FOR the first time in many years, I was not in Listowel for the Kerry National, and what a year not to be present.

There are few horses of recent times who can claim to be as popular as Flooring Porter, and the social media coverage of the syndicate that owns him celebrating after the gelding’s astonishing win in the centrepiece race of the week in Co Kerry should be packaged as an advertisement for racehorse ownership, and the joy it can bring.

No doubt, though I have no visual evidence of it, the gelding’s breeder Sean Murphy was also enjoying the win.

If the nine-year-old Flooring Porter stays sounds, and retains his enthusiasm for racing, there is even a chance that he could one day take his winnings to €1 million. Imagine that.

His seven hurdle wins and two chase victories now include successes in the Grade 1 Stayer’s Hurdle at Cheltenham twice, the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown, the Grade 2 Proudstown Handicap Hurdle at Navan, and now the Grade 3 Kerry National Handicap Chase.

A feature of his career has been his consistency, always giving of his best, and his run this week was only his fifth over fences. He has also been placed in both the Grade 1 Fort Leney Novice Chase at Leopardstown, and the Grade 2 Florida Peral Novice Chase at Punchestown. In addition to his impressive hurdle roll of honour, he was twice placed in the Grade 1 Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree, dividing Sire Du Berlais and Champ on one occasion, run second to Teahupoo in the Grade 1 Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham in the spring, and been runner-up in the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown to Klassical Dream.

West of Ireland breeder Sean Murphy deserves all the plaudits and awards he has received for the Gavin Cromwell-trained Flooring Porter (Yeats), as patience has been a hallmark of the journey to producing such a good horse. After all, it has taken more than six decades, and many generations, for this first significant winner to appear in the family.

Turkish Spice

That has not happened since Turkish Spice (Turkhan) won the Irish Cambridgeshire in 1954. Turkish Spice is the fourth dam of Lillymile (Revoque), also a Sean Murphy homebred, and that winning point-to-pointer added a couple of hurdle races when trained by Pauline Gavin. How apt that both successes over the timber were gained at Ballinrobe, ensuring her owner and breeder did not have a long trek to the races.

Lillymile’s only winner or placed runner to date is Flooring Porter. Last year Sean Murphy sold an Elusive Pimpernel (Elusive Quality) three-year-old half-sister to Flooring Porter at the Tattersalls Ireland May Store Sale, and while the price did not represent a big pay day for Murphy, he must have taken great delight in the fact that it was Flooring Porter’s trainer Gavin Cromwell who spent the €8,000 on her.

A few months earlier Murphy sold a full-brother to his star runner at Tattersalls Ireland for €36,000 to Coolmara Stables, and it will be interesting to see if he returns for sale next year as a store. This year Lillymile had a colt foal by Crystal Ocean (Sea The Stars), and he could well feature among the entries for sale later in the autumn.

Lillymile and Ocean Glandore (Whitmore’s Conn) are both winning offspring of Miles Apart (Roselier), and that Michael Hourigan-trained mare showed just a glimmer of form in 15 starts, beaten a dozen lengths when second in a mares’ bumper at the now defunct Tralee. Ocean Glandore was a prolific winner, successful four times over hurdles and twice over fences. Incredibly, Miles Apart was the only one of the five foals out of the unraced Spicy Lady (Decent Fellow) to show any ability.

Sparse pedigree

A sparse pedigree starts to get interesting again when you go back to Flooring Porter’s fourth dam, the unraced Sayadahl (Sayajirao). She had five foals, but just a single winner. That was Indian Trout (Wily Trout), and it will give you some idea of how long ago it has been since the family enjoyed any real level of success for a few generations, as that gelding was foaled in 1969.

He won once on the flat but enjoyed a more fruitful time over jumps, his six wins in that sphere equally divided between hurdle and chase victories.

I mentioned Turkish Spice earlier, and the best of her three winners was Red Spice (Red God). A useful sort when he raced here, he won five times and was runner-up in the Curragh Stakes at two. Sold to America, he went on to win 10 more times there. His half-sister Guerspice (Guersant) also ended up in the USA where she became a winner producer.

Yeats (Sadler’s Wells) has just completed his 15th season at stud. Twice the champion older stayer in Europe, he won 15 races, most famously landing the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup on four consecutive occasions, from 2006 to 2009. He also won the Group 1 Coronation Cup, Group 1 The Irish Field Irish St Leger, and the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak. He has sired 40 blacktype winners, at up to Group 2 level on the flat, while his National Hunt Grade 1/A winners include Flooring Porter, Conflated, Augusta Kate, Shattered Love, Tudor City, Chantry House, The Goffer and Longhouse Poet, the French Grade 1 winners Figuero and Capivari.