FLEMENSFIRTH (Alleged) died at the age of 31 two years ago. His tally of blacktype winners, compiled from 22 crops and still likely to grow, currently stands at 112, and remarkably more than a quarter of them won at Grade 1 level. He is a notable broodmare sire, and it is a pity that he does not have a son to continue his line.

Among his impressive tally of blacktype winners, just two are out of mares by Milan (Sadler’s Wells). One of these is Grey Dawning, and the other is the Grade 1 Drinmore Novice Chase winner Coney Island.

An eight-year-old, €40,000 graduate of the Derby Sale, Grey Dawning has only raced 18 times, but his record is a highly commendable two bumper wins, three victories over hurdles including the Grade 2 Leamington Novices’ Hurdle, and five wins over fences, all blacktype successes. His first Grade 1 was in the 2024 Turners Novices Chase at Cheltenham, and now he has added the Betfair Chase at Haydock, a race he was runner-up in 12 months ago. He has been placed twice in Grade 1 races at Aintree, and has been out of the first three just twice.

Grange Stud

Grey Dawning was bred by Grange Stud in Fermoy. He failed to sell as a foal for €34,000, before being signed for by Brendan Bashford at the Derby Sale, on both occasions consigned by Castledillon Stud. Grey Dawning and his full-sister Blanketontheground (Flemensfirth), twice a winner over hurdles, are two of the four winners for the unraced Lady Wagtail (Milan). That mare was the first lot at the 2008 Derby Sale where she sold to William Flood for €75,000. She was put up for sale by Glenview House Stud who bought her as a newly-turned yearling in the same ring for €29,000.

Dam of four winners with her first four named foals, Lady Wagtail has been an infrequent breeder in recent times, though her latest offspring is a yearling filly by Crystal Ocean (See The Stars).

Lady Wagtail’s half-brother Teaatral (Saddlers’ Hall), bred by Cheveley Park Stud, won the Grade 2 Long Distance Hurdle at Ascot and Kempton’s Grade 2 Rendlesham Hurdle. Teaatral’s sister Richs Mermaid (Saddlers’ Hall) crossed successfully with Flemensfirth, producing listed chase winner Two Taffs.

Until the emergence of Teaatral, this was a flat family, and indeed two pattern winners are out of a winning half-sister to him. She is Pious (Bishop Of Cashel), dam of full-brothers Penitent (Kyllachy) and Supplicant. The first-named won two Group 2 races, notably the Sandown Mile, and was second in the Group 1 Prix de la Foret. Supplicant won the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes at two.

Speedsters

Go back a generation and Lady Wagtail is from a family of speedsters, stars of which include the Group 1 sprinters Cadeaux Genereux (Young Generation) and Ya Malak (Fairy King). The latter gelding is out of Grey Dawning’s third dam, and dead-heated in the Nunthorpe Stakes. His stakes-winning half-sister Dominio (Dominion) bred the then Group 2 King’s Stand Stakes winner Dominica (Alhaarth).

Dead-heating is more common in sprints, and Grey Dawning’s fourth dam, Smarten Up (Sharpen Up), did so in the Group 3 Temple Stakes, while her placed efforts included finishing second in what is now the Nunthorpe Stakes, and third in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes. Cadeaux Genereux was the best of her nine winners. He was European champion sprinter at three and four.

Don’t mention Wodhooh’s half-sister in polite company

IF the name Sotchi (Olympic Glory) is familiar, then you are a racing anorak. The seven-year-old mare is owned and trained in France by James Grassick, and was purchased by him as an unraced two-year-old for €1,000 at Arqana. That was in 2020.

Since then, Sotchi has raced 57 times for Grassick and the best placing she has achieved is fifth. This year, she had her attention turned to hurdling, and in August was 62 lengths behind the winner in a mares’ hurdle at Saint-Malo on her first outing in that discipline. Her next start was in late October, when Sotchi made an excursion to Cheltenham to run in a novices’ hurdle. Completely outclassed, she was pulled up two out when detached from the field. It is not a story that necessarily shows racing in its best light.

Sotchi is the first of three fillies produced by the unraced Dhan (Dubawi), who was bred in Wicklow at Grangecon Stud. Dhan sold as a yearling for 425,000gns to Charlie Gordon-Watson and Al Shaqab Racing, and though she never made it to the track, she had a smart pedigree for breeding. Sotchi was not a good start, but her second and third foals are winners.

Sound horses

Dhan’s second foal is Tafser (Shalaa), and she placed a few times when racing for Al Shaqab before winning a claimer at two and moving to Yvonne Vollmer. She won twice for that trainer at three, and looks to have finally gone to stud this year after 38 starts. If nothing else, and with 97 starts between her first two foals, Dhan produces sound horses. Her third and final produce is a class apart from her siblings. She is Wodhooh (Le Havre).

Carrying the colours of her breeders, Al Shaqab Racing, Wodhooh was put in training with Sir Michael Stoute, and raced four times. She showed a glimmer of form on her final two starts, once beaten 13 lengths into second by a previous winner. She was then sent to the Tattersalls July Sale where Ted Durcan gave 50,000gns for Wodhooh. It is easy to say now that she was worth it, but the bare bones of her form suggests that she cost enough! It was off to join Gordon Elliott after that, and what a difference that has made.

The final race on the card at Cheltenham 2025, the Martin Pipe Hurdle, does not carry blacktype, but that didn’t matter on a number of fronts. The winner, Wodhooh, had been successful in blacktype fillies’ hurdle races, at Doncaster and Newbury, and her victory took her tally to an unbeaten seven over hurdles. She also gave her trainer his only win at the meeting.

Only defeat

Wodhooh suffered her sole defeat over hurdles when she chased Lossiemouth home in the Grade 1 Aintree Hurdle, and now she has made a winning reappearance, taking the honours in the Grade 2 Ascot Hurdle. Now begins the question of what race she will tackle at Cheltenham 2026. Could she be a Champion Hurdle candidate?

A daughter of the leading French sire Le Havre (Noverre), Wodhooh has a pedigree good enough to breed for the flat from, but hopefully a decision on what road to take in the covering barn will not be made for a few years yet.

Her dam Dhan is a half-sister to Group 2 winner and Group 1 runner-up Emerald Commander (Pivotal), while their dam Brigitta (Sadler’s Wells) who sold for 650,000gns, is a winning full-sister to Group 1 Racing Post Trophy winner Commander Collins (Sadler’s Wells), and a half-sister to champion US sprinter Lit De Justice (El Gran Senor).