HOW good is the six-year-old Heads Up? Time will tell, but the James and Jean Potter-bred son of Blue Bresil (Smadoun) always had the credentials on both sides of his pedigree to be a very high-class runner. His form to date, with a notable exception, is very good, and his best relations all got better with age.

Heads Up ran five times in bumpers after he was purchased for €40,000 at the 2023 Goffs Arkle Sale. He won by 24 lengths third time up at Punchestown, was second in a listed bumper at Navan, but he belied his long odds when runner-up to Bambino Fever in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper at Cheltenham 11 months ago.

After starting this season with a maiden hurdle win at Listowel, John McConnell understandably sent Heads Up to Cheltenham for the Grade 2 Hyde Novices’ Hurdle, and there was no shame in running second to the subsequent Grade 1 winner No Drama This End. Back to the Cotswolds in late January, Heads Up ran no race at all in the Grade 2 won by Kripticjim in near total darkness, and it is best to completely forget that run.

Invaluable

Winning the four-runner Listed Irish Stallion Farms EBF Sheila Bourke Novice Hurdle at Punchestown might not appear to be anything very special, but gaining his confidence will be invaluable when Heads Up connections finally decide where to go next. The race has been won in its two past iterations by William Munny and Tullyhill, though this win was not in the same league.

Heads Up did not inherit his dam’s racing ability, thankfully. Nancys Delight (Presenting) ran twice in bumpers, and was beaten by a combined 111 lengths. Her first foal by Pether’s Moon (Dylan Thomas) died at four, and Heads Up is her second. He is followed by a three-year-old gelding by Arrigo (Shirocco), a two-year-old gelding by Ito (Adlerflug) and a yearling son of Postponed (Dubawi).

Sending the unraced Namloc (Phardante) to Presenting (Mtoto), which produced Nancys Delight, was a no-brainer, given that the mare’s best siblings were both sons of the Rathbarry/Glenview stallion. They were the Grade 1 winners Denman and Silverburn. Furthermore, a couple of full-sisters produced smart runners. Namloc bred two winners on the track, including dual hurdler scorer New Horizons (Presenting), and three point-to-point winners.

Sadness

What sadness there was a little more than a week prior to Christmas when the Cashman family reported the death of Blue Bresil at the age of 20. He has enjoyed great success, with eight Grade 1 winners to date, most notably Constitution Hill who was all the rage this week ahead of his run at Southwell last night. Few horses have captured the imagination as the Nicky Henderson-trained, Michael Buckley-owned nine-year-old, and what joy there will be if he did go and win his first start on the flat.

Considered good enough to at least contest the classic Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, Blue Bresil was placed many times at up to Group 2 level on the flat. On his first start over hurdles, he was less than a length behind the subsequent Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Long Run in a Grade 3 at Auteuil, and was later second in a Grade 2, also at Auteuil. After retiring to stud in 2010, at just €1,500, he went on to become one of the best National Hunt stallions of his generation, and Heads Up has become his 25th individual blacktype winner.

His best runner is undoubtedly Constitution Hill, winner of eight Grade 1 contests. Another star is the dual Grade 1 Betfair Chase hero Royale Pagaille, while his best in France includes L’Autonomie who won the Grade 1 French Champion Hurdle, Grande Course de Haies d’Auteuil, by a stunning 30 lengths. Blue Lord, Mick Jazz, Inthepocket, Good Land and Redemption Day make up his full list of Grade 1 winners. Blue Bresil spent his first four years at stud in Haras de la Croix Sonnet in France before moving for another four-year stint at Yorton Farm in Wales. He completed his sixth season at Glenview last year.

Heads Up

Back to Heads Up. He is the latest blacktype winner in a family brimming with talent. His third dam Polly Puttens (Pollerton) was unplaced in four starts, but hardly put a foot wrong at stud, and her nine winners are headed by Denman. What a star he was, graduating from being a point-to-point winner to 14 wins over hurdles and fences. He demonstrated his class when winning the Grade 1 Challow Hurdle at Cheltenham before he was runner-up in the Sun Alliance Novices’ Hurdle. It was the only time a horse finished in front of Denman in his first 15 outings, a run of victories that saw him back at Cheltenham to add the Grade 1 RSA Chase and Gold Cup to his tally.

One Grade 1 winner in a family is admirable, but Denman’s full-brother, Silverburn (Presenting), a year his junior, won a pair of Grade 1 races, the Tolworth Hurdle and Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase. Far Horizon (Phardante) came close to giving Polly Puttens a third Grade 1 winner when Nicky Henderson sent him to Punchestown for the Champion Bumper, where he was beaten by Liss A Paoraigh.