ADAMANTLY Chosen and Springwell Bay finished first and second in a bumper on the opening day of the 2021 Punchestown Festival, the pair being someway clear of their 20 opponents.

The winner went on to win a Grade 3 chase at the same venue, and would have won a pair of Grade 1 races over the larger obstacles, but for meeting Gerri Colombe and Mighty Potter at Limerick and Leopardstown respectively. Springwell Bay, in the same week that he raced for the first time for Patrick Hogan and Mag Mullins, the latter being his co-owner and trainer, went up for sale at the Goffs Punchestown Sale.

Having been purchased from Redpender Stud for €26,000 at the Goffs Land Rover Sale as a three-year-old, Springwell Bay left his joint-owners in profit when selling for €155,000 at an online sale due to Covid, transferring to the ownership of Gay Smith and joining Jonjo O’Neill’s stables. Some 200 days later, the son of Kayf Tara (Sadler’s Wells) looked to be a huge prospect when impressively winning first time out for new connections at Market Rasen, but it was to be some 11 months before we saw him again.

Springwell Bay is very lightly raced, and compiled a record of four victories over hurdles, and he was not disgraced when beaten into third place behind the ill-fated Fennor Cross in the Grade 2 Sky Bet Supreme Trial Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham. On his final start over hurdles, at Aintree in April, he was running well when he stumbled and unseated his rider. Last week, he made what was just his 12th racecourse appearance, and took his winning tally to six with success on his chasing debut.

This was no ordinary race to start his career over fences in, rather it was the Listed Tom Malone Bloodstock Novices’ Chase at Chepstow, and Springwell Bay won at the expense of Insurrection, trained by Paul Nicholls for whom the race sponsor has sourced many top-class horses. Most importantly, from a pedigree point of view, the win gave large blacktype to Springwell Bay, something that will benefit his younger siblings should they appear in a sales ring.

Winning Counsel

Springwell Bay is one of three winners for his dam Winning Counsel (Leading Counsel), and she won three point-to-points and a hunter chase at Downpatrick before Ian Ferguson sent her out to land a hurdle race at Perth. She was later sold and won a fourth point-to-point, this time in England, before starting her new career as a broodmare. Winning Counsel’s other winning offspring are Mint Condition (Black Sam Bellamy) and Winning Rascal (Brian Boru).

Mint Condition was beaten a neck in the Grade 2 Leamington Novices’ Hurdle at Warwick, and gained three of his four victories over hurdles. Winning Rascal is a dual hurdle winner, while another son of Winning Counsel is the promising Kayf Dancer (Kayf Tara), and he was placed on his debut in a bumper last year.

Winning Counsel is a half-sister to Dedigout (Bob Back), a Grade 1 winner over hurdles at the Punchestown Festival, one of his eight triumphs over the smaller obstacles. He won at Grade 3 level over fences and was twice runner-up in Grade 1 races, including the Powers Gold Cup.

Dedigout is a son of the bumper winner Dainty Daisy (Buckskin), and she is one of five successful progeny of Winning Nora (Northfields), a popular racemare in the eighties.

Winning Nora won 11 races, gaining a well-deserved blacktype win in a listed handicap hurdle at the now defunct Tralee, but she managed to be placed in both the Kerry National and the Galway Plate. This blacktype success for Springwell Bay takes to 63 the number of blacktype winners sired by Kayf Tara, a dual Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup winner and twice successful in the Group 1 Irish St Leger. All of his blacktype winners, with one exception, have been under National Hunt rules,

Leading Counsel (Alleged), the damsire of Springwell Bay, also appears in the pedigree of the Grade 2 Persian War Novices’ Hurdle winner Flying Fortune. He is the sire of that five-year-old mare’s grandam Linns Heir.

Flying Fortune

A dual bumper winner at four in England, Flying Fortune has been in tremendous form recently, and she was winning for the fourth successive time when taking the Chepstow feature, a fortnight after winning a £70,000 novices’ handicap hurdle at Worcester.

Sold by her breeder Cathal Ennis to Sean and James Bowen as a newly-turned yearling for £15,000, the mare’s latest win pushed her winnings to more than £100,000. She is a mare to watch for this season.

A daughter of Soldier Of Fortune (Galileo). Flying Fortune is the only winner to date from Turbo Linn, a most interesting daughter of Turbo Speed (Be My Native). Turbo Linn won her first eight starts, and the first five victories were in bumpers, culminating with success in a listed mares’ race at Aintree. She then had her attention turned to the ‘flat’, won three times, and beat 11 others to land the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks at Newmarket.

While she did not win any of her last four starts, Turbo Linn was given an opportunity to contest a Group 1 race, and finished eight lengths behind the winner in the Group 1 Coronation Cup. Oh, and the winner that day was Soldier Of Fortune. A full-sister to a bumper, hurdle and chase winner, Turbo Linn is also a half-sister to the Grade 2 hurdle victor Ignotus (Vitus).