KENNY Alexander will forever be associated with the exceptional Honeysuckle, trained by Henry de Bromhead.

She has not been his only Grade 1-winning mare, and Willie Mullins has been responsible for three fillies who have won at the highest level for him over hurdles, Kargese, Jade De Grugy and Gala Marceau.

While she has some way to go before she can be considered in the same class, Magic McColgan has the potential to rise well above being a maiden hurdle winner, something she achieved at the second time of asking at Punchestown.

A daughter of Flemensfirth (Alleged), Magic McColgan (presumably named by Alexander in honour of the Scottish runner Eilish McColgan) displayed ability in bumpers, running second in a listed race at Limerick after being successful at Leopardstown, but her trainer will have to work his magic to iron out her quirk of hanging if she is to go on to take high order over hurdles.

Getting a blacktype win at a minimum will be extra valuable to the mare, now a six-year-old, as Magic McColgan is a full-sister to a Grade 1 bumper winner who also won at that level over fences, and their dam is a half-sister to the brilliant Hurricane Fly (Montjeu).

Bred by the Magnier family’s Sweetmans Bloodstock, David, Catherine and Andrew used the services of Timmy Hillman’s Castledillon Stud to sell Magic McColgan as a foal at Tattersalls Ireland, where she cost Rathmore Stud’s Peter Molony €88,000.

At the time, her only sibling to have won was her full-brother Tornado Flyer, and he took the Grade 1 Champion Bumper at Punchestown after finishing third in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper at Cheltenham. He was about to embark on a career over fences when Molony bought his sibling.

Tornado Flyer

That chasing career was to see Tornado Flyer reach the heights of winning the 2021 Grade 1 King George VI Chase at Kempton, though it proved to be the last of his wins. While his victory was described as an upset, winning as he did at 28/1, he had solid form at up to Grade 1 level, running a length second to Min in the Grade 1 John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase, and beaten half a length for the runner-up spot behind Allaho in the Grade 1 Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham.

However, these performances have not been the only major updates to the family. Marie McColgan’s bumper victory makes her one of six winning offspring now of Mucho Macabi, a €40,000 yearling purchase at the Orby Sale who raced, and placed, in Italy. The emergence of her half-brother Hurricane Fly saw Mucho Macabi brought back to Grange Stud in Fermoy and covered by National Hunt stallions.

When Federico Barberini spent €40,000 on that Exceed And Excel (Danehill) yearling filly from the Ballylinch Stud consignment, he could never have imagined that he was buying a half-sister to one of the greatest hurdlers ever, and to the eventual dam of a dual Grade 1 National Hunt winner.

After all, the filly’s dam Scandisk (Kenmare) was a juvenile winner in Italy, and had gone on to produce a few winners in that country, including the stakes-placed Hunzy (Desert King). More recently, Scandisk’s Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells) son Hurricane Fly had won a listed race at Saint-Cloud, and thus boosted the pedigree significantly.

A legend

Hurricane Fly was to go on to win 24 times over hurdles (once in France) in a career that would lead to him being glorified in bronze at Leopardstown where he was something of a legend. Incredibly, and almost unbelievably, all but a pair of his two dozen wins over hurdles were achieved at Grade 1 level, and he earned almost £1.9 million.

Hurricane Run won the Grade 1 Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham twice and placed in it a couple of more times. He made the Grade 1 BHP Insurance Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown his own, scoring on five occasions. Four wins in the Grade 1 Punchestown Champion Hurdle was another career highlight, and he won Leopardstown’s Grade 1 December Hurdle the same number of times. Yet another race he captured on multiple occasions was the Grade 1 Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown, though that was ‘only’ three times!

Stakes winners in India, Italy and the UAE populate the third remove of Tornado Flyer’s family. His third dam Yankee Lady (Lord Gayle) was a winning own-sister to Yankee Gold (Lord Gayle), winner of the Group 2 Ballymoss Stakes twice in the mid-1970s and later a moderate sire, and the Group 2 (now Group 1) Pretty Polly Stakes heroine Lady Singer (Lord Gayle), and she was classic placed in the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas.

Desirable broodmare

Fillies by Flemensfirth are desirable as broodmares, and a blacktype daughter of his would have even more value in Kenny Alexander’s broodmare band. The stallion is damsire of Grade 1 winners such as Identity Thief, Next Destination, Roksana, Marie’s Rock and, most recently, The Jukebox Man, while the Grade 3 Randox Aintree Grand National winner Noble Yeats is out of one of his daughters.

The next blacktype winner on the racecourse for Flemensfirth will take his tally to an incredible 120 – could Magic McColgan be that landmark winner? With his hugely successful record as a stallion, and some five-year-old representing him still, is it not a great pity that, as would happen in France, we do not have sons of his to carry on the sire line?

The 119 blacktype winners for Flemensfirth contain 31 Grade 1 winners. His first crop included the Grade 1 chase winner Joe Lively and the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion bumper heroine Total Enjoyment. The Grade 1 Gold Cup winner Imperial Commander, who also won the Grade 1 Ryanair Chase, was the best of his third crop. Relegate, another winner of the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper, and the outstanding Colreevy are other examples of his outstanding racemares, while more recent Grade 1 stars have included the likes of Minella Cocooner, Grey Dawning and Ballyburn.

The Beeches Stud

In his last couple of seasons at stud, Flemensfirth, who died at the age of 31 in 2023, stood for a fee of €15,000 at The Beeches Stud, a long way from his initial fee of around £1,000. This low fee was in spite of the fact that he won five of his nine starts, racing for Sheikh Mohammed and trained by John Gosden. He had an interrupted racing career, which led to him racing so little.

Flemensfirth was bred by the Mill Ridge Farm in Lexington, and sold as a yearling at Keeneland for $290,000. He did not appear on the racecourse until September of his juvenile season, winning a maiden by three lengths. Second in the Listed Feilden Stakes at Newmarket on his three-year-old debut, he then went to Longchamp where he upset the odds-on favourite to take the Group 1 Prix Lupin.

After finishing unplaced in the Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby and the St. James’s Palace Stakes, Flemensfirth was rested for an autumn campaign. He returned at Longchamp in October, where he led all the way to win the Group 2 Prix Dollar.

Injury then kept Flemensfirth off the track for over a year. On his return, he took his record at Longchamp to three wins in three starts when winning his second Prix Dollar, and a month later he travelled to Italy to capture the Group 1 Premio Roma.