BREEDER Paddy Turley of Kingsfield Stud, beside Downpatrick racecourse, was on hand at the Curragh on Saturday to see Kairyu win for the second time, this time annexing the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes.

What a fairy-tale result for the Turley family, as this two-year-old daughter of Kuroshio (Exceed And Excel), whom they sold for €80,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland Goresbridge Breeze Up Sale a few months ago, is the first foal of the Lope De Vega (Shamardal) mare Vegatina, and she was bought for just 7,000gns at the 2019 Tattersalls July Sale. This was in spite of being placed second once in three starts for owner George Strawbridge and trainer John Gosden.

What a comedown that was for the filly who had been purchased less than two years earlier in the same ring for 220,000gns. Here is another example of quality skipping a generation, and Kairyu is another example too of the prowess of trainer Michael O’Callaghan when it comes to spotting talent at the breeze-up sales.

Saturday’s result will have brought a smile to the face of Starfield Stud’s Micheál Orlandi, as the filly is from the first crop of two-year-olds conceived since Kuroshio moved to stand at his Co Westmeath farm at a fee of €6,000. He had stood at Overbury Stud in England, but remained for some years in Australia, and it was down under that he was responsible for his best runner – to date – and that was Savatoxl. He won the Group 1 The Goodwood.

Success

The decision to bring Kuroshio back to this part of the world followed the successes he enjoyed with very limited runners from his first two British-conceived crops. They included the Group 3-winning sprinter Kurious (who sold in 2020 for 900,000gns), the Group 2 Vintage Stakes runner-up Dunkerron, group-placed Gozen and Siculi, and the stakes-placed juvenile Daphinia. Now it looks as if this success is repeating itself.

Vegatina is a full-sister to a single winner and a placed horse, a disappointing return for their winning dam Valtina (Teofilo) given that she was good enough to visit Lope De Vega regularly. This year she has a yearling colt by Elzaam (Redoute’s Choice), and he is just her fifth produce.

Smart performer

Kairyu is the third smart performer to emerge from this female line in recent years. Valtina’s stakes-placed half-sister Paraphernalia (Dalakhani) is the dam of the multiple Group 3 winner Max Vega (Lope De Vega), while their half-sister Girouette, a pattern-winning sprinter, is the grandam of the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes and Group 1 Prix Morny winner Blackbeard (No Nay Never).

As a racehorse, Kuroshio won three races over five and five and a half furlongs. Not unusually, in Australia, all the wins were in stakes races, namely the Group 2 Mitty’s Ian McEwen Trophy Stakes at Moonee Valley, the Group 3 Patinack Blue Diamond Prelude (colts and geldings) in Caulfield, and the Listed Herald Sun Superracing Maribyrnong Trial at the home of the Melbourne Cup, Flemington.

Kuroshio is out a daughter of the US Grade 1-star November Snow (Storm Cat), winner of both the Alabama Stakes and Test Stakes at the highest level, but one of his Australian siblings will be familiar to fans here.

She was his Group 3-winning full-sister Believe’N’Succeed (Exceed And Excel), and she is the dam of Anthony Van Dyck (Galileo). He won the Group 2 Futurity Stakes at two, the Group 1 Derby at Epsom at three and Group 2 Prix Foy at four. He was runner-up in the Group 1 Irish Derby and Group 1 Caulfield Cup. His half-sister, Bounding (Lonhro), was a Group 1-winning sprint champion in New Zealand.

Last year November Snow’s grandson Express Train (Union Rags) won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap. November Snow’s full-brother Scatmandu (Storm Cat) was a blacktype sire in North America, while her string of stakes-winning descendants include the Breeders’ Cup-placed Grade 1 Carter Handicap scorer Morning Line (Tiznow), a blacktype sire who died young.

Turley name again in lights with the Banter

WHAT a timely coincidence that in the week that Paddy Turley bred a Group 3 winner, a Patrick Turley-bought and sold gelding should win one of the most prestigious jump races in the USA. He took his earnings to £225,000 after winning the A.P. Smithwick Memorial Hurdle at Saratoga.

This was just icing on the cake for the eight-year-old son of Jeremy (Danehill Dancer), bred by Seamus Cooney, who was a Grade 1 winner over hurdles at Aintree and successful in the Grade 3 County Hurdle at Cheltenham. There is no end to the number of top-class runners sired by Jeremy from just seven crops, and hopefully his sons at stud, such as Success Days and Kool Kompany, can prolong his legacy.

After all, Jeremy did sire the brilliant but ill-fated Our Conor in his first crop, before later adding the likes of Jer’s Girl, Whiskey Sour, Reserve Tank, Black Tears, Appreciate It and Sir Gerhard to the list, and not forgetting the Aintree Grand National winner this year, Corach Rambler.

Though his last sale was by way of an online platform, for £130,000 on ThoroughBid, Belfast Banter is no stranger to the sales ring. He sold to Castledillon Stud’s Timmy Hillman for €10,000 as a yearling at Tattersalls Ireland, resold at the Goffs Land Rover Sale for €28,000 to Patrick Turley and Mark O’Hare, and then, in spite of running second in a point-to-point at Oldcastle, was sold on to Fergal O’Neill’s Direct Bloodstock for just £30,000 at a Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale.

Belfast Banter is the second foal out of the twice-raced point-to-pointer Sumtin Nice (Simply Great). He is followed by Fine Margin (Soldier Of Fortune), placed in a point-to-point and runner-up in a maiden hurdle at Fairyhouse in February, the four-year-old unraced Pippa Glynn (Soldier Of Fortune), a three-year-old filly by Mount Nelson (Rock Of Gibraltar), a two-year-old gelding by Jet Away (Cape Cross) who sold for €20,000 to Peter Nolan Bloodstock as a foal, and a yearling filly by Poet’s Word (Poet’s Voice.

Successful

In spite of not showing anything herself when racing, Sumtin Nice was surely always destined to be bred from, her older sibling being Dun Doire (Leading Counsel). He visited many winners’ enclosures, being successful twice over hurdles, seven times over fences and three times between the flags. His biggest win was in the Grade A Thyestes Chase at Gowran Park.

Famous win

This week was Alastair Pim’s birthday, and one of his gifts was a blacktype success for Born Famous, winner of the Grade 3 Summer Plate Chase at Market Rasen. The six-year-old mare is having a bonanza this year, and she has now notched up a pair of victories over hurdles and three over fences. She is a graduate of the point-to-point sphere, having won between the flags last year.

Bred, owned and trained by Claire O’Connell until this spring, the mare has transformed since joining Iain Jardine, and she is unbeaten now in five starts for her new owners, three of these victories gained at Perth and another at Aintree. Norn Famous is the first foal and winner for her dam Born Noble (Dushyantor), and she won a point-to-point at Tattersalls for Claire’s late father, Al O’Connell.

This is a line that the O’Connell family has persisted with, with little in the way of success, and so it is nice to see them finally rewarded. Born Famous has provided the only blacktype in the pedigree in four generations, and her five wins are the most by a family member since Fast Flight (King’s Leap), out of her fourth dam, who won 14 times in the late seventies and early eighties.

Group 1

Famous Name won 21 races, was one of the most popular racehorses of his day, and all but one of his wins were in pattern or listed races. What is often overlooked is that he was second five times in Group 1 races, the Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, two editions of the Tattersalls Gold Cup, the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp, and a race in Germany. His three blacktype winners show his versatility admirable, being the listed two-year-old winner Escobar, the listed hurdle winner Famous Milly, and now a Grade 3 chase winner.