I AM delighted that this column has followed the career of The Yellow Clay (Yeats) from the start, and there is no reason to stop now that he has graduated to winning a Grade 1, the Lawlor’s of Naas Slaney Novice Hurdle.

What a record that race has, being won by so many stars of National Hunt racing. It truly deserves its Grade 1 ranking, and if there was a higher level, it would surely be in that category.

This was trainer Gordon Elliott’s fifth win in the past 10 stagings of the race, and he previously won with Death Duty, Battleoverdoyen, Envoi Allen and the ill-fated Ginto. The last named carried the colours of this year’s winner, those of Bective Stud.

The Yellow Clay, if you don’t already know the story, is very special to Bective Stud’s owners, Valerie and Noel Moran, and to their stud manager, Michael Lynam. I have told this story before, but it is worth the retelling, as it gives an insight into how important the six-year-old bay is to all the team at the Co Meath farm. During an interview I conducted with the couple last year, Noel was very keen to speak about one horse. He explained the reason why this horse meant so much to him.

Noel said: “We are now beginning to see some of our homebreds running, and we had our first winner, The Yellow Clay, last year [2023], and that was very special.” When I later asked what I thought might be an impossible question, picking a favourite racehorse, Valerie didn’t hesitate. “For me it has to be The Yellow Clay, the first of our homebreds to win. He won his first two bumpers, including a listed race at Limerick, and at Cheltenham was sixth in the [Grade 1] Champion Bumper. It has been special to watch him grow into the horse he is today.”

After that interview, The Yellow Clay rounded off his season when runner-up to Redemption Day in the Grade 1 Champion Bumper at Punchestown. Well, if that was a great start to his racing career, it has been even better over hurdles, and he is now unbeaten in four starts over the smaller obstacles, and will go to Cheltenham, fingers crossed, as one of the leading Irish hopes.

The Yellow Clay ran out a 10-length winner of the Grade 3 Monksfield Novice Hurdle at Navan for his second win over hurdles, and was back at the Moran’s local track to battle his way to victory in the Grade 2 Navan Novice Hurdle. He was mightily impressive when landing the Naas feature on Sunday by eight lengths.

Michael Lynam

Bective Stud is run for the couple by Michael Lynam, and I vividly recall his delight when The Yellow Clay won the Listed Kevin McManus Bookmaker INH Flat Race at Limerick.

As well as cheering on a homebred, Micael revealed that he had sourced the dam, Winning Indian (Indian Danehill), carrying The Yellow Clay, from her breeder, Denis Reddan. He told me: “I loved the mare’s family, what I would call an old-fashioned National Hunt pedigree, and I am drawn to those bloodlines. Sadly, we lost the mare to a colic after she had her last foal.”

The unraced Winning Indian had something of a hit and miss time at stud before foaling The Yellow Clay, her first winner. The team has high hopes for the progeny born after the mare’s star son. She has a five-year-old mare, The Queen Of Zim (Getaway) in training (described by Lynam as “lovely”), a three-year-old gelding named Speedy (Crystal Oceans), and a two-year-old gelding by Jukebox Jury (Montjeu).

Winning Indian is a half-sister to four bumper winners, three of which went on to win over hurdles. Their dam, Winning Sally (Lancastrian), placed four times and is a half-sister to five winners, one of which was Dainty Daisy (Buckskin). A bumper winner, she bred the Grade 1 hurdle winner Dedigout (Bob Back) who was twice runner-up in Fairyhouse Grade 1 chases, the Powers Gold Cup and the Drinmore Novice Chase.

Dainty Daisy is also grandam of Springwell Bay (Kayf Tara), and on January 1st he won a Grade 3 chase at Cheltenham. The family is certainly on fire.

Winning Nora

The Yellow Clay’s third dam is Winning Nora (Northfields). Bred for the flat, Winning Nora won twice at three when trained by Kevin Prendergast for Mrs Maria Mehl-Muelhens, after whom the German 2000 Guineas is named. After that, Winning Nora moved to Dessie Hughes and won a number of races before being acquired by Denis Reddan. Michael Hourigan took over the training reins and the mare gained a listed hurdle win at the now defunct Tralee, while she was runner-up in the Kerry National and third in the Galway Plate.

Finally, on the dam side of the family, Winning Nora was the best of nine winners from a filly who was a champion at two, Widschi (Dschingis Khan). If the name is unfamiliar to you, don’t worry. She started her racing career at two in what was then West Germany, and that was in 1970. She was rated the champion juvenile filly that year, and later she would capture the Group 2 Henckel-Rennen. Though bred for the flat, many of her winners showed their best in bumpers, over hurdles and fences.

A dual champion National Hunt sire, Yeats embarks on his 16th year at stud this spring, after a racing career that saw him run for seven seasons. If you ever go racing at Ascot, you will see him cast in bronze, celebrated for winning the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup in four successive years. A two-year-old winner over a mile at the Curragh, Yeats began a curtailed second season with two group wins at the Curragh, and was hailed as a likely Derby winner. It was to be a year before we saw him again.

Coronation Cup

At four, he gained the first of his seven Group 1 wins in the Coronation Cup at Epsom, after which he developed into one of the greatest stayers. He won the Group 1 The Irish Field St Leger after his second Royal Ascot triumph, and added the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak (French St Leger) the following year. He twice captured the Group 2 Goodwood Cup, and went to stud with 15 wins and £1.36 million in the bank.

When Yeats retired to stud, he commanded a fee of €10,000, but that was for one season only. Last year his fee at Castle Hyde Stud was a low of €4,000, and it remains at that price for the coming season. Given that he has twice been champion sire, that would seem to be a steal.

Yeats gets runners that stand up to racing, with a large number who have raced 40 times or more under National Hunt rules.

The Yellow Clay is Grade 1 winner number 11 for Yeats, and he joins a pretty impressive lineup. The others are dual Cheltenham Stayers’ Hurdle winner The Flooring Porter, dual Leopardstown Grade 1-winning chaser Conflated, dual Auteuil chase winner Figuero, the two-time Galway Hurdle winner Tudor City, two more dual Grade 1 winners in Chantry House and Shattered Love, The Goffer, Longhouse Poet, Augusta Kate and the Grade 1 French hurdle winner Capivari.