CONGRATULATIONS to the team at Listowel races who this week were the recipients of a trophy at the Godolphin-sponsored Irish Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards. The winner is chosen by the Irish Stable Staff Association, based on a range of criteria relating to facilities for their members.

This honour came just a day after they had completed a successful three-day meeting, when one of the weekend’s winners was the Declan Queally-trained Tell The Boys (Maxios), and she rounded off the day’s racing on Sunday with a facile victory in the concluding Oliver Broderick Fillies INH Flat Race in the colours of the Money For Jam Syndicate.

For anyone unfamiliar with the term ‘money for jam’, it is an idiom that means money that is easily earned, acquired with very little effort, and describes a highly profitable, straightforward job or a windfall. It is an appropriate name for the owners of Tell The Boys, as they have a very talented filly who cost the trainer just €1,000 a year ago. The big question is, how did Queally manage to secure her for the sale’s minimum bid?

Tell The Boys was bred by Stephanie Hanly at Grange Hill Stud near Nenagh in Co Tipperary. The farm is in the family for three generations, while Eoin Hanly’s brother James has Ballyhimikin Stud, whose current racing star is Ombudsman. Eoin and Stephanie’s son and daughter, Mark and Caroline, are extending the family legacy into the next generation.

Grange Hill Stud has bred any number of good winners on the flat and over jumps, with one family being very good to them for many years now. Almost half a century ago, Lane Baloo (Lucky Brief) was born. Bred by Hanly family, she was foaled in 1977, and was the last offspring from Salle Privee (Big Game), a non-winner but who placed in the 1955 Autumn Breeders’ Foal Stakes at Manchester. Salle Privee had six winners, the best of which was Private Side (Tudor Melody), winner of the Esher Cup at Sandown and placed in the Royal Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot.

Salle Privee died in December 1977, and so her last foal was retained. Lane Baloo was a fine servant to the Hanly clan, leaving behind 17 foals, seven of which were winners. Lucky Baloo (The Parson) was the best of them, and she didn’t travel far from her place of birth, being trained by Captain Donald Swan to win eight times, with her sole success over fences coming at Naas in a listed chase, partnered by a young Charlie Swan.

Four daughters

No fewer than four daughters of Lane Baloo bred Grade 1 or 2 winners under National Hunt rules. The unraced Wild Spell (Oscar) got the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase winner Sporting John (Getaway), while another pair of unraced daughters, May Baloo (On Your Mark) and Supreme Baloo (Supreme Leader), were respectively responsible for Grade 2 winners Kahuna (Mister Lord) and Drumbaloo (Flemensfirth).

Lane Baloo’s daughter Ash Baloo (Phardante) was sold as a four-year-old at the Derby Sale for IR£9,000 to Charlie Swan, and he saddled and rode her to win on her hurdling debut at Fairyhouse by seven lengths. She made he way back into the Grange Hill Stud broodmare band, and justified that decision when going on to breed another winner of the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase in Oscar Whisky (Oscar). That was one of three wins he enjoyed at the highest level, as he captured the Grade 1 Aintree Hurdle on two occasions.

Ash Baloo’s unraced daughter Spring Baloo bred two winning daughters, Jungle Prose (Yeats) and Spring Note (Mahler). Both won a bumper and were successful over hurdles, Jungle Prose four times and Spring Note on three occasions. Their unraced half-sister is Brazen Baloo (Big Bad Bob), and she is the dam of Tell The Boys.

Valuable filly

The Listowel bumper winner is the second of just four foals out of Brazen Baloo, and what a valuable filly she is now. Tell The Boys could become even more valuable if her year older half-sister Park Hall (Walk In The Park) goes on to better things. She won her only start in a point-to-point early last month for Paul Pierce, and sold recently to Dan Skelton. Brazen Baloo’s other two offspring are full-siblings, a three-year-old filly and two-year-old colt, both by Blue Bresil (Smadoun).

Maxios (Monsun) is completing his seventh season at Castlehyde Stud after five years standing in Gestut Fahrhaf. A Group 1 sire on the flat thanks to German Oaks winner Diamanta, he is best known over jumps for two Cheltenham heroes, Gold Cup winner Gaelic Warrior and Triumph Hurdle scorer Quilixios.