ALTHOUGH she has been married for many years now to Burgage Stud’s Victor Connolly, every time I meet her, I instantly think of her by her maiden name, Liz Kent.

In the Weatherbys Stud Book, she is listed as Mrs Elizabeth Connolly.

It is under her married name that she is the breeder of the recent listed hurdle winner Hey Sunshine, a five-year-old daughter of Burgage’s late sire Shantou (Alleged), a stallion who served the Connolly family well during his long and very successful career at stud. He went to stud in 1999 having won both the Group 1 St Leger and Gran Premio del Jockey Club at three, and adding the Group 1 Gran Premio di Milano at four.

Beaten just over two lengths in the Group 1 Derby at Epsom, behind Shaamit and Dushyantor, Shantou put up his best career performance when winning the Group 2 Princess of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket at four, beating Swain by a head in a titanic battle.

Rated the best three-year-old stayer in Europe at three, he went to stud as a flat stallion, not in England or Ireland, rather in Italy where he had enjoyed great success. He stood at Paolo Crespi’s Allevamento di Besnate.

Shantou’s first Italian crop included a leading European runner, the Group 1 Prix Vermeille heroine Sweet Stream in 2004, and it was only fitting that he should sire such a high-class flat performer. Shantou himself possessed an outstanding family, being a son of a dual Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner, and out of Shaima (Shareef Dancer), a Grade 2-winning daughter of the brilliant Oh So Sharp (Kris).

Early success

That early success prompted Victor Connolly to relocate Shantou to Ireland almost two decades ago, and what a record he has compiled as a National Hunt and dual-purpose sire. Between the two codes, he has had 56 blacktype winners, and his Grade 1 jumpers include Airlie Beach, Stellar Story, Death Duty, Shan Blue, The Storyteller, Briar Hill and Morning Assembly.

I spoke with Liz at the sales in Goffs, just after Hey Sunshine won the Listed Voler La Vedette Mares Novice Hurdle at Punchestown, to remain unbeaten in three hurdle starts for Willie Mullins. She placed in both her bumper starts, and remains a most exciting prospect. This win came a few hours after Liz failed to sell her half-sister, a filly foal by Jukebox Jury (Montjeu), and what a relief that was in hindsight.

The foal’s three-year-old full-brother had gone from being a €42,000 foal purchase by Tom Howley and Caoimhe Doherty, to selling for €120,000 to Kevin Ross at the Derby Sale this year. It is little surprise that this family should be so popular. The dam, Fortunes Harvest (Soldier Of Fortune), did not race, and Liz picked her up for only €5,000 at Arqana as a four-year-old. Lots of good runners have appeared in the immediate family since.

Successful year

Fortunes Harvest’s first three foals, all by Shantou, have won, and all have been successful this year, the oldest being just six. Her next three are by Jukebox Jury, and also include a retained yearling filly. There is certainly a lot to come from this family.

In the aftermath of Fortunes Harvest’s purchase, her half-brother Doctor Kaleo (Doctor Dino) has won seven times, with a listed chase win at Auteuil among them. Their half-sister Gold Harvest (Kaldounevees) was already on the catalogue page at Arqana, having placed in the Group 3 Prix Vanteaux, but now she is the dam of two blacktype winners, one on the flat and one over hurdles.

Golden Legend (Doctor Dino) is marginally the better-known of the two, being a dual Group 3 winner on the flat and finishing second in the Grade 1 E P Taylor Stakes in Canada. She is now dam of a group-placed winner.

Foaled a year after Golden Legend, her full-brother Doctor Squeeze (Doctor Dino) has won six times over jumps in France, including this year and, while he has just a single listed hurdle race win, he has been placed 10 times in blacktype hurdle races and chases, up to Grade 3 standard.

Blacktype winners

Nine blacktype winners appear in the third and fourth removes of this family, all but one of them enjoying their greatest wins on the flat. Hey Sunshine’s third dam Flash Of Dream (Flash Of Steel) won four races and bred that number of winners, one of which, Strawberry Blonde (Ashkalani), won stakes races in France and the USA.

The fourth dam of Hey Sunshine, Fiddler’s Green (Zeddaan), also won four times, but one of these was a listed race at Deauville. She bred two blacktype winners, Fiddlers Top (Top Ville) over hurdles in France, and Zigreen (Zino) on the flat. Zigreen is grandam of the dual Group 2 winner Zinadaa (Anabaa Blue).

The biggest impact made by any horse in the first four generations of the family was made by Fiddler’s Green’s daughter Stop Fiddling (Welsh Term). She earned blacktype back in the day, when running fourth in the Group 3 Prix d’Arenberg got that for you, but she was even better as a broodmare, her best offspring being the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup winner Anabar (Anabaa). He was renamed Precision when he went to Hong Kong and his five wins also saw him land the Champions and Chater Cup. He was runner-up in the Hong Kong Derby in 2002.