IN what was certainly a difficult week for trainer Gordon Elliott, seeing one of his stable stars, Caldwell Potter (Martaline), sell for €740,000 and leave Cullentra for Paul Nicholls’ yard, the trainer will have been buoyed by that gelding’s half-sister extending her unbeaten run to five with victory in the Listed Apple’s Jade Mares Novice Hurdle at Navan.

Rather appropriately named Brighterdaysahead (Kapgarde), the five-year-old will now head to Cheltenham where she could well provide Elliott with a big-race win. A headline maker when she sold as a store at Tattersalls Ireland for €310,000, Brighterdaysahead is worth even more now, given the fact that she has already won a Grade 3 hurdle race, and she is a daughter of Matnie (Laveron), arguably the best National Hunt mare alive at present.

With a couple of youngsters by Doctor Dino (Muhtathir) in the wings, an unnamed three-year-old son and the two-year-old gelding Here Be Dragons, as well as a yearling colt Recognition (No Risk At All), Matnie could well become the most celebrated broodmare to have come through the French National Hunt breeding system.

All of her five winners were bred by Francois-Marie Cottin, she has had eight foals in nine years, and just take a look at what she has produced. Her first five foals are all blacktype winners over jumps, and all have at least won at Grade 3 level or better.

First up was French Dynamite (Kentucky Dynamite). He was sold for €32,000 as a two-year-old store, but Donnchadh Doyle of Monbeg Stables received £165,000 for him as a winning four-year-old pointer at Tattersalls Cheltenham. He is trained by Mouse Morris for Robcour and won the Grade 3 Pierce Molony Novice Chase at Thurles, one of six wins under rules, and he has been placed at up to Grade 1 level. French Dynamite was beaten less than a length at Cheltenham in the Grade 3 Paddy Power Gold Cup Handicap Chase.

Third win

French Dynamite was followed by Indiana Jones (Blue Bresil), who cost bloodstock agent Alex Elliott €280,000 as a three-year-old at the Osarus Maison-Laffitte National Hunt Sale in 2019. He too races for Robcour, is trained by Morris, and when he won the Grade 3 Flyingbolt Novice Chase last year it was certainly was not out of place. This was his third win, two of them over fences, and Indiana Jones later finished third to El Fabiolo in the Grade 1 Colliers Novice Chase at the Punchestown Festival.

Matnie’s third produce took the pedigree to another level. He was the ill-fated Mighty Potter, whose death was one of the reasons that Andy and Gemma Brown of Caldwell Construction took the decision to leave racing, hopefully temporarily. Mighty Potter (Martaline), trained by Gordon Elliott, won a Punchestown bumper on his racecourse debut.

After that Mighty Potter took the honours in the Grade 1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown and the Grade 1 Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown, two of his three wins over the smaller obstacles, and he was placed at that level. Mighty Potter’s only disappointment over hurdles came when he was pulled up behind Constitution Hill at Cheltenham. It was clear however that a career over fences would not be delayed.

Impressive

At the 2023 Dublin Racing Festival, Mighty Potter was an impressive winner by more than eight lengths of the Grade 1 Ladbrokes Novice Chase from the Mullins duo of Adamantly Chosen and Gaillard Du Mesnil, his third straight win and adding to another Grade 1 success, this time in the Drinmore Novice Chase at Fairyhouse.

He met with his first reversal over fences when third to Stage Star at Cheltenham, and then tragedy struck at Punchestown.

In 2021, Joey Logan paid €200,000, the third-best at the sale, on behalf of Andy and Gemma Brown at the Goffs Land Rover Sale for a then three-year-old Martaline (Linamix) gelding out of Matnie, sold by Walter Connors’ Sluggera Farm. Named Aide Memoire at the time, but renamed Caldwell Potter, he went into training with Gordon Elliott. He won one of his three starts in bumpers, at Punchestown, when he was seven lengths and more clear of his rivals under Jamie Codd. The future looked promising. .

Over hurdles Caldwell Potter has delivered, successful on two of his three outings, and at Christmas time he won the Grade 1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown. The sudden decision by Andy and Gemma Brown to sell all their horses meant that Caldwell Potter swerved this year’s Dublin Racing Festival, and he was sold at public auction the day after that weekend’s racing ended. We all know now that he realised a record price at Tattersalls Ireland, €740,000, and was bought by Anthony Bromley of Highflyer Bloodstock.

Gold Cup

Now with Paul Nicholls, and due to race for a quartet that includes John Hales and Sir Alex Ferguson, it was later announced that Caldwell Potter, who is already being touted freely as a future Gold Cup winner, will miss this year’s festival at Prestbury Park. Hopefully Aintree, and maybe Punchestown, will be on his agenda instead.

Brighterdaysahead is the fifth foal for Matnie, and the only one not to have any Grade 1 form – yet. Her value is considerable, and especially now as she is the only filly out of her dam to date. How her breeder must wish for another.

Matnie is a half-sister to Michael Heery’s homebred The Dabbler (Presenting), trained by Liam Cusack and twice successful over fences. Still racing, Thee Dabbler has also been placed a couple of times in Grade 2 chases, at Fairyhouse and Ballinrobe, and he is the only winning produce of Lirfox (Foxhound). She was a prolific winner in France, nine times successful on the flat and over jumps, before joining Martin Pipe and adding three wins over fences. She was placed in a Grade 2 novices’ hurdle at Aintree. A couple of daughters of Lirfox might yet add to the family’s story of success.

Best pedigrees

Lirfox is one of four winners from the unraced Lirfa (Lear Fan), a mare bred for the flat but who has become the anchor of one of the best pedigrees over jumps. Lirfa’s four winners include a trio who gained some blacktype, one of them being Lirfox.

Lirfa’s daughter La Grande Dame (Daliapour) won a Grade 3 hurdle race at Auteuil, and at the same venue was placed in a Grade 1. That mare’s full-brother Aupcharlie (Daliapour) didn’t manage to win a blacktype contest, but he came agonisingly close to so doing.

Beaten a head by Back In Focus in a Grade 1 novice chase at Leopardstown, Aupcharlie was earlier third in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper at Cheltenham. Aupcharlie was variously in the care of five different trainers, and won for four of them.

When Fleur Au Fusil won the Grade 2 mares’ bumper at the Dublin Racing Festival, she took the number of blacktype winners sired by Kapgarde (Garde Royale) to 58, and it also came at the same time that one of his very best sons, A Plus Tard, the Cheltenham Gold Cup hero, was retired from racing. One of the very best National Hunt sires in Europe. Kapgarde stands at Haras de la Hêtraie, and he is well on course to join the ‘century club’ of sires who have 100 blacktype winners, a very small number ever having done so.