IT was a special few days for Kenny Alexander, with news emerging that his wonder mare Honeysuckle had safely delivered her first foal in Scotland, a daughter by Walk In The Park.

To help with the celebrations, Willie Mullins sent Jade De Grugy out to land the Grade 1 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Honeysuckle Mares’ Novice Hurdle, and she appropriately carries the Alexander colours. Jade De Grugy lost her unbeaten record at Cheltenham where she ran fourth, but bounced back well to land one of the feature races of the Fairyhouse Festival.

Alexander, with the considerable help of Peter Molony, has specialised in racing fillies and mares, enjoying enormous success, Jade De Grugy is another fine example of the quality of mares he has assembled. This well-connected daughter of Doctor Dino (Muhtathir) won her only start over 12 furlongs on the flat in France at three, but it was almost 14 months before she reappeared, at Leopardstown, and won from Willie Mullins’ yard.

Then Jade De Grugy made it two from two over the smaller obstacles, adding the Grade 3 Solerina Mares Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse to her bow. You won’t be surprised to learn that the dam of Jade De Grugy, the unraced Diane De Grugy (Ballingarry), is a half-sister to the superb two-mile chaser Sire De Grugy (My Risk). A first sign of his class was displayed when he won the Grade 2 Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle at Kempton Park in 2011, but it was to be over fences that he became a star.

Top-class

He emerged as a top-class performer with a win in the Grade 2 Celebration Chase, a race he was to win twice, in 2013. In the following National Hunt season Sire De Grugy established himself as the leading two-mile chaser in Britain, winning the Grade 1 Tingle Creek Chase, Grade 2 Desert Orchid Chase, Grade 1 Clarence House Chase and the Grade 1 Queen Mother Champion Chase.

He continued to run at the highest level without ever fully recapturing that form, winning a race in each of the following three seasons, among them a second Tingle Creek Chase.

Unusually in a French pedigree, both the dam and grandam of Jade De Grugy were unraced, but her third dam Tara Kane II (Chamberlin) won three times over jumps, taking until the age of six to do so. The best of Tara Kane II’s four victorious offspring was the listed chase winner Orlando Magic (Assessor).

Doctor Dino’s record as a stallion is often repeated in this column, and Jade De Grugy is yet another mare to advertise his prowess as a sire.

Other familiar mares and fillies by the multiple Group/Grade 1-winning globetrotter are Dinoblue (Grade 1), Royal Margaux (Grade 1), La Bague Au Roi (Grade 1), and Grade 3 winners Pearl Of Wisdom, Under Control, L’Aubonniere, Ladyville, and Gin On Lime.

Mind you, his geldings are also a talented lot! His is responsible for the Grade 1 Champion Hurdle winner State Man, multiple Grade 1 winner Sharjah, Sceau Royal, and the great French runner Docteur De Ballon.

WATERFORD breeder Richard Morrissey went to the sales in 2006 and spent €3,000 on a filly foal by Cloudings (Sadler’s Wells). While her pedigree was a little light close up, her third dam bred the three-time Grade 1 Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Badsworth Boy (Will Hays).

Morrissey’s patience paid off when the filly, named Fromthecloudsabove, won a point-to-point at the age of five, added another at six, and then went to Wexford and won a hurdle race at the age of seven. While she didn’t pay her way financially, she provided plenty of enjoyment to Morrissey and his family, and then it was off to stud.

Sadly, she only had three offspring, but each has provided a story. I will start with her second produce, the Arctic Cosmos (North Light) six-year-old Captain Cody. He sold for €6,800 as a foal to Zoe Codd, but there was no profit when he resold at three for just €7,500.

After he joined Willie Mullins, he won a bumper, and now his second win over hurdles has come in the Grade 2 Hardy Eustace Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse. All three of his wins have been in the hands of Jody Townend.

Foaled a year before Captain Cody, the filly Rockonsoph (Notnowcato) won a point-to-point for Morrissey and was sold afterwards for £95,000 to Gerry Hogan and Rose Dobbin.

Placed a few times over hurdles, she won a chase at the second attempt last May but has not been seen since.

The final progeny out of Fromthecloudsabove is Rockonliam (Arctic Cosmos), an own-brother to Captain Cody. He had one run in a point-to-point this year but fell when he appeared to have the race at his mercy. Nonetheless, he was sold subsequently and has joined Henry de Bromhead, so he is one to keep an eye on.

Family trait

Should Captain Cody or Rockonliam eventually ascend to Grade 1 class, it would be in keeping with a family trait.

Badsworth Boy is the standout in the family, and he is a son of Captain Cody’s fourth dam Falcade (Falcon). That mare is also the grandam of Fundamentalist (Supreme Leader), winner of the Grade 1 Royal & SunAlliance Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, and Our Bid (Electric), a Grade 1 bumper winner at the Punchestown Festival. Falcade is third dam of the hugely talented Barters Hill (Kalanisi), a Grade 2 bumper winner who went on to land the Grade 1 Challow Hurdle.

Richard Morrissey is not the only Waterford connection to Captain Cody. The gelding’s sire Arctic Cosmos stands at James and Marian Hannon’s The Old Road Stud in Tallow. Arctic Cosmos produced the performance of his career when he won the Group 1 St Leger at Doncaster, and it was quite a stellar renewal of the great classic. Three lengths and more in arrears were such international Group 1 stars as Snow Fairy, Joshua Tree and Rewilding.

Trained by John Gosden, Arctic Cosmos is from the first crop of the recently deceased Group 1 Derby winner North Light (Danehill), and after his racing career ended Arctic Cosmos retired to James Hannon’s farm in Co Waterford where he has remained. Arctic Cosmos sired a standout winner from his own first crop, the Grade 3 Imperial Call Chase winning mare Waitnsee.

Apple Away

Better by far was to come when another daughter of Arctic Cosmos, Apple Away, appeared a few crops later.

This winning graduate of the point-to-point circuit gained the best of her four hurdle wins last season at Aintree, collecting the Grade 1 Sefton Novices’ Hurdle. Now a winner and graded-placed over fences, she was disappointing in the mares’ chase at Cheltenham.

Captain Cody is the stallion’s third blacktype winner, while he has a similar number who have been placed in blacktype bumpers and hurdle races. It may not be too long before Arctic Cosmos adds to his tally of blacktype winners, and I recently named a few of his youngsters to watch out for.

The five-year-old Derryhassen Paddy won his only start in a point-to-point at Tattersalls Farm in December. Now with Lucinda Russell, he was impressive on his bumper debut at Ayr, and this is a chaser in the making.

Another five-year-old son of Arctic Cosmos to keep an eye on is Thistle Be The One. Sold as a foal for €18,000 and as a store for £28,000, he was a well-beaten third on the second of two starts in point-to-points in England. Sold to trainer Keiran Burke at last year’s Tattersalls Ascot June Sale, he made a winning racecourse debut in a Kempton bumper, a race won in the past by some useful sorts.