WHILE feature and graded races will always get the headlines, there is much to interest me, and I am sure many others, in the profiles of bumper winners, both here in Ireland and in Britain. Lurking among their numbers will surely be some who will go on to become familiar in the years to come. As the National Hunt season nears an end, many of these winners will now head straight to hurdling, and even a few to chasing.
I am taking a look at some of the recent winners, and perhaps something in their family pedigrees will give us a clue as to those we might hear about again and again. Pride of place has to go to the winner of the valuable Tattersalls Ireland George Mernagh Memorial Sales Bumper which carries a hefty €59,000 winner’s purse. The 2023 and 2024 races were won by Brighterdaysahead and Kopek Des Bordes, and this week it was announced that the race has a new name, sponsor and venue.
This make huge commercial sense to Tattersalls Ireland, though I am sure that many will be sad to see George Mernagh’s name dropped from the race title. Time moves on I suppose, and keeping his name may not have been to the liking of the new sponsor.
George Mernagh’s foresight is still having an impact, as many years ago he suggested that we needed to be countering the growing French power by getting the traditional stores into the system earlier. He was a lone voice for the most part, but now the Derby Sale will include two-year-olds, so his idea is slowly being adopted.
Trainer Robert Tyner is no stranger to winning valuable bumpers, and he sent out Coeur De Lion and Vision Des Flos to win back-to-back versions of the Goffs Land Rover Bumper nearly a decade ago. In 2011 he saddled the winner of the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association Fillies’ Scheme Premier Bumper too. Now, he has taken another with his €70,000 Derby Sale purchase I’m Slippy (Maxios).
Castle Hyde Stud
A dual Group 1-winning miler, and Group 1 sire of the German Oaks winner Diamanta, Maxios (Monsun) went to stud in Germany, but moved to Castle Hyde Stud in 2020, where he still resides and covers this year at a fee of €4,000. The Tom Stanley-bred I’m Slippy is from Maxios’ first Irish-conceived crop, but the sire has already made an impact in that sphere.
His best representatives are Gaelic Warrior, winner of the Grade 1 Aintree Bowl Chase, Arkle Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham, the Irish Mirror Novice Hurdle at Punchestown and the Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick, while Quilixios won the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle for Henry de Bromhead.
I’m Slippy was one of the best-priced stores last year by Maxios, though his sale price did not leave much in the pocket for Castledillon’s Timmy Hillman, who bravely gave €54,000 for him as a foal. The gelding’s dam Molly’s Affair (King’s Theatre) placed seven times in bumper and over hurdles, but never managing to win, but this year is a good one as two of her first three foals have won, the other being Al Kalila (Soldier Of Fortune) who was successful in the colours of Simon Munir and Isaac Souede in January. Al Kalila was fourth in a listed hurdle race at Fairyhouse on Tuesday.
This is a smart French family that goes back to I’m Slippy’s fourth dam Laquina (Tiaia), and she can also claim to be the third dam of a great servant to Arthur Moore, Mansony (Mansonnien), a Grade 1 winner at Punchestown and Leopardstown.
WALTER Connors has few equals when it comes to breeding and selling National Hunt stock, and Robert Hall recently interviewed him for a Tattersalls Ireland feature which is available to watch online. It is worth your time to do so.
No doubt the Dungarvan veterinary surgeon will have strong drafts at the upcoming store sales, and a recent advertisement for the quality of horse he breeds and sells is the Fairyhouse bumper winner Sortudo (Authorized).
He got back to winning ways on Easter Monday with a 12-length rout of the opposition, adding to a debut success at Tramore in November. Runner-up on his one start in a point-to-point, this €110,000 Goffs Arkle Sale graduate was second twice, including in the Grade 2 Future Stars INH Flat Race at Leopardstown, and seventh in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper.
Here is an Irish-bred who carries some of the best French female blood, and by a multiple Group and Grade 1 sire on the flat and over jumps. Sortudo’s sire Authorized, at Capital Stud in Co Kilkenny, has six Group 1 flat winners and his son Santiago at stud here, while two of his six Grade 1 winners under National Hunt rules includes two Aintree Grand National winners in Tiger Roll (twice) and I Am Maximus.
It is probably shades of odds-on that Sortudo will shine when sent over obstacles, and he actually comes from the immediate family of last year’s Tattersalls Ireland George Mernagh Bumper winner, Kopek Des Bordes (No Risk At All). This year’s Grade 1 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner is the best of five blacktype winners out of Sortudo’s third dam, the unraced Miss Berry (Cadoudal). That group also includes the French Grade 1 winner Utopie Des Bordes (Antarctique), and Sortudo’s grandam, Quenta Des Bordes (Bateau Rouge). The last named gained three of her four victories in listed races.
WHILE his uncle Willie was saddling Sortudo to win at Fairyhouse, Emmet Mullins was doing the same at Cork with the five-year-old Clay Pigeons, a son of the Group 3 Craven Stakes winner and Group 1 Racing Post second (to St Nicholas Abbey) Elusive Pimpernel (Elusive Quality).
Clay Pigeons was bred by Claire Berry, wife of Frank, and sold as a foal to Liam McGovern for €13,500 at Tattersalls Ireland. His first two starts in point-to-points were not immediately inspiring, being pulled-up on his debut and well beaten when falling at the last next time out. A summer and autumn break proved to be hugely beneficial, and Clay Pigeons beat Kaka’s Cousin (afterwards sold for £160,000) a short head at Boulta last December, with the rest 15 lengths and more away.
In spite of this, Clay Pigeons sold at the same sale held by Tattersalls at Cheltenham as Kaka’s Cousin, and yet cost £62,000. Now sporting the colours of Paul Byrne, for whom everything seems to turn to gold, Clay Pigeons is certainly one for the future.
One of four winners, counting point-to-points, out of the unraced Curragheen (Sadler’s Wells), Clay Pigeons has a very famous relation, and one that Frank Berry will be familiar with.
Curragheen is a full-sister to none other than Synchronised (Sadler’s Wells), the Noreen McManus-bred and J.P. McManus-owned winner of the Grade 1 Cheltenham Gold Cup, and the Grade 1 Lexus Chase at Leopardstown.
A month after that great day in the Cotswolds, Synchronised suffered a fatal injury in the Grand National at Aintree, a sad end for the gelding, and a memory that would have played a big part in the decision not to risk this year’s Gold Cup winner again at Liverpool so soon.