ASHROE Diamond first came to prominence when she gained her second bumper victory in the Grade 2 Goffs UK Nickel Coin Mares Bumper at Aintree on just her fourth start. She had been successful on her debut at Wexford.

Now she has won three of her five starts over hurdles, gaining a well-deserved first Grade 1 success in the Honeysuckle Mares Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse. This was the scene of her prior win in the Grade 3 Solerina Mares Novice Hurdle, and she certainly lost nothing when running third in a pair of Grade 1s behind Marine Nationale and Facile Vega.

The daughter of Walk In The Park (Montjeu) was partnered to her bumper wins by Patrick Mullins, to one of her hurdle victories by Danny Mullins, is trained by Willie Mullins, and was bred by Jackie Mullins. The family had the dam, Saine D’Esprit (Dom Alco), since her purchase for just €15,000 as an eight-year-old by Willie. The mare had five fillies in seven years at stud, and was sold on to Marina Bloodstock for €21,000, carrying what turned out to be her only son, the now four-year-old My Great Mate (Jukebox Jury).

Buying Saine D’Esprit wasn’t much of a decision for Willie and Jackie Mullins to make. She was a half-sister to the stable’s Grade 1 Hennessy Gold Cup winner Quel Esprit (Saint Des Saints), and she was in foal to Flemensfirth (Alleged). Now Saine D’Esprit is the dam of three winners, the foal she was carrying being the bumper winner Take Tea, while Sneezy Foster won twice over hurdles last year with another daughter, Memory Of Youth (Yeats).

When she was purchased in 2014, Saine D’Esprit had plenty to recommend her, and since then her half-sister, the unraced Reflexion Faite (Turgeon), is dam of the dual Grade 3 winner Aux Ptits Soins (Saint Des Saints), one of those victories gained in the Coral Cup at the Cheltenham Festival.

Twenty-six

Walk In The Park, who sired just a single stakes winner on the flat, recorded his 26th National Hunt blacktype winner when Nick Rockett continued his progress and added the Grade 2 Fairyhouse Novice Hurdle to a point-to-point win, a bumper win in two starts, and a previous success on his hurdling debut. He comes from a very successful female line.

He is the second foal and one of a pair of runners to date from the unraced Flemensfirth (Alleged) mare Eireann Rose. Last year her now four-year-old son of Bullet Train (Sadler’s Wells) sold to Grange Stables for €45,000, and she has a three-year-old full-sister to Nick Rockett and a yearling colt by Nathaniel (Galileo). Eireann Rose has four winning siblings, and she is an own-sister to three of them.

Best of those siblings is Emily Gray (Flemensfirth), and she won a couple of listed chases in England before Kim Bailey sent her over to win, on her penultimate start, the Grade 3 John and Chich Fowler Memorial EBF Mares Chase at Fairyhouse. She raced against the best and was runner-up to the likes of Ma Filleule, Glen’s Melody and Vroum Vroum Mag. Emily Gray’s first winner is Ernest Gray (Walk In The Park).

Rose Ravine

Eireann Rose and Emily Gray’s full-brother Pride Ofthe Parish (Flemensfirth) was runner-up in a Grade 3 hurdle race, while Honor Grey (Flemensfirth) won three times over hurdles last year. Eireann Rose’s third dam was Rose Ravine (Deep Run) and she won the Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, and was a very successful broodmare with eight winners. The headline act among them was the Grade 1 Sefton Novices’ Hurdle winner and Grade 1 Sun Alliance Novices’ Hurdle runner-up Cardinal Red (The Parson).

It is noteworthy that Flemensfirth has worked a treat with different branches of this family. As mentioned earlier, Emily Gray is a blacktype winner, while other daughters of Rose Raving have bred the listed hurdle winner Mosspark (Flemensfirth) and been grandam of the Grade 2 chase winner Dromore Lad (Flemensfirth).