IN 2011 the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes winner Stowaway, a son of Slip Anchor (Shirley Heights), was the busiest stallion in Ireland or England, covering 324 mares, and he was popular until his death of a suspected ruptured artery in 2015 at the age of 21. This huge book of mares was almost 10 times the number he had covered three years earlier. Why the sudden interest?

Well, the third crop by Stowaway contained the Grade 2 hurdle winner Western Leader, and the fourth crop was headed by Hidden Cyclone, a multiple Grade 2 winner over hurdles and fences. These two horses were the forerunners to a number of Grade 1 winners who were waiting in the wings, so to speak, and the stallions’ loss was most keenly felt at Ronnie O’Neill’s Whytemount Stud in Kells, Co Kilkenny where he stood for his entire career.