CONNECTIONS of impressive Wexford bumper winner Wonder Of Fortunes are excited to go blacktype hunting this autumn after the highly promising mare’s ready success for father-and-son duo Liam and James Kenny.

The breakthrough victory at Bettyville Park last month also came with a sweetener for delighted winning owner Michael Broderick, who collected an additional €5,000 prize through the Weatherbys ITBA NH Fillies Bonus scheme.

A native of Listowel who got bitten by the racing bug through meetings at his local track while growing up, Broderick has been involved in racehorse ownership for roughly 30 years and intends to continue racing the exciting Soldier Of Fortune mare, as opposed to selling the bright prospect.

“There are two lads down in Dungarvan, Kieran O’Connell and Tom Morrissey, who are involved in this mare with me,” said Broderick.

“I think we’re going to hold onto her. If someone wants to talk to us they’re more than welcome to do so, but it would want to be strong [money] because we think she’s very special.

“To be fair, the Kennys have had plenty of horses go through their hands and they reckon she is very well above average. We thought about selling her but they feel we’d be waiting a long while before we find one like her again.”

On how he came to source the twice-raced winner, Broderick added: “We bought her, and another mare, from Richie Cotter, who has a breeding operation in Co Waterford. Richie recommended them both to us and is a really good judge.

“The other mare, who was in training with Roger McGrath, looked very good too but she just got a bit unlucky and ended up having a back issue so we had to move her on. Thankfully, World Of Fortunes has worked out well for us.”

Strong form

The Kenny-trained five-year-old is currently on a break for the remainder of the summer, but there was a further boost to her credentials when the Willie Mullins-trained Four Clean Aces, who beat World Of Fortunes by a nose on debut at Tipperary, followed up with an easy Punchestown victory last weekend.

It appeared as though there was a fair deal of depth to the Wexford contest too. Runner-up Familiar Dreams had finished second twice before - including in listed company - and the third-placed Rhaenyra was previously an eye-catching runner-up in the Grade 3 Weatherbys General Stud Book Irish EBF Mares Flat Race at the Punchestown Festival.

“We were absolutely delighted with her performance,” said Broderick.

“Seeing Four Clean Aces win at Punchestown was great too, and I’d imagine Willie’s horse would have been a lot more schooled than we were first-time-out.

“I know there were some well-fancied runners in the Wexford bumper, and I think the time of the race [three minutes and 50.8 seconds] was quite fast too. James [Kenny], who rode her, felt that if something had come to her, she would have gone on again, He knows her inside-out from dealing with her every day.”

Smart pedigree

World Of Fortunes is a half-sister to the Anthony Honeyball-trained World Of Dreams, who has won two bumpers, a maiden hurdle and novice hurdle from just six starts. His only two defeats came when fifth (of 18 runners) in a Grade 2 bumper at the Aintree Grand National Festival and when second to Grade 2 winner Stag Horn in a novice hurdle.

The pair are out of two-mile hurdle winner Rose Of The World, who is a half-sister to Grade 2 Reynoldstown Novice Chase winner Master Of The Hall and dual Leinster National/Tim Duggan Memorial Handicap Chase scorer Pairofbrowneyes.

“She’s got a really lovely pedigree,” said Broderick.

“When you drill down into it, she’s actually coming from the same family as Samcro [with Rose Of The World being a half-sister to Dun Dun, the dam of Samcro].

“She has a great, laid back temperament and is a dream to deal with. She’s a lovely sort and we’d love to get some black type. We’re hoping that our next move will be a listed bumper in the autumn. I’d imagine she’s best with a bit of an ease in the ground.”

On the €5,000 Weatherbys ITBA NH Fillies Bonus earned last month, Broderick added: “It’s a super scheme, particularly for people like us. We’re small-scale owners, the Kennys have a relatively small training operation and in this game you need everything going for you.

“You need a good horse to even be competitive in Ireland. This scheme is a great bonus for owners and we’d like to thank Weatherbys and the ITBA. Hopefully we can keep going and pick up more bonuses over hurdles and fences.”