BY the sire of Grade 1 winning hurdler Laurina, and the Irish Grade 2 winners Grand Roi, Dallas Des Pictons and Iberique Du Seuil, El Fabiolo became his sire’s second Grade 1 winner when simply destroying the opposition by 10 lengths and more in the Goffs Irish Arkle Novice Chase. This was the six-year-old’s first blacktype win.

His sire, Spanish Moon (El Prado), is a grandson of Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer). A Juddmonte-bred, and trained by Sir Michael Stoute, Spanish Moon won the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris as a five-year-old, with Youmzain back in third, and he was beaten a head and a nose in Group 1 contests in Hong Kong and Dubai, the Hong Kong Vase and the Sheema Classic. His four wins in England yielded three listed victories, and he also travelled to France for the Group 2 Prix Foy which he won.

Bred in the purple, Spanish Moon is a full-brother to the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes winner Spanish Sun (El Prado), and she is now a stakes producer. Their dam, Shining Bright (Rainbow Quest), is a winning half-sister to the Group 3 winner Apogee (Shirley Heights), and she is grandam of one of the greatest racemares ever, Enable (Nathaniel).

Spanish Moon stands at Haras d’Annebault and this year his fee is €5,000. He has seen decline in support in recent years, having covered 145 mares at his height in 2018. Last year he had less than 40 mares, but El Fabiolo could well help to reverse this downward trend. Spanish Moon is 19.

Disappointing

Bred by Francis Dunn, El Fabiolo races for Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, and he failed to sell when offered as a two-year-old at the Arqana Autumn Sale in 2019. Given that two of his siblings were blacktype winners, this was a disappointing outcome.

More disappointment followed when, having put the gelding in training and racing him in partnership with the trainers, Dunn saw his homebred disappoint on his debut. He was then sent to tackle the Listed Prix Finot Hurdle at Auteuil, and he finished third, at the huge odds of 82/1. Nothing was heard of him then until he officially joined Willie Mullins, and nearly 17 months after his last run, he appeared in a maiden hurdle at Tramore on New Year’s Day, 2022.

Having won, he bypassed Cheltenham and instead headed to face Jonbon at Aintree in the Grade 1 Top Novices’ Hurdle, going down by just a neck to the favourite. He reappeared at Punchestown, gained a confidence-boosting victory, and went for his summer break with a chasing career in mind. He is now two for two over fences and will give his owners a great chance of a Cheltenham win.

Feature success

Saint Des Saints (Cadoudal) enjoyed a feature race success at Leopardstown with Gentleman De Mee, and he is the damsire too of El Fabiolo. The latter’s winning dam Sainte Mante has the distinction of producing three winners to date, and all are blacktype winners. The first to do so was Cross In Hand (Silver Cross), and he won a listed handicap hurdle at Auteuil and was Grade 3-placed.

Cross In Hand’s full-brother Tommy Silver (Silver Cross) showed promise in France before transferring to Paul Nicholls, eventually running for a partnership that included Sir Alex Ferguson. He won six times for connections, was a listed hurdle winner, and the last of three finishers to cross the line in a Grade 2 chase at Kempton.

Now El Fabiolo is blacktype winner number three for Sainte Mante, and there is just one other in the first four removes of this family. Significantly, that Grade 3 chase winner at Cagnes-Sur-Mer is out of a half-sister to Sainte Mante. El Fabiolo’s grandam Mante Jolie (Beyssac) won on the flat at three in France, but she then added seven victories over jumps in Italy to her tally of wins. She bred seven winners at stud afterwards.

Munir and Souede have Fun Fun Fun

THE Dublin racing Festival drew to a close on Sunday with the Grade 2 Coolmore NH Sires “Santiago” EBF Mares INH Flat Race, and you could not have asked for a more impressive winner than the five-year-old Martaline (Linamix) mare Fun Fun Fun.

Bred, and owned when she won first time out, by Patrick Mullins, he was also in the saddle on both occasions she has run and won. Now she carries those famous colours of Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, and she had last year’s winner of the race, Lily Du Berlais, almost 10 lengths in her wake. She is certainly a mare to watch for, and the sky’s the limit.

Fun Fun Fun is the first foal out of the unraced Ocean Breeze (Presenting), and that mare’s full-brother is a horse well-known to the Mullins camp.

Yorkhill (Presenting) was a €41,000 foal buy by Ian Ferguson and, having won a point-to-point, added two bumpers, four hurdle races and five chases to his roll of honour. Four wins at Grade 1 level included a trio of hurdle races, at Cheltenham, Aintree and the Tolworth Hurdle at Sandown, and at Prestbury Park he won his sole Grade 1 chase.

This is a female line that is closely associated with the Keating family, Tom and his offspring. The third dam of Fun Fun Fun, the unraced Park Breeze (Strong Gale), had an outstanding record – she bred six winners, they won 39 races on the track and 15 point-to-points between them, and all but one of them won blacktype races.

In fact, Lightning Breeze is a half-sister to five graded National Hunt winners, two at Grade 1 level. They are The Listener (Roselier), and his wins at the highest level comprised the Lexus Chase, John Durkan Punchestown Chase, the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup and the jnwine.com Champion Chase, and the Ellier Novice Chase winner Offshore Account (Oscar).

Since 1930

Their dam Park Breeze was a full-sister to the great Risk Of Thunder (Strong Gale), successful 13 times over fences, five times in point-to-points, and runner-up in the gruelling Velka Pardubicka. The Keatings have had the family since 1930 and Yorkhill, I recall Pat Keating telling me, was from the eighth generation they have owned. What a proud achievement that is.

Since the days of Risk Of Thunder, Pat Keating listed eight blacktype winners they have had from the line – the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham winner Fork Lightning (Roselier), Grade 2-winning chaser Distant Thunder (Phardante), the aforementioned duo of The Listener and Offshore Account, Grade 3-winning chaser Dooney’s Gate (Oscar), Enterprise Park (Goldmark), a Grade 3 winner over hurdles, Gallant Oscar (Oscar), successful in a Grade 2 chase at the Punchestown Festival, and Yorkhill.

Interestingly, Fun Fun Fun is not yet the best mare born in the penultimate crop sired by Martaline. The same year he sired the Grade 1 winning mares Altesse Du Berlais and Hawai Du Berlais.