MONKFISH and Gerri Colombe won the 2020 and 2022 editions of the W.T. O’Grady Memorial Irish EBF Novice Hurdle at Thurles, and have both gone on to become Grade 1 winners over fences since.

On Sunday, High Class Hero became the latest winner of the contest, though the race itself hardly ranked as a true test for Cheltenham in March.

Nonetheless, the winner did what he had to do, and in so doing extended his unbeaten run on the racecourse to five, once in a bumper and now four times over hurdles.

Bred at Yorton Stud by David Futter and partners, High Class Hero is a seven-year-old by Sulamani (Hernando) who died at the farm the year that Sunday’s winner was born.

Forever immortalised as the sire of Honeysuckle and the Grand National winner Rule The World, in addition to the St Leger winner Mastery and four other Group 1 winners during his time shuttling to Brazil, Sulamani was a top-class international runner, winning the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, Juddmonte International, Sheema Classic and three Grade 1 races in the USA and Canada.

Hugh Bleahen

Clifton Farms’ Hugh Bleahen is mentioned on the previous pages, and here is another good horse who passed through his hands. The Galway man spent £6,000 at Goffs UK to buy High Class Hero as a just-turned yearling, sold him at the Goffs Land Rover Sale for €48,000, and Tattersalls got in on the act when the then point-to-point winner was bought by Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins for £90,000.

High Class Hero is the second produce, but the first to be named, out of Mil Et Une Nui Flo (Turgeon) who won over jumps in France.

She had three siblings who also won, one of whom was placed in a blacktype race in France, but the best of them was Baden (Martaline). After winning his point-to-point he sold for £160,000, but Baden never fulfilled his promise, though he won over hurdles and a couple of times over fences. Baden suffered a fatal injury racing.

Ma Sonate (Val De L’Orne), the grandam of High Class Hero, won on the flat but was more prolific when sent over jumps in France, being successful four times. She was one of seven winners out of the unraced Prima Sinfonia (Acamas), and that mare bred the 13-time winner and dual Grade 3-winning hurdler Rockeby Basie (Arts And Letters).

Voyage Bubble finally succeeds at the highest level

THE five-year-old southern hemisphere gelding Voyage Bubble built on his second-place run behind Golden Sixty in the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile in December, and garnered his first pattern stakes win on Sunday in the Group 1 Sha Tin Stewards’ Cup.

This was Voyage Bubble’s sixth win in 15 starts, and he had previously posted stakes wins in the Hong Kong Derby and the Hong Kong Classic Mile.

His career earnings now stand north of £4 million, and he is one of 26 stakes winners for the Group 2 winner Deep Field (Northern Meteor) who is a particular favourite sire with Hong Kong owners. There he is also responsible for the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint winner Sky Field.

A smart sprinter who was placed at Group 1 level, Deep Field commenced his abbreviated stud career at Newgate Stud in New South Wales after a racing career that comprised just eight starts. He won his first five and placed twice, and as a full-brother to Group 1 winner Shooting To Win (Northern Meteor), he warranted a chance at stud.

He took that chance well, became well-known for his big books of mares and crops of offspring, but a declining fertility rate led to Newgate deciding to retire him from stud duties at the age of just 13.

Deep Field’s other Group 1 winners are Al Muthana in South Africa and Portland Sky in Australia, while his place on the stallion roster at Newgate has been taken by his Group 2-winning son Cosmic Force.

All winners

Voyage Bubble is one of seven foals, all winners, from the Rahy (Blushing Groom) mare Raheights. She won four times, her first foal was the stakes-placed Brettan (Commands), and she bred another stakes winner in Diddums (Snitzel), a Group 3 winner and now herself a winner-producer at stud. Raheights’ dam Laoub (Red Ransom) won over nine furlongs in the UAE and she too bred seven winners, albeit from 10 foals.

A listed winner in Australia, Moulin Lady (Reset) was the first of two stakes winners for Laoub, and the second was Bannock (Bertolini), a smart juvenile in 2011 in England where he won the Listed Rockingham Stakes at York and was runner-up in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes to Harbour Watch.

Bannock ran 11 times at two and 14 times the following year, so no prizes for guessing who trained him! At three he was runner-up in three listed races, beaten less than a length twice and chasing home Gordon Lord Byron once.

Laoub was bought as a yearling at Keeneland by John Ferguson for Godolphin at a cost of €360,000. She raced in the UAE and the USA, and gained her sole victory with Frankie Dettori aboard when she won the 2001 UAE Oaks on dirt.

After being sent to Australia as a broodmare, Laoub returned to Europe and at the age of 12 she was culled by Godolphin for €5,500 at Goffs, bought by Ballybin Stud’s Peter Kelly. Two years later, thanks to the emergence of Bannock, Kelly sold Laoub’s daughter Pioneer Alexander (Rip Van Winkle) as a foal for 140,000gns.

Connell’s patience pays off dividends

A VILLIAN, William Munny is the main character in the 1992 western movie, Unforgiven, and the part was played by Clint Eastwood.

William Munny is also the name of a six-year-old son of Westerner (Danehill) trained and owned by Barry Connell, and the gelding won at the first time of asking when taking the bumper at Navan on Saturday. Connell believes he has a nice horse in his stable and future plans will be of great interest.

Bred by Denis and Teresa Bergin, William Munny was sold as a foal through Railstown Stud for €14,000, and for €45,000 as a three-year-old, both times at Goffs. On the latter occasion he was signed for by bloodstock agent Gerry Hogan who had previously bought the gelding’s dam, Court My Eye (Elmaamul), as a store.

Indeed, Hogan knows the family well as he also purchased Court My Eye’s only other winner, Okavango Delta (Ocovango), twice, as a foal and a store.

Court My Eye showed nothing in two bumper starts, but she was always guaranteed a place in the breeding shed, her five winning half-brothers being headed by the dual Grade 2-winning chaser Mister McGoldrick (Sabrehill). He was trained by Sue Smith, after he won on the flat for James Given, and won five of his 29 starts over hurdles, and nine of his 55 runs over fences. He was placed behind Newmill in the Grade 1 Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham and behind Well Chief in the Grade 1 Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree.

Better known

This is a branch of a family that has become better known for its National Hunt performers, while the other wings of it, descending from William Bunny’s third dam Quiet Harbour (Mill Reef), have been very successful on the flat.

Quiet Harbour bred eight winners, two stakes winners, and one of these was successful in France, Cutting Reef (Kris). A special mention for Cutting Reef as her list of winners included the Grade 2 Golden Cygnet Novice Hurdle winner Sure Reef (Choisir). Another of Quiet Harbour’s daughters, Guest Harbour (Be My Guest), was group-placed in Italy where she bred the Group 1 Gran Premio di Milano winner Benvenue (Iffraaj).

However, in many ways, pride of place among the fillies out of Quiet Harbour must go to Travel Magic (Henbit). That mare won, bred some winners, but her unraced daughter Umlani (Great Commotion) is the dam of Peniaphobia (Dandy Man) and grandam of No Speak Alexander (Shalaa).

A star in Hong Kong, Peniaphobia earned €4.86 million with a dozen victories, notably landing the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint. No Speak Alexander was a more recent Group 1 winner, success coming in the Group 1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown in 2021.