THURSDAY’S double-header of Grade 1 races began with the Ryanair Chase, and for the eighth time in 10 years it went to an Irish-trained winner, J.P. McManus’s Fact Or File (Poliglote-Mitemps, by Trempolino), bred in France by Michel Pehu.

Last March, Fact To File added the Grade 1 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase to a Dublin Racing Festival Grade 1 win, and further enhanced his owner’s Cheltenham haul on Thursday when he won the Ryanair Chase. McManus’ achievements as a National Hunt owner will never be bettered, and his success was cheered by all in the winners’ enclosure.

Winner of his only point-to-point start for Donnchadh Doyle at Belharbour, Fact To File next appeared from Willie Mullins’ yard. He won a Leopardstown bumper, but then ran into A Dream To Share, finishing runner-up in a Grade 2 at the Dublin Racing Festival.

After that race, McManus bought the winner, and the pair gave him a 1-2 in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper at Cheltenham. A hurdling career for Fact To File was bypassed, with justification as his career has panned out. Four of his five chase wins have been in Grade 1s.

Fact To File cost Doyle €40,000 as a yearling at Arqana, and is the best of three winners from his unplaced dam. He is the second blacktype winner in his family in four generations. The only other nestles in the third generation.

Group 1 juvenile winner Poliglote had the rare, if not once-off, honour of being champion flat and National Hunt sire in France in the year that his daughter Solemia won the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. She was the only Group 1 winner he sired on the level in Europe, but he did shuttle to Argentina and there he got seven other Group 1 winners. Over jumps he has 17 Grade 1 winners and they include Politologue, Sire Du Berlais, Don Poli and Butler’s Cabin.

Bob Olinger

It would hardly seem right to leave Cheltenham without a winner bred by Ken Parkhill, and we won’t have to, as Bob Olinger (Sholokhov-Zenaide, by Zaffaran) won at the Festival for an incredible third time, in the Grade 1 Stayers’ Hurdle, and these wins have come in three different races. What a star he is for owner Brian Acheson’s Robcour, trainer Henry de Bromhead and jockey Rachael Blackmore.

In a short chasing career, Bob Olinger won three of his four starts, including the four-runner Grade 1 Golden Miller Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham when Galopin Des Champs fell, and this was a year after he landed the Grade 1 Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle. He started his collection of Grade 1 wins with success in the Lawlor’s of Naas Novice Hurdle.

Bob Olinger has now won 11 of his 20 starts, including a point-to-point for Pat Doyle, and his many placed efforts include finishing second three times at the highest level.

Bob Olinger is from a family that Ken Parkhill’s family has a long and distinguished connection. The gelding’s dam was also bred by Ken and 19 years ago, trained by his wife Lulu and ridden by their son Peter, she won a bumper at Cork on her first start and was beaten a short-head on her only other run. She is an even better broodmare, being the dam of six winners on the track and another pair who won between the flags.

The new Stayers’ Hurdle king is a half-brother to three-time bumper winner and listed-placed at Cheltenham, Darling Carlotta (Kayf Tara), and the listed novice hurdle winner Myska (Presenting). The latter mare has made a further contribution to the family’s outstanding record of success and is the dam of Grade 3 novice hurdle winner Eabha Grace (Walk In The Park).

Final Demand (Walk In The Park) is from this immediate family, and he had to settle for third place on Wednesday behind The New Lion in the Grade 1 opener, having won a Grade 1 at the Dublin Racing Festival. Other Grade 1 winners in the family include Ballyburn (Flemensfirth), while Cheltenham Festival winner Tully East (Shantou) is also on this page.

Anne Lalor strikes gold again

FROM the breeder of Minella Indo, winner of the Grade 1 Gold Cup four years ago, comes another Cheltenham Festival winner, and from the same female line. Rachael Blackmore was seen at her very best on Air Of Entitlement (Westerner-Carrigeen Karaka, by Stowaway) to snatch victory in the shadow of the winning post and land the Grade 2 Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle on Thursday.

This is a pedigree that, like some others this week, has been cultivated for a very long time by one family, in this case the Lalor’s. Anne Lalor is the registered breeder of Air Of Entitlement, but she would no doubt give credit to many members of the extended family.

A graduate of the point-to-point field where she was a winner in the colours of Brian Acheson, trained by Colin Bowe, Air Of Entitlement has won three of her four starts since joining Henry de Bromhead.

Mags O’Toole spent €90,000 at the Derby Sale to buy Air Of Entitlement, the first foal of her dam who, to be frank, was not blessed with racing ability.

She pulled-up on both her point-to-points starts and was well beaten in two bumpers. Carrigeen Karaka’s second produce is the five-year-old Reckless Spending (Sholokhov) who sold to Nicky Henderson for £200,000 last November on the back of running second in a point-to-point. Carrigeen Karaka is a half-sister to the Irish and Kerry Grand Nationals winner Rogue Angel (Presenting).

Doddiethegreat

We are used to seeing Kenny Alexander’s colours carried to victory by fillies and mares, but his latest big race winner is the nine-year-old gelding Doddiethegreat (Fame And Glory-Asturienne, by Sleeping Car), triumphant in the Pertemps Final.

This win was made more special as the gelding was bred by Alexander, and the winner’s prize fund of £47,000 is being donated to the MND charity set up to honour the great rugby player Doddie Weir.

Peter Molony’s Rathmore Stud bought Doddiethegreat’s dam for £30,000 as the winner of a bumper, two hurdle races and a pair of chases. Additionally, she was a half-sister to the Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle winner Lough Derg (Apple Tree). That was in 2011, and now Asturienne is the dam of three winners, her daughter Carrie Des Champs (Robin Des Champs) winning six times and being placed in a listed bumper.

Thistletown Stud

Jimmy and Eileen Furlong’s Thistletown Stud in Wexford was responsible for the final winner on Thursday’s card, Daily Present (Mahler-Another Present, by Presenting), a €23,000 foal purchase by White Horse Stud, the New Ross base of Michael Cullen.

This took the breeding score on the day to four for Ireland, three for France.

Michael Goff saddled Daily Present to win a point-to-point on his debut and then sold him on for £80,000 at Doncaster to Paul Nolan and Gerry Hogan. This was a fourth racecourse success for the eight-year-old gelding.

Another Present has two racecourse winners, but a further three offspring won point-to-points, and she is a half-sister to Time For Rupert (Flemensfirth), a listed Aintree hurdle winner who chased home Big Buck’s in the Grade 1 World Hurdle at Cheltenham.

Some payback for his big price tag

CALDWELL Potter (Martaline-Matnie, by Laveron), bred by Francois-Marie Cottin, was the third produce of his dam to race this week at Cheltenham, and was impressive when winning the Grade 2 Golden Miller Chase. This was a second win for connections since he sold at the Andy and Gemma Brown dispersal at Tattersalls Ireland last year, realising an incredible €740,000.

His half-sister Brighterdaysahead (Kapgarde) was fourth in the Grade 1 Mares’ Hurdle on Tuesday, while French Dynamite (Kentucky Dynamite) was the last to finish in the cross-country race the following day. However, both of those runners, along with Caldwell Potter, Mighty Potter (Martaline) and Indiana Jones (Blue Bresil) are not only five winning offspring of their dam, but all have won at least one graded race.

Mighty Potter won four Grade 1 races, Brighterdaysahead will hopefully add to her three such wins in due course, while Caldwell Potter made his contribution when copying his full-brother Mighty Potter and winning the Grade 1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown.

Jagwar success

Bred on a similar cross to Il Est Francais, J.P. McManus’s six-year-old Jagwar (Karaktar-Quizas Jolie, by Video Rock) is an improving sort, and he won his fourth chase in five starts over the larger obstacles when taking the TrustATrader Plate, the last but one race on Thursday’s card.

Bred by Jacques Cypres and Laurent Couetil, Jagwar is a half-brother to the Grade 3 Auteuil chase winner D’Jango (Balko), and their dam was a listed hurdle winner at the same course. There are blacktype winners in all of the first four generations of this family, but one horse stands out.

The Fellow (Italic) is out of Jagwar’s fourth dam L’Oranaise (Paris Jour), and this French racing legend won the Grade 1 Cheltenham Gold Cup, two editions of the Grade 1 King George VI Chase, and he placed twice more in each of those races.