Thomas Hassett

Queen Supreme (Ire), 2016 f. by Exceed And Excel out of Call Later, by Gone West

IT was a dream result for Tom and Clodagh Hassett of Monksland Stables when Queen Supreme, a €130,000 Goffs Orby yearling, captured the Group 1 Cartier Paddock Stakes at Kenilworth in South Africa in January 2020. This was the first Group 1 breeding success for the Waterford-based duo. Now she has gone and repeated the dose, landing the race for a second time.

The Hassetts have had her dam Call Later since purchasing her at the Goffs February Sale for €26,000. Call Later’s half-sister Ventura was a listed winner in England, but within two years she had won no fewer than four Grade 1 races. The Hassetts sent Call Later to Dark Angel and the resulting colt, Trending, won eight times.

He was followed by Ana Shababiya (Teofilo), and she was also a multiple winner. The third foal Be Ready (New Approach) won once but it was a listed success. Call Later’s fourth foal Call Me Handsome (Kodiac) sold as a yearling for €325,000, won in Hong Kong before going to Australia where he became a stakes winner.

Call Later’s fifth offspring Contango (Casamento) was a three-time winner for Andrew Balding before landing a local Group 1 in Saudi Arabia. They are joined by Queen Supreme, the mare’s sixth runner and winner. Queen Supreme has won seven of her 13 starts and has a guaranteed place in the 2021 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf. Call Later is dam of a two-year-old Caravaggio filly and a yearling filly by the late Zoffany.

Ken Parkhill

Bob Olinger (Ire), 2015 g. by Sholokhov out of Zenaide, by Zaffaran

WINNERS of the Grade 1 Lawlor’s of Naas Novice Hurdle read like a who’s who of National Hunt racing, and before Bob Olinger added his name to the roll of honour the last five winners have been, in reverse order, Envoi Allen, Battleoverdoyen, Next Destination, Death Duty and Bellshill. This was a fifth outing for Bob Olinger, bred by Ken Parkhill whose family has a long and distinguished connection with the pedigree.

Zenaide was bred and kept by Ken and 15 years ago provided a memorable moment for the family. Racing in Ken’s name, trained by his wife Lulu and ridden by their son Peter, she won a 24-runner mares’ bumper at Cork on her first start and was beaten a short-head on her only other run.

She has shown ability well above the norm as a broodmare. Her first two foals, fillies, were trained by Willie Mullins and were three-time bumper winner and listed-placed at Cheltenham, Darling Carlotta (Kayf Tara), and the listed novice hurdle winner Myska (Presenting). Produce number three was Six Gun Serenade (Kalanisi) who won a point-to-point for Ken Parkhill, sold for €120,000, and won over hurdles.

Henry de Bromhead trained Zenaide’s fifth offspring, Insult (Scorpion), and he won over hurdles, while next came Feel My Pulse (Stowaway), a €60,000 store who won his only start in a point-to-point and resold for £330,000. Sadly he never raced again. Bob Olinger, the best of Zenaide’s progeny, followed.

Last June, Mags O’Toole gave €88,000 for a Fame And Glory gelding out of Zenaide, while Ken Parkhill has a three-year-old half-sister to Bon Olinger by Flemensfirth.

Kathleen Flood

First Flow (Ire), 2012 g. by Primary out of Clonroche Wells, by Pierre

CONGRATULATIONS to all connected with First Flow after the nine-year-old son of Primary galloped to a seven-length victory in the Grade 1 Clarence House Chase at Ascot. The gelding has only finished out of the first four twice in 18 lifetime starts, and his recent success was his sixth consecutive win over fences. As a hurdler First Flow won the Grade 2 Rossington Main Novices Hurdle.

With career winnings now just topping £160,000, it is hard to believe that he changed hands in Part 2 of the 2015 Derby Sale for only €4,500, Denis Cummins of Rathurtin Stud selling to Karen Fanshawe. Denis bought First Flow privately from breeders Kathleen and the late Seanie Flood. The ‘Clonroche’ prefix was used on a lot of the horses Seanie retained and he also bred Ballinclay King, a half-brother to the dam of First Flow, and another Grade 1 winner.

First Flow was foaled, reared and sold privately from Gordon Doyle’s Knockmullen House Stud and it was there that Primary stood at the time. The farm was also home to Pierre, the broodmare sire of the recent Grade 1 winner. First Flow is out of the unraced Clonroche Wells and her dam, Clonroche Artic, bred the aforementioned Ballinclay King. Trained by Ferdy Murphy, he hit the big time at Aintree when he won the Grade 1 Martell Maghull Novices’ Chase.

The big race winners in the family don’t stop there. Clonrock Slave, by Arctic Slave, is the third dam of First Flow and her full-sister Clonroche Hawk bred Yeoman Broker who won the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown.

Niall Flynn

Colreevy (Ire), 2013 f. by Flemensfirth out of Poetics Girl, by Saddlers’ Hall, and Next Destination (Ire), 2012 g. by Dubai Destination out of Liss Alainn, by Flemensfirth

THE home-bred Colreevy took on the boys at Punchestown in 2019 to capture the Grade 1 Racing Post App Champion INH Flat Race for owner and breeder Niall Flynn and his family of Five Naughts Stud. She went on to gain a second Grade 1 success at Christmas in the Matchbook Betting Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick. In January she added a Grade 2 chase at Thurles.

The daughter of Flemensfirth is the fourth foal and one of six winners for Poetics Girl, her sixth being Light Brigade who was an odds-on winner of a maiden hurdle at Fairyhouse in mid-January. Her other siblings include the 2018 Grade A Munster National winner Spider Web, and Runfordave who was placed in Grade 2 hurdle races at Punchestown and Fairyhouse, while Hurricane Darwin and January Jets are both multiple winners.

From a family that is well associated with the Flynn family, Next Destination was bought by Galway man Aidan Murray for just €9,500 at Tattersalls Ireland as a foal from his breeder. He is a winner of the Grade 1 Lawlor’s Of Naas Novice Hurdle, to which he added a second Grade 1 at the 2018 Punchestown Festival.

Following a 920-day break from racing he has returned with a bang, running second in a Grade 2 hurdle and winning his first two starts over fences, both Grade 2 events.

Niall and his family are easily identified as the people who made the Shuil name famous and Next Destination is continuing that story of success.