JAMES & DAVID EGAN (above), Corduff Stud and T.J. Rooney

Romantic Warrior (Ire), 2018 g. by Acclamation out of Folk Melody, by Street Cry

RECENT recipient of an ITBA award, Romantic Warrior gave the evening an added boost when he prefaced it with his 18th racecourse success. This was in the Group 1 Jebel Hatta at Meydan, and quickly followed a record third victory in the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup. In doing so, Romantic Warrior extended his world-record earnings to £18,132,187.

Those 18 victories include 10 Group 1 races, a pair of Group 2 wins and the same number of listed successes. His record is truly phenomenal, and owner Peter Lau Pak Fai and trainer Danny Shum have a true legend in their care.

The Group 1 Hong Kong Cup is not the only race Romantic Warrior has won three times in the country. He was first past the post on that number of occasions in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, and also annexed their Group 1 Hong Kong Gold Cup. In Japan, he captured the Group 1 Yasuda Kinen, and in Australia his Group 1 Cox Plate win was in their most prestigious race.

He was bred by the Egan family’s Corduff Stud and the American Tim Rooney. Corduff’s father and son team of James and David, along with the latter’s wife Henrietta, took one of the Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Breeder of the Month awards previously for Romantic Warrior, who was picked out as a yearling by Michael Kinane on behalf of the Hong Kong Jockey Club for 300,000gns.

NOEL & VALERIE MORAN

The Yellow Clay (Ire), 2019 g. by Yeats out of Winning Indian, by Indian Danehill

HOMEBRED by Noel and Valerie Moran at their Bective Stud, The Yellow Clay started 2025 in fine fashion, winning the Grade 1 Lawlor’s of Naas Slaney Novice Hurdle. This was Gordon Elliott’s fifth win in the past 10 years, and he previously was successful with Death Duty, Battleoverdoyen, Envoi Allen and the ill-fated Ginto.

The Yellow Clay is very special to Bective Stud’s owners and to their stud manager, Michael Lynam. He was and always will be the stud’s first homebred winner. He won his first two bumpers, including a listed race at Limerick, at Cheltenham was sixth in the Grade 1 Champion Bumper, and rounded off his first season when runner-up in the Grade 1 Champion Bumper at Punchestown. The Yellow Clay is unbeaten in four starts over the smaller obstacles, and will go to Cheltenham, fingers crossed, as one of the leading Irish hopes.

The Yellow Clay ran out a 10-length winner of the Grade 3 Monksfield Novice Hurdle at Navan for his second win over hurdles, and was back at the Moran’s local track to battle his way to victory in the Grade 2 Navan Novice Hurdle. He was mightily impressive when landing the Naas feature by eight lengths.

Michael Lynam sourced the gelding’s dam Winning Indian, carrying The Yellow Clay. She is a half-sister to four bumper winners, three of which won over hurdles. Their dam is a half-sister to five winners, one of which bred the Grade 1 hurdle winner Dedigout.

TONY O’CALLAGHAN, Tally-Ho Stud

West Acre (Ire), 2022 g. by Mehmas out of Lady Aria, by Kodiac.

HAVING been gelded, we can hopefully look forward to seeing the Group 2 Blue Point Sprint winner West Acre around for many years to come. Notification of his having suffered the unkindest cut came when he was still a yearling, despite having cost £95,000 at the Goffs UK Premier Sale earlier in the year. He is the second produce of a mare who was Group 3-placed winner at two, and cost Tally-Ho Stud 160,000gns as a three-year-old.

In addition to having had form as a race filly, Lady Aria is a daughter of Tally-Ho’s Kodiac, and she is now the dam of a pair of winners with her first two foals. There is lots to look forward to also, as her now two-year-old Starman daughter sold as a yearling for £185,000, the third best price for a filly by the sire among his first crop of yearlings.

West Acre raced three times at two, winning a five-furlong novice on his debut at Newcastle, running second at Kempton over a furlong longer, and then getting back to winning ways when reverting to the minimum trip at Southwell, finishing six lengths clear of the runner-up. All three starts were within eight weeks.

Sent to Dubai, West Acre was beaten a head when tried again over six furlongs, but made no mistake when again back to five in the Group 2 Blue Point Sprint. In the process he set a course record. This is a three-year-old who could go all the way to the top.

GERRY MCGRATH

Jetara (Ire), 2018 f. by Walk In The Park out of Jelan, by Milan

BRED to be good, Jetara is edging ever closer to a Grade 1 victory, and in January she gamely won the Grade 2 Yorkshire Rose Mares’ Hurdle at Doncaster, her eighth career success. Owned and bred by Gerry McGrath, Jetara comes from a family that has served her breeder well for many years.

Jetara has been a most versatile sort, numbering a listed bumper among her two wins in that code, adding a mile and a half flat race as a six-year-old, and all but one of her five victories over hurdles have been in blacktype contests. She was runner-up to Ballyburn in the Grade 1 Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown last May, after running third in the Grade 1 Honeysuckle Mares Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse. Now she has a choice of races to choose from at Cheltenham, the mares’ hurdle or the Stayers’.

Jelan is a bumper-winning own-sister to the Grade 1 Champion Hurdle winner Jezki and Grade 2 winner and Grade 1-placed Jenari, and a half-sister to Grade 1 winners Jered and Jetson, and the Grade 2 winner and Grade 1-placed Jett. They are the six winners out of the Phardante mare La Noire. An unplaced sibling to all of these stars bred the Grade 3 chase winner and Grade 1 runner-up Jetz.

La Noire did not manage to win, but six of her siblings did, and a pair of them won at Grade 1 level. Strong Run landed the BMW Chase at Punchestown, while Leading Run captured the Grade 1 Champion Bumper there.