JUST two of the small selection of yearlings on offer at the Goffs UK British NH Breeders Showcase last year sold, Ballincurrig House Stud’s daughter of Walk In The Park (Montjeu), a full-sister to the useful The Changing Man, being the best when trading for £20,000.

Luke Cummins’ Belleville Bloodstock bought this filly, who is out of the Grade 1 hurdle winner Bitofapuzzle (Tamure), and he must be smiling broadly now that The Changing Man has finally done what he has always threatened to do, and win a blacktype race. The race in question is the Grade 2 Reynoldstown Novices’ Chase at Ascot, run to celebrate the wonderful Ebony Horse Club.

The Changing Man is trained by Joe Tizzard, who won the race two years ago with Oscar Elite, and Joe’s father won it twice also in recent years.

The eight-year-old The Changing Man, bred by O’Sullivan Bloodstock, was sold as a store at the Goffs UK Spring Sale to Tizzard and Ross Doyle for £135,000, and his latest win now means that he has paid that back with interest. A three-time hurdle winner, this was actually his first win over fences, but those victories and placed runs have earned connections approaching £180,000.

Just two of the offspring of Bitofapuzzle have raced, the other being placed in a point-to-point. It is hardly surprising that The Changing Man possesses such talent, given that he is by last year’s champion sire, and out of such a good racemare. Successful on her only outing in a point-to-point for Richard Barber, Bitofapuzzle moved to Harry Fry and won seven of her 12 starts for him.

She first showed her talent when gaining two of her three bumper triumphs in listed races at Cheltenham and Huntingdon. After that, she won a Grade 1 mares novice hurdle at Fairyhouse, and a Grade 2 at Ascot. Bitofapuzzle is one of two blacktype winners out of the unraced Gaelic Gold (Good Thyne), the other being the listed Huntingdon novices’ hurdle winner Golden Gael (Generous).

Two Aintree stars appear in the fourth remove of The Changing Man’s family, one that is inextricably linked with Jim Mernagh at Coolamurry Stud. They are two winners of the Listed John Hughes Trophy Chase, Bells Life (The Parson) and Indian Tonic (Ovac).

The latter also won the Listed Becher Chase, and they are out half-sisters. The Changing Man is the 45th blacktype winner for Walk In the Park, just one of which was on the flat.

Flemensfirth again

Comparisons are odious, and sometimes unfair, especially when you are not contrasting like with like. Walk In The Park’s achievements since he went to stud in 2008, have for many years been based on crops that were foaled when he stood in France, and not attracting the numbers of mares that his counterparts in Ireland would have covered.

The great Flemensfirth (Alleged) went to stud 10 years earlier at The Beeches, was better patronised in his earlier years, but he has compiled a great record of 112 blacktype winners.

The most recent addition to that tally came at Clonmel, when Flemensfirth’s six-year-old son Ballybow was winning such a race for the first time. He took the honours in a Grade 3 novice hurdle, but he is a horse that there has been plenty of talk about for some time.

Indeed, when he was sold by Conor Cashman’s Drumlin Bloodstock at the Derby Sale in 2022 to Ian Ferguson, he realised a healthy €90,000.

He was runner-up on both his starts in point-to-points last year, and then sold for £110,000 at the Goffs UK Spring Sale to Gordon Elliott. There was no profit in that transaction, but the trainer knew he was buying from a renowned producer. Things got off to a good start when Ballybow won a five-runner bumper at Sligo.

The value of that bumper win might have been questioned by many when Ballybow failed to win either of his first two starts over hurdles, though he showed a marked improvement when runner-up at Down Royal the day after Christmas.

He continued on that upward trajectory when running out a nine-length winner of a two-mile, two-furlong maiden at Naas before winning by half a length at Clonmel over three miles. Anything Ballybow achieves presently is surely a bonus, and chasing would seem to be calling him now.

Most recognisable

Ballybow has given an injection to a pedigree that is already most recognisable. He is the best of three winners from the first four foals for Avichi (Yeats), and that mare had ability. Raced by Cashman’s mother-in-law Liz Motherway, and trained by Willie Mullins, she started five times in bumpers, and placed on three occasions. While winning would have been nice, Avichi had more than earned a place in the breeding shed, being a half-sister to a hurdling great.

That sibling is none other than Hurricane Fly (Montjeu), and he started his extensive winning streak at three on the flat, when his two victories included a listed race at Saint-Cloud.

He would go on to win 24 times over hurdles (once in France in a Grade 3 at Auteuil) in a career that would lead to him being celebrated in bronze at Leopardstown where he was nothing short of a legend. 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! For good measure, he was runner-up in a Grade 1 in France at the age of four.

Outstanding runner

While Hurricane Flyer is by some way the outstanding runner in the immediate family, it is not a one-horse pedigree.

Avichi’s Italian-placed half-sister Macho Macabi (Exceed And Excel) went from being a flat-bred race filly to become a notable National Hunt broodmare, and in no small way thanks to Ballybow’s sire Flemensfirth. Macho Macabi is the dam of the smart young bumper and hurdle winner Magic McColgan (Flemensfirth), though she has some was to travel to emulate her own-brother Tornado Flyer (Flemensfirth).

That gelding won the Grade 1 Champion bumper at Punchestown after finishing third in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper at Cheltenham. His subsequent career saw him win four more races, once over hurdles and the remainder over fences. His greatest triumph cane when he raced to victory in the 2021 Grade 1 King George VI Chase at Kempton, though it proved to be his last.

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 second spot behind Allaho in the Grade 1 Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham.

Blacktype winners in India, Italy and the UAE appear under the third remove of Ballybow’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 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.