REIGNING champion trainer Willie Mullins knows a thing or two about winning Limerick’s Grade 1 novice chase over the Christmas period. Since 2016 he has won it with Bellshill, Faugheen (in whose honour it is now run), Colreevy, Gaelic Warrior and Impaire Et Passe.

Now, added to that elite group, is the name of Final Demand (Walk In The Park), the Ken Parkhill-bred seven-year-old who first made headlines at the 2022 Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale when he sold for €230,000 to Matthew Flynn O’Connor’s Ballycrystal Stables. He has an almost perfect race record, the only blot coming when The New Lion and The Yellow Clay finished ahead of him at Cheltenham in the Grade 1 Turners Novices’ Hurdle back in March.

The son of Coolmore National Hunt division’s champion sire Walk In The Park (Montjeu) headed to Cheltenham unbeaten, and was sent off a strong favourite. He atoned for that defeat back home at Punchestown in the Grade 1 Alanna Homes Champion Novice Hurdle, in which he trounced the opposition by 16 lengths and more.

Final Demand had previously won the Grade 1 Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival, and that victory was about five weeks after he won his maiden hurdle at Limerick. He swerved a bumper career after winning his sole start between the flags, a five and six-year-old maiden at Lingstown. He comes from the same female line as Ballyburn (Flemensfirth), both geldings sharing their fourth dam, bumper winner Sharpaway (Royal Highway). She is the source of many branches of a family that has gone from strength to strength.

Racing for Bryan Drew and Professor Caroline Tisdall, Final Demand is among 12 Grade 1 winners for his Grange Stud sire, and the best of five successful offspring of Zuzka (Flemensfirth). Also trained by Mullins, Zuzka won a couple of Grade 3 hurdle races and placed at Grade 1 level, finishing third to Jezki in the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse. One of her Grade 3 wins was at the Christmas meeting in Leopardstown back in 2012.

Zuzka is a half-sister to four winners, the best of which was Puffin Billy (Heron Island), a Grade 2 hurdle winner at Ascot. They are out of a half-sister to the Grade 1 Leopardstown novice chase winner The Railway Man (Shernazar), who had earlier in his career been runner-up in the Grade 1 Aintree Hurdle. The Railway Man’s winning half-sister Native Craft (Be My Native) is grandam of the wonderful Bob Olinger (Sholokhov), a three-time Grade 1 Cheltenham Festival winner.

HARRY Redknapp really loves his racing and must have been delighted when the best horse he has ever owned, the Paul Cunningham-bred The Jukebox Man (Ask), won at Kempton Park on their Boxing Day for the second year in a row.

Last year, at the same meeting, the Ben Pauling stable star landed the Grade 1 Kauto Star Novices’ Chase, and on just his second run since then, The Jukebox Man beat a high-class field in one of the best finishes you are likely to see all season in the Grade 1 Ladbrokes King George VI Chase. This was only the gelding’s fourth start over fences, and his unbeaten career in that code includes a triumph in the Grade 2 John Francome Novices’ Chase at Newbury.

In March 2024, The Jukebox Man came agonisingly close to winning the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, beaten a head by Stellar Story, and was third in Grade 1s at Aintree and Newbury. He won a point-to-point for owner John Phelan, who paid €3,000 for him as a foal at Goffs, and then sold him on for £70,000 at the Goffs UK Tingle Creek Sale to Highflyer Bloodstock.

The Jukebox Man is one of a small handful of blacktype winners by the largely disappointing Ask (Sadler’s Wells), who died in 2024. This season however, his runners also include the very progressive Thistle Ask, and he won a Grade 2 chase at Kempton a day after The Jukebox Man starred at the same venue. Ask stood for nine seasons at The Beeches Stud, followed by three at Dunraven Stud, and his final two at Willow Wood Farm.

The Jukebox Man is the only winner out of his unraced dam My Twist (Flemensfirth), and he has revitalised a relatively quiet branch of a family that has enjoyed great success. My Twist had four winning siblings, one of them a full-brother, while her grandam Merry Missus (Bargello) won over fences and produced four winners.

If you go back as far as the fourth dam, Merry Palm (Merry Boy), who was foaled in 1960, she bred the Punchestown Grand National Trial Chase winner Inishowen (Bargello), and is grandam of the Grade 1 chase winner Very Very Ordinary (Furry Glen). Merry Palm’s many successful descendants include the Grand National winner Many Clouds (Cloudings), and the dual Grade 1 hurdle winner The Tullow Tank (Oscar).

ANOTHER former sire at The Beeches Stud, Idaho (Galileo), is about to continue his career at a new base, Skuttells Barrough Stud in Somerset.

Owned by Chloe Roddick and Philip Maloney, Idaho joins Arrigo (Shirocco) who stood under the couple’s management for the past two seasons at their former base, Bulbrook Stud. Both sires are due to cover this year at £2,000, and that looks a very tasty price for Idaho, whose first crop includes the Aintree Grade 1 Formby Novices’ Hurdle winner Idaho Sun.

Bred by Thomas McAuliffe, Idaho Sun sold as a foal at the Goffs December National Hunt Sale from Lisnagar Paddocks to Ford Bloodstock for €20,000. He was back in the same ring for the 2023 Goffs Arkle Sale and returned a profit when selling to Kevin Ross Bloodstock for €60,000. Idaho Sun has run six times from Harry Fry’s yard, with three starts each in bumpers and over hurdles. He has only been beaten once.

Following wins at Newton Abbott and Windsor, Idaho Sun ran a commendable sixth in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper at Cheltenham last year. This season his three starts have yielded victories in a maiden hurdle at Fontwell, a novice hurdle at Bangor, and now a Grade 1 at Aintree. If the name of the race he won is unfamiliar, this was formerly the Tolworth Hurdle, won in recent iterations by such as Constitution Hill and Jango Baie. Idaho Sun has the Supreme at Cheltenham as his target.

What a boost that is for the team now standing Idaho, and his first crop also includes the Grade 3-placed hurdler Quantum Quest. The Group 2 Royal Ascot winner Idaho was runner-up in the Irish Derby. On the dam side of the family, Idaho Sun is the fourth blacktype winner in three generations. His unraced dam West Elite (Westerner) is a half-sister to Oscar Elite (Oscar), a Grade 2 chase winner who was a smart hurdler, and chased home Vanillier in the 2021 Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

In fact, the Cheltenham Festival plays a major part in the success story of this family. Idaho Sun’s hurdle and point-to-point winning grandam Lady Elite (Lord Americo), bought as a foal by Thomas McAuliffe for IR£4,000, turned out to be a half-sister to Lord Windermere (Oscar) and Sub Lieutenant (Brian Boru). The former won the Grade 1 Gold Cup a year after capturing the Grade 1 RSA Chase, while Grade 2 hurdle and chase winner Sub Lieutenant was second in the Grade 1 Ryanair Chase.