BRYAN Mayoh reports that his star mare La Perrotine has died, having just turned 22. The bumper and three-time hurdle winner suffered a suspected heart attack. She is best known as the dam of the Jessica Harrington-trained Grade 1 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Sizing John (Midnight Legend).

In addition to his great win in the Cotswolds, Sizing John won the holy trinity of Gold Cups, which also included the Leopardstown and Punchestown versions, together with the Grade 1 John Durkan Punchestown Chase and the Grade 1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown.

In fact, seven of his nine career victories were in graded races, and he was placed in no less than seven Grade 1 events.

Sizing John was not the only blacktype performer produced by La Perrotine who was pinhooked through the Chugg’s Little Lodge Farm as a three-year-old, realising 54,000gns when she sold to Howard Johnson. Last weekend La Perrotine’s daughter Anythingforlove (Black Sam Bellamy) was runner-up to Martello Sky in a listed hurdle race at Sandown, the track where 11 months ago she won a Grade 2 novices’ hurdle for mares.

Select band

Anythingforlove is leased by Mayoh and will eventually join his small but select band of broodmares, a group that already includes an own-sister to the Jamie Snowden-trained mare, the winning hurdler Deadringerforlove (Black Sam Bellamy).

They are three of La Perrotine’s four winners, the other being her first offspring, Scholastica (Old Vic), and she gained valuable blacktype in a listed hurdle race, in addition to winning a pair of bumpers and two hurdle races.

In 16 years at stud La Perrotine had just nine living produce, and she may well increase her number of successful offspring. Her four-year-old son The Wherryman (Telescope) was purchased through Peter and Ross Doyle last spring for £60,000, and he is in training with Colin Tizzard. Meanwhile, Mayoh has La Perrotine’s final produce, a two-year-old daughter of Telescope (Galileo) which he hopes to race in due course.

This is set to be the final season racing for Anythingforlove, for whom Mayoh has already chosen her first mate.

He will be Logician (Frankel), the Group 1 St Leger winner who is about to embark on his stallion career at Shade Oak Stud.