WITH victory in the 2021 Grade 1 Ascot Chase, Dashel Drasher, previously runner-up in the Grade 1 Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, credited his veteran sire Passing Glance (Polar Falcon) with the honour of joining the select club of stallions who have sired winners at the highest level on the flat and over jumps.

Eleven years ago his son Side Glance, a winner of £1.7 million around the world, gained a well-deserved Group 1 success in the 10-furlong Mackinnon Stakes in Australia. That gelding’s many Group 1 placings included running third in Frankel’s Queen Anne Stakes win at Royal Ascot.

Just turned 25, Passing Glance stands this year at Batsford Stud in Gloucestershire for £3,000, with an interesting incentive offered of concessions for Midnight Legend mares. Passing Glance himself won a Group 2 race over a mile in Germany, the Group 3 Diomed Stakes at Epsom, the Listed Sovereign Stakes at Salisbury and four others in a 30-race career.

This time two years ago, another son of Passing Glance, Millers Bank, was a first Grade 1 victory for trainer Alex Hales in the first race of the Aintree Festival, the Manifesto Novices’ Chase. Over hurdles Millers Bank won four times and his placed efforts included running third in a Grade 1, and that was in the Aintree Hurdle.

Now Aintree has proven lucky for Passing Glance again, his seven-year-old son Strong Leader stepping up from his second-place finish in the Grade 1 Top Novices’ Hurdle there last year to winning this year’s renewal of the Grade 1 Aintree Hurdle. The bumper winner has now been triumphant four times over hurdles, and this was his first blacktype success.

A daughter of Westerner (Danehill), Strong Leader’s dam Strong Westerner was bought as a store by Fergal O’Brien but she never saw a racecourse. She has mated well with Passing Glance, also getting Strong Glance, a four-time bumper winner who then added a single success over hurdles, earning some blacktype with a placing at Market Rasen in a listed hurdle race.

Strong Westerner’s half-brother Strong Flow (Over The River) won the Grade 1 Feltham Novices’ Chase at Kempton Park and the Grade 3 Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury. Their half-sister Carrig Millie (Milan) was a Punchestown Festival winner when annexing the Grade 2 Pat Taaffe Chase.

Kayf Tara

The leading British National Hunt sire Kayf Tara (Sadler’s Wells) died two year ago, so we will be celebrating many more successes for his runners in the years to come.

He had a pair of blacktype winners at Aintree, Arizona Cardinal in the Grade 3 Topham Trophy and the mare Kateira in a Grade 3 hurdle race, and both were winning at this level for the first time. They bring to 61 the number of such winners he has sired under National Hunt rules, and he also had one on the flat.

Kateira races for Little Lodge Stud and Dan Skelton, and this was an emotional success. Little Lodge Stud is owned by Jackie Chugg who, with her late husband Robin, bred the winner. Kateira will surely, in time, join the broodmare band at Little Lodge, and what a broodmare prospect she is.

She deserved a blacktype win, last year having run second to Irish Point in the Grade 1 Mersey Novices’ Hurdle, also at Aintree.

One of five winners from the Astarabad (Alleged) mare Raitera, Kateira is a half-sister to the listed chase winner El Presente (Presenting). Interestingly, given the good Aintree he had as a sire, Diamond Boy (Mansonnien) is a half-brother to Kateira.

They are out of the three-time winner Gold Or Silver (Glint Of Gold), and she is also well-known as the dam of Diamond Boy’s full-brother, Golden Silver (Mansonnien). Four of his 13 wins were in Grade 1 races, including the Arkle Chase at Leopardstown and the Champion Chase at Punchestown.

Arizona Cardinal

Bred by John Lightfoot, the Topham Chase winner Arizona Cardinal sold through Juliet Minton’s Mill House Stud for €40,000 as a foal at Tattersalls Ireland, but it was downhill at the sales after that. Harley Dunne gave €20,000 for him at the Derby Sale, won a point-to-point with him, and sold him for £16,000, bloodstock agent JD Moore signing the docket. Two hurdle wins and five chase victories later, the eight-year-old Arizona Cardinal has now banked £140,000.

Arizona Cardinal, the Grade 2 hurdle runner-up Destroytheevidance (Kayf Tara) and the Grade 2-placed hurdle mare Lilly Pedlar (Yeats) are three of the four winning sons and daughter of the once-raced Mathine (Malinas). This is an outstanding jumping pedigree.

Mathine is a daughter of the minor jumps winner Libertina (Balsamo) and her five winners are headed by the Grade 3 Mildmay of Flete Chase winner Liberthine (Chamberlin), and by the family star Long Run (Cadoudal).

Distinguished career

Long Run had a distinguished career, winning 15 races and amassing more than £1.5 million. His greatest moment came in 2011 when he provided the Waley-Cohens with an unforgettable victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. This was the pinnacle of a career that also saw him land the Grade 1 King George VI Chase twice, the Grade 1 Feltham Novices’ Chase and Grade 1 victories over hurdles and fences in his native France.

Arizona Cardinal’s third dam Full Of Pep (Hard To Beat) showed little on the flat at two and three, but she made up for that when she went to the breeding shed, leaving behind 10 winners, four of them blacktype winners over jumps in France.

Grade 2 Prix Amadou and Grade 1 runner-up Full Of Ambition (Galetto) was the most talented, while two of the others went to stud and through their daughters have spawned many good jumps winners outside France.

Winner of nine races, including a listed hurdle, Libertina’s full-sister Fioca (Balsamo) is grandam of J’y Vole (Mansonnien). That Grade 1 chase winner is also closely related to Grade 2 chase winner My Sister Sarah (Martaline), Grade 3 chase winner and Grade 1-placed Lifetime Ambition (Kapgarde) and Grade 2 hurdle winner Ilovethenightlife (Walk In The Park).

Full Contact

Another of the blacktype winners out of Full Of Pep is Full Contact (Cadoudal). She bred the French Grade 3 chase winner Full Jack (Kahyasi), but what a revelation her daughter Full Of Birds (Epervier Bleu) became after she finished racing. A dual winner, she is dam of four blacktype winners, all in Ireland and Britain.

Do Your Job (Fame And Glory) won the Grade 2 Future Champion Novices’ Chase at Ayr and was Grade 1 placed over hurdles; his own-brother Highland Chare (Fame And Glory) won a Grade 3 hurdle at Naas; Down Ace (Generous) won a listed hurdle race, as did Hunters Yarn (Fame And Glory).

Finally, we cannot overlook the unraced Full Of Elegance (Cadoudal), another daughter of Full Of Pep. She is the dam of Charlie Stout (Spadoun) who gained the biggest win of his career in the Grade A Dan and Joan Moore Chase at Fairyhouse. He is the best winner from nine foals of his dam and just one of a pair of his dam’s offspring to win on the racecourse, the other being Relentless Dreamer (Kayf Tara) who was best as a chaser, winning five times over the larger obstacles, and he was placed in the Midlands’ National at Uttoxeter.

Full Of Elegance is also grandam of Getabird (Getaway), a €200,000 Goffs Punchestown Sale graduate who is a dual Grade 2 winner over hurdles, at Fairyhouse and Punchestown, and runner-up in Limerick’s Grade 1 novice chase run at Christmas.