HATS off to Templemore, Co Tipperary trainer John Ryan. He had a big race success at Fairyhouse on Saturday when the six-year-old Drumgill (Elusive Pimpernel) won the Listed Easyfix Equine Handicap Chase, and set himself up for the Dan and Joan Moore Memorial Chase back at the same venue in January. The Thomas Keane-bred gelding races in the trainer’s colours.
This was victory number seven for Drumgill who was sourced by Ryan at the Tattersalls Ireland May Sale three and a half years ago for just €5,000, and has banked some €125,000 for his owner/trainer. He is one tough cookie, having run 39 times since making his debut a little over two years ago, and four of his seven wins have been over hurdles. He is an even better chaser.
Drumgill’s win could not have been better timed for Thomas Keane and Denise O’Brien’s Clonbonny Stud. Next week they have Lot 450 in the Goffs December Sale, a filly foal by Waldgeist (Galileo), and she is just the third offspring of her dam Medinah Theatre (King’s Theatre). The first is Drumgill, and there is a four-year-old filly by Fascinating Rock (Fastnet Rock). This year Medinah Theatre visited Crystal Ocean (Sea The Stars).
Medinah Theatre only raced three times, finishing fourth once in a bumper, and she is a half-sister to Drewscourt (Mahler), twice victorious over jumps in the USA. Their dam, Supreme Adventure (Supreme Leader), had seven winning siblings, one of which, Wild Adventure (Le Bavard), placed in a listed hurdle race. Two of Supreme Adventure’s female siblings deserve mention. Her full-sister She’s A Venture (Supreme Leader) was placed over hurdles, but had a more talented daughter, Court Maid (Court Cave) who was a Grade 2-winning chaser.
Better still, Supreme Adventure’s half-sister Maid For Adventure (Strong Gale) won two hurdle races and a chase, and made a lasting impression when her son Menorah (King’s Theatre) became a Grade 1 winner over hurdles and fences. At five he won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, and two years later added the Manifesto Novices’ Chase at Aintree to his overall tally of 15 wins.
BORN To Sea had a wonderful three days at the weekend, with a novice chase winner last Friday at Newbury, Mambonumberfive, Talk The Talk landing a Grade 3 hurdle at Fairyhouse on Saturday, and Mange Tout capturing a Grade 3 juvenile hurdle on Sunday to remain unbeaten.
A listed winner at two and second in the Group 1 Irish Derby in his second season, Born To Sea had excellent credentials to begin his stallion career, especially being a half-brother to Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) and Sea The Stars (Cape Cross). He made a very good start with his first two-year-old runners in 2016, as they included 14 individual winners of 16 races, headed by Sea Of Grace who won the Group 3 Flame of Tara Stakes at the Curragh. However, this success rate did not continue.
Born To Sea (Invincible Spirit) stood his first two seasons at Rathasker Stud, moved to Gilltown for the next four years, and has been at Alain Chophard’s Haras des Faunes for six of the last seven seasons, the exception being in 2022 when he was Haras de la Hetraie. His fee trajectory has been generally downward, from €10,000 to €3,500 last year, and in recent years support has fallen in France. Yet, he is a Grade 1 sire over jumps.
Winning debut
Trained by John Oxx, Born To Sea always raced in the top class. He made a winning debut in the Listed The Irish Field Blenheim Stakes over six furlongs at the Curragh, before finishing lame after running a close second in the Group 3 Killavullan Stakes at Leopardstown. As a three-year-old, five of Born To Sea’s six starts were in Group 1 events and the other in a Group 2.
He was a close fifth to Power in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas and fourth in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot. In the Group 1 Irish Derby he ran second to Camelot, beaten only two lengths with the third nine lengths away, and he ended his racing career with another second in the Royal Whip Stakes at the Curragh and fifth to Snow Fairy, Nathaniel and St Nicholas Abbey in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes.
Born To Sea is the last son of that wonderful broodmare Urban Sea (Miswaki), and her eighth winner, every one of which scored in blacktype races. Six of her foals are group winners, four of them in Group 1 races.
The champion racemare in Europe when she won the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Urban Sea produced two Group 1 Epsom Derby heroes. Her son Galileo completed the Epsom and Irish Derby double in 2001 and went on to become a super sire. Sea The Stars, a three-parts brother to Born To Sea, won the Epsom Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and now ranks among the best stallions in the world.
Group 3 winners
Sea Of Grace was one of three Group 3 winners Born To Sea sired on the flat, along with four other listed scorers, while his tally of blacktype winners over jumps is now 12. Grade 1 winner A Wave Of The Sea, My Mate Mozzie and Aspire Tower are three of his best over jumps, while Talk The Talk and Mange Tout are a pair of hugely exciting prospects.
Mange Tout was bred by Pascale Papon and her husband Eric under the banner of their Haras de Peyre. They have a fascinating background – including training in Canada and being part of Cirque du Soleil – and are now breeding top-class runners. They raced Mange Tout with trainer Elisabeth Allaire, and the three-year-old filly won her only start in France by 15 lengths over hurdles in early May. Shortly after that, purchased by Robcour, she moved to join Gordon Elliott.
Mange Tout has won both her starts from Cullentra, at Down Royal on the first day of November, and now at Fairyhouse in the race won by the likes of Espoir D’Allen, Zanahiyr, Fil Dor, and Lossiemouth. She is a half-sister to the multiple Grade 1 winner Impaire Et Passe (Diamond Boy), and two other winners, the first four foals of their dam. Mange Tout’s grandam Kel Ecossaise (The Wonder) won 15 races over jumps in France and Italy.
Joseph O’Brien
Talk The Talk was a winner for trainer Joseph O’Brien sporting the green and black of Simon Munir and Isaac Souede. This four-year-old was bred by Haras de Faydeau (Lune and Frank Vergette), and sold as a store last year through Yeo Barton Bloodstock (Sarah and Nigel Faulks) to Highflyer Bloodstock for £70,000 at the Goffs UK Spring Sale.
Originally with Stuart Crawford, Talk The Talk made his debut at Newbury in March as he clawed back some £20,000 of his purchase price when he ran second in the Goffs Hundred Grand Bumper.
Since joining O’Brien, he has won both his hurdle starts, and is clearly a horse for whom there is a very bright future. Talk The Talk is the first foal out of Haras de Faydeau’s homebred Walk The Walk (Walk In The Park), and she has four winning siblings.
More significantly, Walk The Walk is a half-sister to Hyde (Poliglote) whose winners include triple Grade 2 winner Goshen (Authorized), successful on 11 occasions, nine-time winner and €310,000 sale mare Elimay (Montmartre), and this year’s Grade 2-winning three-year-old filly Delmegan (Goliath Du Berlais).