TWENTY-ONE years ago, Whytemount Stud’s Ronnie O’Neill went to the Goffs February Sale, and spent €9,500 on the four-year-old filly Anno Mundi (Red Ransom). She has shown some form in France at three.

Ronnie took her home and came close to landing her a winner, but bad luck intervened and an injury forced her retirement to stud. She had good and bad luck at stud. Anno Mundi died while foaling her fourth produce, and only filly. This was Anno Whyte, and like her older siblings she was a daughter of the resident stallion, Stowaway (Slip Anchor). Famed for being the busiest stallion in Ireland and Britain at one time, he was to go on to be a hugely successful sire, and a tribute to Ronnie O’Neill’s astuteness.

Anno Whyte was injured on her only start, a great pity given that her three own-brothers all won. Two of them gained blacktype. Giantofaman (Stowaway) winning a Grade 3 novice hurdle at Thurles, while Stowaway Shark was placed in a Grade 2 novice hurdle at Fairyhouse. This is a female line that was to blossom further after Ronnie purchased Anno Mundi, and Anno Whyte is doing her bit for the pedigree.

Anno Whyte’s son Lecky Watson (Valirann) placed in a number of bumpers for Willie Mullins, and finally got a hurdle win under his belt before running with credit in better company, beaten half a length by Slade Steel in a Grade 2 and finishing in the frame in a Grade 1 at Naas. Now, the lightly-raced seven-year-old is unbeaten in two starts over fences, capturing a Grade 3 novice chase at Punchestown.

This most recent win for Lecky Watson is another feather in the cap for Valirann (Nayef), but sadly breeders have shunned him in recent years. His six blacktype winners also include the recent Grade 1 Challow Hurdle winner Potters Charm and the Grade 3 Welsh Grand National winner Val Dancer. The Group 2 French winner deserves better patronage, and he has plenty of young stock to represent him in the years ahead.

Harold Kirk

Whytemount Stud stays loyal to their own stallions, and Anno Whyte is also dam of Anno Power (Affinisea), winner last year of two bumpers and a hurdle race, and Annie K (Valirann), a point-to-point winner who then sold for £170,000. There are a number of youngstock following on by Affinisea (Sea The Stars). Lecky Watson was a €12,000 for at Goffs, while Harold Kirk spent €60,000 for him at the Derby Sale.

The female side of Lecky Watson’s family has blossomed since Ronnie O’Neill invested in it more than two decades ago.

Anno Mundi’s half-sister Annie Power (Shirocco) was born four years later and what a racemare she became, her dozen hurdle successes being crowned with victory in the Grade 1 Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham. Now she is the dam of the dual Grade 1 hurdle winner, Mystical Power (Galileo).

There is no end to the high-class runners that have emerged in this tail-line since 2004, on the flat and over jumps. Adayar (Frankel) won the Group 1 Derby in 2021, and three years earlier Billesdon Brook (Champs Elysees) triumphed in the Group 1 1000 Guineas. They are just two of a large number of stars who have appeared in recent years.

High regard

The fact that the French-bred Salvator Mundi, a son of No Risk At All (My Risk), is held in high regard at Closutton is best demonstrated by the fact that on his debut for Willie Mullins, and on his second ever start, he lined up for the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham. Eleven months previously he was runner-up to Sir Gino on his sole start in France.

Salvator Mundi didn’t trouble the judge at Cheltenham, and in May he was a facile winner at Tipperary, jumping the last before the rest had even got to the second-last. On his first start since, he didn’t jump well and still won the Grade 2 Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle at Punchestown. If his technique improves, he looks set to take high order over jumps.

Bred by Laura Lemiere, Salvator Mundi is the third and final foal out of the unraced Saint Des Saints (Cadoudal) mare Stacicaya. The others were both fillies, one of which made a single start, and both are now young broodmares. Stacicaya has four winning siblings, two of whom deserve a special mention, L’Unique (Reefscape) and Sans Rien (Poliglote).

Smart racemare

L’Unique was a smart racemare who reserved some of her best performances for Aintree. Half of her four victories over hurdles were gained in blacktype races there, notably the Grade 1 Juvenile Hurdle at the Grand National meeting. Sans Rien was not as talented as a runner, gaining a single win over jumps in France, but she has three blacktype-winning offspring.

The first of these was Si Sage (Sageburg), and he improved immensely when sent from France to the USA to race, capturing the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes at Santa Anita. His younger sibling, Sandsend (Turgeon), won on his debut in France, won the second time he started for Willie Mullins in the Grade 3 Limestone Lad Hurdle at Naas, and was fatally injured at Cheltenham next time out. Finally, Marble Sands (Martaline) is a listed hurdle and chase winner in Britain.

This is a largely French family, but with runners and winners that are often best known outside their country of birth. Salvator Mundi’s grandam Sans Tune (Green Tune) gained all but one of her five wins over jumps, and she had five successful siblings. On the track, her half-brothers included Me Voici (Saint Des Saints), a Grade 1 juvenile hurdle winner at Chepstow, and St Devore (Saint Des Saints), a Grade 3 chase and hurdle winner in Ireland.

Baan Rim Pa

Significantly, Sans Tune is a full-sister to the three-year-old flat winner Tora Tune (Green Tune). Her best runner was the Grade 2 Prix Leon Rambaud Hurdle winner Baan Rim Pa (Dyhim Diamond), and she is grandam of Grade 3 French hurdle and chase winner Hell Boy (Martaline).

No Risk At All is best known in these parts as the sire of the Grade 1 Cheltenham winners Allaho and Epatante, and four of his 38 blacktype winners over jumps are out of mares by Saint Des Saints. Salvator Mundi is the second to do so at Grade 2 level, joining Aucunrisque who won the Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle at Kempton. Sans Risk won a Grade 3 mares’ hurdle at Down Royal, and Moody Risk landed a listed hurdle at Auteuil.

Salvator Mundi was consigned to the Auctav August Sale as a two-year-old by Haras de la Beauvoisiniere, and sold for €70,000, the third-highest price at the sale, NBB Racing signing the docket. NBB stands for Nicolas Bertran de Belanda and his acquisition looks like being the star of that sale.