WHAT have the Grade 1 hurdle winners Feathard Lady and Voler La Vedette, Grade 2 hurdle winner Megans Joy, Grade 2 Cheltenham Festival chase winner Impervious, and the graded hurdle winner Bambootcha and graded chase winner Botani got in common?

They were all trained by Colm Murphy, in addition to a host of star geldings like Brave Inca, Big Zeb, and Quito De La Roque, and with such a record behind him it is worth taking a closer look at his latest blacktype-winning mare, Zanoosh (Harzand). Ridden by the very much in form Brian Hayes, fresh from his marriage to Rachael Blackmore, Zanoosh ran away with the Listed Apple’s Jade Mares Novice Hurdle at Navan, a race won two years ago by Brighterdaysahead.

Zanoosh is another smart winner for Winning Ways Racing, and she looks to be improving with every run, and is one of many whose possible trip to Cheltenham is ground dependent. She obviously loves to get her toe in, and won a bumper at Punchestown back in April on yielding to soft. She has now run up a sequence of three wins over hurdles in two months, all with heavy in the going; a maiden at Punchestown, a handicap hurdle at Navan, and now a listed race.

Nicky Hartery is well-known in racing and breeding circles, thanks to his role as chairman of Horse Racing Ireland, and as a multiple Group 1 breeder on the flat. His wife Catherine is co-breeder of Zanoosh with J Dewberry, and they sold Zanoosh as a three-year-old at the Goffs Arkle Sale through Peter Molony’s Rathmore Stud in 2023 for €41,000. That outlay has been paid back with winnings on the track, and her value has been significantly boosted too.

The dual Derby winner Harzand (Sea The Stars), now based at Con O’Keeffe’s Kilbarry Lodge Stud since 2023, was originally at Gilltown Stud, but when he did not produce the flat results everyone hoped for, he moved south to Waterford. Then his fourth crop started to produce the goods, Caught U Looking winning the Group 3 Park Stakes (and later selling for a staggering 1,800,000gns), and Shamarkand winning a listed race in France and being group-placed.

Harzand did even better with his National Hunt runners from the same crop, Hello Neighbour being one of the best juvenile hurdlers of his year, successful at Grade 1 level in Leopardstown, while Six Figures won the Grade 2 Prix Amadou Hurdle and has twice been placed in Grade 1 contests. Zanoosh is now her sire’s seventh blacktype winner. Harzand’s first Kilbarry Lodge crop are just two-year-olds.

Caherass Stud

The family of Zanoosh came into Hartery ownership just over a quarter of a century ago. Under their Caherass Stud banner they spent IR36,000gns (yes we sold in guineas back then) for a six-year-old mare, Manazil (Generous). Trained by Robert Armstrong for her breeder, the late Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, she raced only at three, winning three times, including at Newmarket and Ascot. She had two foals for Shadwell before she was sold, one of which won.

In her new ownership she bred three more winners, one of which was the dam of Zanoosh, Sinful Pleasure (Sinndar). Put in training with Michael Halford, she won consecutive starts in the summer of 2008 over 12 furlongs, and there must have been something about the sea air as she did so at Tramore and Wexford. Then it was off to stud in Croom, Co Limerick at Caherass Stud.

Sinful Pleasure has just turned 21, and after producing a filly in January 2025 by Awtaad (Cape Cross), she was covered again by the Derrinstown stallion. That yearling is the 14th foal Sinful Pleasure has had in 15 years – what a record. Six of her eight runners have won, while Zanoosh’s full-brother Wicked Pleasure (Harzand) was placed on his only start just before Christmas at Thurles for Henry de Bromhead, and looks to be a winner-in-waiting.

Showing great versatility as a broodmare, Sinful Pleasure now has three blacktype winners. Zanoosh joins the Italian listed winner and Group 2 Oaks d’Italia runner-up Paiardina (Casamento) and the Uttoxeter listed chase winner Brave Eagle (Yeats) on that list.

THIS week I paid another visit to Gordon Elliott’s yard, where he graciously hosted a team of writers and others who were on a trip to Ireland organised by Cheltenham racecourse and The Jockey Club. The trainer had good news about Highland Crystal (Crystal Ocean), his unbeaten four-year-old filly who carries the Robcour colours.

Bred by the Glasgow Allen Partnership, named after Highland Crystal’s dam by American Post, the filly got a slight nick when winning a five-runner hurdle race, carrying a 7lb penalty. She is fine since. Highland Crystal has run three times, and she is another graduate of the new academy hurdle system to go on to endorse the concept. She won a 14-runner fillies’ academy hurdle at Punchestown in November, beating two useful sorts by 14 and 13 lengths.

Two weeks after that debut success, Highland Crystal travelled to Newbury to contest a listed fillies’ juvenile hurdle won by her stablemate Wodhooh two years ago. If Highland Crystal is even half as talented as Wodhooh she will be a good filly. Maybe she might be just as good – time will tell. She certainly has the pedigree of a star.

Highland Crystal is from the second crop of Crystal Ocean (Sea The Stars), and is that stallion’s third blacktype winner.

Sold as a foal for €40,000 at Tattersalls Ireland, Mags O’Toole acquired Highland Crystal at Arqana in 2024 for €58,000. She is the first offspring of the once-raced Glasgow Allen who is bred in the purple.

Since visiting Crystal Ocean, Glasgow Allen has kept company with Walk In The Park (Montjeu), and has three sons by that champion, a three-year-old (sold to Ian Ferguson as a foal for €62,000), a two-year-old (sold as a weanling to Gerry Aherne for €50,000), and Aherne last December gave €80,000 for the latest progeny.

Envoi Allen

This is one of the best families in the world of National Hunt breeding. Glasgow Allen is a half-sister to four winners, and standing head and shoulders above the others is Envoi Allen (Muhtathir). Now 12, he is due to run at Cheltenham next month for the eighth time, and trainer Henry de Bromhead says not to rule him out of contention for the Gold Cup. His record there is three wins, three placed efforts and a single fall.

This week de Bromhead said: “I think he has a chance, I really do. It’s sort of like Bob Olinger last year – you look at all the horses he has beaten and they are single figures and then you look at him and he’s some crazy price! I thought he was better than ever when he won on his comeback. People said it wasn’t a good race but you only have to look at the form since – if he stays that extra bit and don’t see why he won’t. I am kind of wondering why I haven’t run him in the Gold Cup for the past couple of years.

“The enthusiasm of him and Bob Olinger is amazing. I think it’s seven years ago that Envoi Allen won the bumper which is mad and I think he’s been there every year since.”

As well as the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper and his latest win, a third success in the Champion Chase at Down Royal, Envoi Allen’s Grade 1 victories comprise three hurdle wins, the Slaney Hurdle at Naas, Royal Bond at Fairyhouse and the Ballymore Novices’ at Cheltenham, while over fences he has won the Drinmore Novice Chase at Fairyhouse, the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham and a Grade 1 at Leopardstown.