GEOFFREY Thompson won the monthly Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Breeder of the Month for March, thanks to Bambino Fever’s victory in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper. Now the five-year-old daughter of Jukebox Jury (Montjeu) has taken her unbeaten record to four, including a point-to-point, after adding the Grade 1 Punchestown Champion Bumper to her haul.
Bambino Fever went to Cheltenham on the back of a victory in the Coolmore-sponsored Grade 2 mares’ bumper at the Dublin Racing Festival.
Bred by Morning Star Stud’s Geoffrey Thompson, the daughter of Burgage Stud’s sire was unsold at the Goffs Arkle Sale at €30,000. Bambino Fever’s dam is the unraced Midnight Way (Stowaway), and she is one of four daughters of the unraced Midnight Pond (Long Pond) to produce a blacktype National Hunt winner.
The best of the others is arguably the Grade 2-placed Midnight Gift (Presenting), responsible for the Grade 1 hurdle and chase star Death Duty (Shantou). Challenging for the title of being best is the unraced Midnight Reel (Accordion) who bred a pair of graded race winners.
Grade 1 Cheltenham Festival chase winner One Knight (Roselier) and Grade 1 hurdle winner and another Cheltenham Festival winner Commander Of Fleet (Fame And Glory) are among many familiar names that appear under Bambino Fever’s third dam, the unraced Midnight Oil (Menelek).
Knockhouse Stud
Tirwanako (Sin Kiang) joined Sean Kinsella’s Knockhouse Stud in time for the 2020 breeding season, and his first Irish crop are four-year-olds. His French-bred stock made headlines at the sales, notably when Ed Bailey gave £280,000 for Adrimel at the Goffs UK Aintree Sale, and Gavin Cromwell paid £130,000 for Gabynako at the Tattersalls Cheltenham November Sale.
Adrimel won a Grade 2 novices’ hurdle, while Gabynako was runner-up in the Grade 1 Arkle Chase at Cheltenham. Now the sire has the ultimate advertisement as his son Jasmin De Vaux, bred by Didier Desrayaud, added the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham and the Grade 1 Channor Real Estate Group Novice Hurdle at Punchestown to his success last year in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper.
Jasmin De Vaux, a €28,000 Goffs Land Rover Sale purchase by the Crawford Brothers, is a winning point-to-pointer. Simon Munir’s and Isaac Souede’s gelding is by far the best runner produced in four generations on his dam side, and one of three winning offspring of the Grand Seigneur (Mansonnien) mare Que Du Charmil.
WITH a winners’ purse of just over €44,000, the Connolly’s Red Mills Irish EBF Auction Hurdle Series Final at Punchestown on Wednesday attracted 15 runners, and Co Wexford’s Yvonne Latta saddled the six-year-old mare Thisistheway (Doyen) to win.
The mare carried the colours of her husband Charlie, and he is recorded as the breeder. Thisistheway was offered at Tattersalls Ireland three years ago, and listed as sold for €2,000 to AL Bloodstock. No doubt the AL stands for Andrew Latta, the couple’s son, and it is just as well that they did not part with the filly. Wednesday saw her make her ninth start, which began with a bumper victory in Wexford, and her latest success is her third over hurdles.
Thisistheway is the first foal for Little Mitch (Westerner), and that mare took longer than her daughter to come to hand, winning a bumper at six and the second of two hurdle wins being gained at the age of eight. A small field for a Grade 3 novice hurdle at Limerick, most wanting to avoid the long odds-on Long Dog, did not deter Charlie and Yvonne Latta, and Little Mitch’s third place finish gained her valuable blacktype.
This takes us to Party Woman (Sexton Blake), the dam of Little Mitch and her blacktype-placed half-sister Miss Mitch (King’s Theatre). She was raced by Charlie Latta, trained by Martin Lynch, and as a six-year-old she won a bumper, two hurdle races including a Leopardstown maiden, but fell next time out and went to stud. It was a shame that her racing career was cut short.
Thisistheway’s third dam, the smart bumper mare and hurdler Mrs Playfair (Gala Performance), a half-sister to the Leopardstown Grade 2 Arkle Chase winner Wolf Of Badenoch (Giolla Mear), is the grandam of the Kerry National winner White Star Line (Saddlers’ Hall), and fourth dam of the Grade 1 Aintree Stayers’ Hurdle winner If The Cap Fits (Milan).
CARRIGMOORNASPRUCE is the latest winner of the Grade 3 Weatherbys General Stud Book Irish EBF Mares INH Flat Race, and this is a mare who deserved such a success this season.
Making her sixth bumper start since late September, Carrigmoornaspruce (Diamond Boy) has won three times, at Naas and Leopardstown also, and been placed on all her other runs. She was second in a listed bumper at Fairyhouse and third to Bambino Fever, now a dual Grade 1 winner, at the Dublin Racing Festival in a Grade 2. She is one of three bumper-winning daughters now of an unraced Beat Hollow (Sadler’s Wells) mare. All bred by Michael Veale, the others are this year’s winner Carrigmoorna Beech (Blue Bresil) and Carrigmoorna Queen (Walk In The Park).
The three winners are among the first four of the seven offspring to date from their dam, and all but one of them have been fillies. The sole male, Minella Storytime (Shantou), was placed in a point-to-point. There are three and two-year-old half-sisters to Carrigmoornaspruce by Blue Bresil (Smadoun) waiting in the wings, alongside a yearling filly by Crystal Ocean (Sea The Stars).
Carrigmoornaspruce’s grandam was the unraced Carrigmorna Flyer (Bob Back). She was a very good broodmare, and her seven winners included three graded winners, and another who placed at that level. Shantou Flyer (Shantou) won a Grade 2 novice chase at Punchestown and a Grade 3 chase at Cheltenham, and he had a pair of older half-sisters who won Grade 3 races, emphasising the fact that this is a family in which fillies excel. Mrs Mac Veale (Karinga Bay) won a Grade 3 hurdle at Naas, while Carrigmoorna Rock (King’s Theatre) graduated from being successful between the flags to winning a listed hurdle race at Newbury and a Grade 3 mares’ hurdle at Leopardstown.