mares’ chase at Fairyhouse, and his fourth dam was the Cheltenham Stayers Hurdle winner Rose Ravine. That mare’s eight runners all won, the smartest of them being Cardinal Red.
Patter Merchant
(2019 g. ex Bowenscourt, by Westerner)
A profitable pinhook for Tim Dennis when he sold for €75,000 at the 2022 Goffs Land Rover Sale (now the Arkle Sale) from Rathmore Stud to Mags O’Toole, the Gigginstown House Stud-owned Patter Merchant won on his point-to-point debut at Dromahane in mid-November.
Six weeks later Gordon Elliott produced him at odds-on for his bumper debut at Leopardstown, and Patter Merchant battled hard with his main market rival to prevail.
A full-brother to the useful Bowenscourt, Patter Merchant is a horse who looks most likely to reward his followers when he goes chasing.
Piper Park
(2019 f. ex Shannon Theatre, by King’s Theatre)
Sold for £205,000 last November, Piper Park joined trainer Tom Lacey. A half-sister to a pair of former point-to-point winners who were successful over hurdles, she is out of an unraced own-sister to Grade 3 hurdle winner Blacklough.
Her third dam bred the Midlands Grand National winner Goonyella, while Allaho appears in the fourth remove of the family. Harley Dunne saddled Piper Park to win her only start to date, a mares’ maiden at Umma House, and she recorded a time that was nine seconds faster than the average on the day.
Her perfect start and successful family makes her a most attractive prospect, and her sale price indicates that many felt the same way when she was offered at auction.