FRENCH-BRED horses grabbed the headlines on the opening day of this year’s Cheltenham Festival, but Irish breeders had much to celebrate on Wednesday, when the pendulum swung back in our favour.

For day two, four of the seven races carried Grade 1 status, and three of them fell to horses bred in Ireland, even if the feature winner has a French sounding name. The late Michael O’Sullivan was on everyone’s mind as Marine Nationale (French Navy-Power Of Future, by Definite Article) flashed past the winning post in the Champion Chase. It was two years since the eight-year-old stormed up the hill in the opening Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

A seventh win in 11 starts, this was Marine Nationale’s third Grade 1 success, and he possesses a pedigree that would not immediately have indicated he would excel under National Hunt rules. Bred by John B O’Connor, Marine Nationale is a son of the former Kildangan Stud, now Indian-based French Navy (Shamardal), whose two flat stakes winners include the Irish Group 2 winner Lafayette. The Champion Chase winner is his sole blacktype winner over jumps.

Marine Nationale is out of a mare once trained by Sir Henry Cecil and raced by O’Connor. Power Of Future was German-bred, sold at Baden-Baden for €11,000 as a yearling, and won three times. She had five foals, one of which was never named, but the others all ran and won. Ballinderry Moth was a bumper winner, placed in a listed bumper at Navan, and is now at stud and off the mark as a winner-producer. Marine Nationale is sadly the last produce from Power Of Future.

A winning half-sister to Power Of Future, Power Again (Dashing Blade) is responsible for Draycott Place (Oscar), and this graduate of the point-to-point sphere went on to win 10 races over jumps, all but two of them over fences. A Grade 2 chase victor, Draycott Place was an admirable performer, though not in the same class as his dual Cheltenham-winning relation.

Marine Nationale’s grandam Pik Konigin (Konigsstuhl) is a winning own-sister to the Group 1 German Derby winner Pik Konig. Their dam Pikante (Surumu) earned blacktype when she won the Dujardin Steeplechase at Krefeld in West Germany, an unusual feat given that she was born a year before her German Derby-winning half-brother, Philipo (Prince Ippi).

Jukebox Jury mare at Fever pitch

WINNING at the Cheltenham Festival is nothing new for the family of Bambino Fever (Jukebox Jury-Midnight Way, by Stowaway). The five-year-old remains unbeaten after she proved to be the best of Willie Mullins’ five starters in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper, and she gave the trainer his 14th success in the contest.

Bambino Fever went into the race on the back of her recent win in a Grade 2 mares’ bumper at the Dublin Racing Festival. Bred by Morning Star Stud’s Geoffrey Thompson, the daughter of Burgage Stud’s sire was unsold at the Goffs Arkle Sale. She is from a family that Thompson has developed over many generations. Blacktype winners abound on the pedigree page, and Bambino Fever’s unraced dam is the fourth daughter of another unraced mare, Midnight Pond (Long Pond), to produce a blacktype National Hunt winner.

The best of the other three is arguably the Grade 2-placed Midnight Gift (Presenting), responsible for the Grade 1 hurdle and chase star Death Duty (Shantou), though the unraced Midnight Reel (Accordion) bred a pair of graded race winners.

Grade 1 Cheltenham Festival chase winner One Knight (Roselier), Grade 1 hurdle winner and Cheltenham Festival winner Commander Of Fleet (Fame And Glory), and the smart chaser Foxrock (Flemensfirth) are other familiar names that appear under Bambino Fever’s third dam, yet another unraced mare, Midnight Oil (Menelek).

Ronnie remembered

In a week of high emotion, remember the family of Whytemount Stud’s Ronnie O’Neill, as the Grade 1 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase winner Lecky Watson (Valirann-Anno Whyte, by Stowaway) was bred by Ronnie, and by a stallion he stood until this year, as that son of Nayef (Gulch) has been sold and moved to Co Westmeath, and the Carey’s Tullaghansleek Stud. Lecky Watson joins Potters Charm as a second Grade 1 winner sired by Valirann.

Twenty-one years ago, Ronnie O’Neill went to the Goffs February Sale and spent €9,500 on the four-year-old filly Anno Mundi (Red Ransom). The mare died while foaling her fourth produce, and only filly. This was Anno Whyte who was injured on her only start, a pity given that her three brothers all won and two of them gained blacktype. Giantofaman (Stowaway) won a Grade 3 novice hurdle at Thurles, while Stowaway Shark was placed in a Grade 2 novice hurdle at Fairyhouse.

This is a female line that was to blossom further after Ronnie purchased Anno Mundi. Her half-sister Annie Power (Shirocco) was born four years later, and her 12 hurdle successes were crowned with victory in the Grade 1 Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham. Annie Power is the dam of the dual Grade 1 hurdle winner, Mystical Power (Galileo).

Cross-country

The family of the late Willie Codd will have watched Stumptown (Laverock-Active Fieldgale, by Beneficial) win the Glenfarclas Cross Country Race with misty eyes, I am sure. Willie was a renowned judge of a horse, and he paid €4,200 to purchase this Patrick Aspell-bred as a foal. This was a leap of faith, as while he was from the first crop of a Group 1 winner, there was a total of four winners in the family going back four generations.

Yes, you read that correctly, and Stumptown, who sold for €12,500 as a store, is the only winner in the pedigree since. Placed in a point-to-point, and a hurdle winner at four, the eight-year-old is now a seven-time chase winner. Could Stumptown bring further glory to the pedigree page and go on to win the Grand National?

Lion roars to success in Wednesday’s opener

EMOTION was a key factor in the story of so many of this week’s winners, and The New Lion (Kayf Tara-Raitera, by Astarabad) was another case in point.

He was bred by Jackie Chugg and her late husband Robert at their Little Lodge Farm, and he gave British breeding a great shot in the arm as a second Grade 1 winner of the week.

The New Lion remains unbeaten in five starts, the penultimate one gained in the Grade 1 Challow Hurdle. Bought as a foal by Katie Rudd for €45,000, The New Lion won a bumper on his debut. He is one of five winners out of his dam, three of which have won blacktype races. The New Lion is a full-brother to Kateira (Kayf Tara) who was successful in a Grade 3 hurdle race at Aintree last April, and a year previously had run second in the Grade 1 Mersey Novices’ Hurdle there. They are siblings to the listed chase winner El Presente (Presenting).

Kilbarry Lodge Stud’s Diamond Boy (Mansonnien), the sire of Grade 1 winners Impaire Et Passe and L’Homme Presse, is a half-brother to Raitera. They are out of the three-time winner Gold Or Silver (Glint Of Gold), and she is also the dam of Diamond Boy’s full-brother, Golden Silver (Mansonnien). Four of that gelding’s 13 wins were in Grade 1 races, including the Arkle Chase at Leopardstown and Champion Chase at Punchestown.

French success

Having dominated on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival, French-breds had to settle for supporting roles on day two, and both of the winners bred in France are trained in Ireland. Bred by Catherine Boudot, the Group 3 Coral Cup winner Jimmy Du Seuil (Galiway-Tulipe Du Seuil, by Equerry) races for Ed Ware, and was purchased at the Arqana Arc Sale in 2022 for €200,000.

Runner-up last year in the Grade 1 Baring Bingham Novices’ Hurdle, the gelding was off the track for more than 300 days, and this win was a tremendous training performance by Willie Mullins. Jimmy Du Seuil joins his half-brother Iberique Du Seuil (Spanish Moon) as a second graded hurdle winner for their four-time winning dam.

That mare, Tulipe Du Seuil, is a half-sister to the dam of Defi Du Seuil (Voix Du Nord), and his seven Grade 1 wins included the 2017 Triumph Hurdle.

The Cian Collins-trained Jazzy Matty (Doctor Dino-Robbe, by Video Rock) added the Grade 3 Grand Annual Chase to his win in the Grade 3 Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle at the Festival. Bred by the Magnien family, Jazzy Matty was the first leg of a double for his dam when he won the hurdle race two years ago, as 24 later her son Delta Work (Network) also won at the meeting. Jazzy Matty is a €130,000 graduate of the 2021 Arqana Autumn Sale, and sold for €50,000 at the Brown Dispersal last year in Tattersalls Ireland.