EVEN with the weather playing havoc with fixtures, and in the immediate aftermath of a glut of high-class racing post-Christmas, there was plenty to catch our attention as 2025 got underway.

Not every card staged a bumper, but those that did produced a variety of winners. Top of the pops was a listed bumper success for Henrietta Knight, and it came with a four-year-old who is related to one of the best chasers of recent seasons, though he is sadly on the easy list for the foreseeable future. The horse in question is Fastorslow (Saint Des Saints), and his dam is a half-sister to the dam of the Knight-trained Precious Metal.

Precious Metal is the sixth blacktype winner for the well-bred Castle Du Berlais (Saint Des Saints). Given the great start made at stud by Castle Du Berlais, I was surprised to read that a share in the 12-year-old failed to sell in December at an Arqana online auction.

The stallion’s fee at Haras du Lion this year remains at €5,000 for the second time, double what he started out at in 2018. In all bar one of his seasons at stud he has covered over 100 mares, and in 2024 he had a book of 120.

Castle Du Berlais is not only a son of one of the great French stallions, but his dam was a top-class racemare, and a darling at Auteuil, Royale Athenia (Garde Royale). A full-sister to the Grade 1 bumper winner Royal Rosa (Garde Royale), she won 10 races, highlighted by victory in the Grade 1 Prix Renaud du Vivier, and in addition to Castle Du Berlais, Royale Athenia is also the dam of triple Grade 1 hurdle winner Sire Du Berlais (Poliglote).

Sadly, an injury kept Castle Du Berlais from fully realising his potential on the track. A May foal, he was nonetheless precocious enough to win a listed chase at Enghien at three, one of two victories in eight starts, and he was placed every other time he ran. He made an explosive start at stud with his first runners over jumps, and his score of half a dozen blacktype winners will not stay that way for too long. He is one of the more exciting young sires in France, and one to watch for in the future.

Arqana purchase

Bred by Jean-Paul and Marie-Odile Deshayes, Precious Metal was well bought as a yearling for €14,000 at Arqana, and his win at Cheltenham means that he becomes the fifth offspring of the French flat winner Pluie D’Or (Bering). Three of her five winners won on the flat, one of whom, Paradia (Authorized), was bought as a winning filly for €3,000 by Nicola FitzGerald just over four years ago. Did she have a crystal ball to know how well the family would blossom under National Hunt rules?

Pluie D’Or is one of seven winners out of the Group 3-winning mare Prairie Runner (Arazi), and two of these won Group 2 races. Prairie Star (Peintre Celebre) gained his biggest win in the Prix Hocquart and was placed in a Group 1, while Pacific Rim (Singspiel) won the Group 2 Prix de Malleret, and is the dam of a Group 3 winner in Australia.

This brings us on to their half-sister Popova (Kahyasi). She won twice at three before being sent jumping, where she won twice more, and was runner-up in a Grade 3 hurdle at Auteuil. Heading her list of winning progeny is Fastorslow, bred on similar lines to Precious Metal. He has the distinction of gaining all of his three wins outside France in Grade 1 chases at Punchestown, and what a shame it is that we will not see him again this season.

Pethers Lane

On New Year’s Day, at Exeter, the four-year-old Pethers Lane celebrated his official birthday with a cosy victory on his debut in the concluding bumper. The son of Group 1 Coronation Cup winner Pether’s Moon (Dylan Thomas) was bred at Yorton Farm, home to his sire. He is the sixth winner from his dam Yolaine (Astarabad), and she won six races over jumps in France.

Her other winners include the French listed hurdle winner Yosille (Blue Bresil), and that mare’s full-brother is Blue Carpet (Blue Bresil), who won his only start to date, a bumper in October for Dan Skelton.

Here is another bumper winner from a very happening family. Yolaine’s dam is a full-sister to Kilbarry Lodge Stud’s Grade 1 sire Diamond Boy (Mansonnien), and to the multiple Grade 1 chase winner Golden Silver (Mansonnien). Pethers Lane’s dam is by Astarabad (Alleged), and he is also the sire of the unraced Raitera, a half-sister to Golden Silver and Diamond Boy). She is responsible for the hugely exciting, and allegedly £1 million recent sale, The New Lion (Kayf Tara). He won the recent Grade 1 Challow Hurdle.

O’Brien’s bumper

When Joseph O’Brien took on the training of Light Up The Dark, a daughter of Camelot (Montjeu), it is certain that he did not imagine he would be saddling her to run out an impressive winner of a Naas bumper on her racecourse debut.

The 95,000gns, Michelle Morris-bred yearling purchase was then actually catalogued for sale the following July, but withdrawn. Time and patience have paid off, and she is a four-year-old to watch out for in the months ahead.

Light Up The Dark is a third winner for her stakes-placed dam, Tiptree (Duke Of Marmalade), and that number could well be four before too long. Two days before she won, her three-year-old half-brother Chartwell Jock (Churchill) was placed, and looks a likely winner for Andrew Balding.

Tiptree is a half-sister to two stakes winners, Troubadour (Danehill) who won a listed race at the Curragh, and the Qatar Derby winner Roman Legend (Holy Roman Emperor).

The next two generations of the family are best known for producing high-class performers in New Zealand and Australia. Light Up The Dark’s third dam is Lady Liberty (Noble Bijou) and she won the Group 1 South Australian Oaks four decades ago. Two of her three stakes winners were born after she was imported to Ireland from New Zealand, with her son Equal Rights (Royal Academy) being sent to Ireland by Peter Chapple-Hyam to win the Group 3 Futurity Stakes for Robert Sangster.

Camelot is certainly not a stallion that needs any introduction, with 63 group and listed winners on the flat. He is also sire of a further 13 blacktype winners over jumps, and they have gained these triumphs in Ireland, Britain, France, the USA and Australia. Another seven have been placed in such races, so it would come as no surprise if Light Up The Dark, given her pedigree and in-form trainer, were to be another to do likewise.