NOT only does the Grade 1 winner Affordale Fury (Affinisea) get the main review this week following his Leopardstown heroics, but he also is accorded the accolade of bargain of the week.

Until his win over the Christmas period, he was probably not as well appreciated as he should have been. A graduate of the point-to-point scene where he was a winner, Affordale Fury was successful on a single occasion in a bumper and over hurdles, and was runner-up twice in Grade 1 company over the smaller obstacles before having his attention turned to chasing.

Backed in from a derisory 33/1 to 7/1, Affordale Fury was recording victory number three over fences when landing the Savills Chase for owner Philip Polly, trainer Noel Meade and the super-sub jockey, Sam Ewing. The rider replaced the injured JJ Slevin, and he too was a replacement jockey for the suspended Donagh Meyler. This win puts the newly-turned eight-year-old firmly in the picture for the Gold Cup at Cheltenham in March.

Bred by Deirdre Connolly, Affordale Fury was sold from Ballynoe Castle Stud at the 2021 Tattersalls Ireland May Sale to the well-named Dreamers Bloodstock for €8,000. The following March, carrying the colours of Cassie Parle, the gelding made a winning debut at Ballycahane in a four-year-old maiden appropriately sponsored by Tattersalls Ireland. He was then bought to join Meade, no doubt for somewhat more than his original price!

Lucky track

Galway has been a lucky track for Noel Meade, and for Affordale Fury. It was there that he made a winning debut in a bumper, ridden by Pat Taaffe, and a little more than three weeks later he returned to the west of Ireland to capture a maiden hurdle on his first start in that code under Bryan Cooper. Things didn’t go right on his next two runs, and he seemed something of a forlorn chance when lining up at Cheltenham for the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle.

Sam Ewing was in the plate on this occasion, his first time to be so in public, and Affordale Fury defied odds of 150/1 to run second, behind Stay Away Fay. It was on to Punchestown after that, and the Grade 1 novice hurdle at the festival there, where he was no match for the winner, Gaelic Warrior, but beat the rest by six lengths and more.

Ewing was reunited with Affordale Fury for his chasing debut in October 2023, back in Galway again, which he won. He ran no race after that in Punchestown and was then off the track for nearly 15 months. Frustratingly, he was runner-up on his first three runs this season, on the last occasion chasing Envoi Allen home in the Grade 1 Champion Chase at Down Royal. Affordale Fury regained winning ways in late November in a listed chase at Thurles.

Huge regard

Readers of this column will know the huge regard I had for the late Ronnie O’Neill, and his son John now runs the family’s Whytemount Stud. This is home to Affinisea (Sea The Stars) who regained his title as the busiest sire in Britain and Ireland in 2025, covering 314 mares. He also topped the table in 2021 and 2022. Affordale Fury is from his first crop of 72 foals, which also included Grade 2 winner and Cheltenham Festival Grade 1 runner-up Only By Night.

Affordale Fury is the first Grade 1 winner for Affinisea, and given the huge books he has received in recent years, the popularity of his stock at the sales, and his record with winning pointers, he is likely short odds to one day become champion sire.

There would be no finer tribute to the O’Neill family and testament to Ronnie’s skill in identifying sire potential. Affinisea has just celebrated his birthday, and is a youthful 15.

With limited opportunities due to his smaller earlier crops, Affinisea has still compiled a fine record with his winners, They also include Grade 2 hurdle winner Hollygrove Cha Cha, the listed bumper and hurdle winner Avakate, and graded-placed hurdlers The Big Clubman and Just For Love. Another son, this one from his second crop, is Sixmilebridge. He won a Grade 2 hurdle at Cheltenham last January but was later disqualified after a banned substance finding. He is now an unbeaten novice chaser, most recently at Cheltenham in mid-December.

Outstanding foal

Bred by Jim Bolger, Affinisea was an outstanding foal, selling for €850,000 to Sunderland Holding, the trading name for the Tsui family who raced and bred his sire, Sea The Stars (Cape Cross). Put in training with John Oxx, Affinisea only raced twice, at the ages of four and five. He won on his debut over a mile and a half at Roscommon, and just over a year later was beaten a short head by Hidden Cyclone over two furlongs further at Killarney.

While this was hardly the race career envisaged when he was purchased, Affinisea had the pedigree of a potential sire. He has three stakes-winning siblings, notably Soldier Of Fortune (Galileo). That Group 1 Irish Derby and Coronation Cup winner sired the Galway Plate winner Early Doors. Affinisea’s stakes-winning dam Affianced (Erins Isle) is a half-sister to Group 1 winner and Irish Derby runner-up Sholokhov (Sadler’s Wells), a Grade 1 sire.

Affordale Fury’s dam No Greater Fury (Choisir) was also bred by Deirdre Connolly, but she was lacking when it came to racing ability. She pulled-up on each of her four starts in point-to-points, beat just three runners in two starts in bumpers, and fell on her only outing over fences. Thankfully, her son has not inherited her racing genes!

Loyal mate

No Greater Fury has been a loyal mate with Affinisea, and other progeny by the stallion include the 2025 point-to-point winner Whitewinewednesday, the just turned six-year-old What A View who was bought as a store by Warren Ewing for €40,000, and a now two-year-old colt who cost Peter & Ross Doyle Bloodstock €21,000 as a foal. No Greater Fury was once again covered by Affinisea last year.

While bred to be a flat runner, No Greater Fury’s only racecourse-winning sibling was the mare A Little Swifter (Noverre), and she was a successful National Hunt performer, winning a point-to-point, bumper, two hurdle races, and a chase. Their dam Swifteur (Snurge) had four successful siblings, and the best of these was Swing Wing (In The Wings). A three-time listed winner, he was runner-up to Sholokhov in a Group 1 at two in Italy.

The family success story is more pronounced under Affordale’s fourth dam, the French listed winner Schezerade (Tom Rolfe). All of her 11 foals raced and nine of them won. Among them were three blacktype winners, and they varied widely in the races they gained these victories in. Sunshot (Peintre Celebre) won at Grade 3 level over hurdles at Auteuil and placed in the Grade 1 Grand Prix d’Automne Hurdle, Philanthrop (Machiavellian) was a multiple French listed winner and Group 2 placed on the flat there, while Le Zele (Zafonic) was a listed winner in Japan.