CAROLINE Berry has bred plenty of good performers, and one that has the potential to be up there with the best she has produced is Taurus Bay. The four-year-old son of Poet’s Word is out of Tea Time Tilly (Shantou), an unraced mare that Berry bought for €9,000 as a yearling.

The mare did not have the best start at stud when her first produce, a colt by Getaway, was never named. After that she has had four foals by Poet’s Word, and it would be no surprise were she to visit him again in 2026. Her first offspring by him is the Ben Pauling-trained Taurus Bay, who remains unbeaten after three starts, taking a point-to-point before winning twice over hurdles, firstly at Stratford and more recently at Aintree.

Bought as a three-year-old by Denis Murphy at the Goffs Arkle Sale for €26,000, he won a maiden point-to-point sponsored by Goffs at Comea in February by a comfortable two and a half lengths. He was sent very quickly to the Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale that same month where Jerry McGrath and Ben Pauling got hold of him for a highly-profitable £155,000. He now races for Harry Redknapp and a partner, and could make a start over Christmas in a Grade 1 back at Aintree.

It looks as though connections feel that time will benefit Taurus Bay, described by Pauling as “a shell of a horse who doesn’t want too much graft, but he has a big day in him.” Should he go on to prove as good as connections believe he is, it is not only Caroline Berry who will be happy. Dan Astbury and Declan Queally gave €32,000 for his three-year-old full-sister to this year’s Arkle Sale, while Ciaran ‘Flash’ Conroy has their yearling full-brother at Glenvale Stud. He was sold as a foal for €15,000.

Tea Time Tilly is a daughter of Tryphaena (Priolo). A winner in Germany at three, she won eight times in Ireland, four each on the flat and over hurdles, and one of her victories was at Fairyhouse in a Grade 3 hurdle race. The better of her two winners is Techno Queen (Manduro), twice a listed winner in Germany and Group 2-placed. It is noteworthy that Joey Logan last weekend spent €215,000 at Arqana on Techno Queen’s listed-winning daughter Techno Music (Oasis Dream). She is carrying her third foal, this one by Havana Grey.

No Drama This End lives up to his name

THE grey five-year-old No Drama This End (Walk In The Park) carries the well-known McNeill Family silks, and they race him with Chris and Giles Barber. Max O’Neill believes the gelding is potentially the best the family has owned, and we could see him next time out in the Grade 1 Challow Hurdle.

Bred by Mrs Dale Adams, No Drama This End sold two years ago at the Goffs Arkle Sale for €26,000 to Will Biddick, and he turned him into a sale star after winning his only start in a point-to-point, selling him on for £160,000 to Tom Malone and Paul Nicholls. Last New Year’s Eve, No Drama This End won a bumper at Warwick, and when we next saw him, he was contesting the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper, finishing in mid-division and nine lengths behind Bambino Fever.

Nicholls chose last month’s Grade 2 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham for the hurdling debut for No Drama This End and he won it in style. He has now won a second Grade 2, this time at Sandown, a race won by Lossiemouth in 2021. Again, he was impressive.

No Drama This End is very closely related to a Grade 1 winner. In fact, he is the son of one. La Segnora (Turgeon) won eight times over jumps in France and her greatest achievement was to win the Grade 1 Grand Prix d’Automne Hurdle at Auteuil. No Drama This End is the best of her four winners, though the quartet share one thing in common, they are all sons of Walk In The Park.

Sandown has been good to this family, and La Segnora’s half-brother Le Patriote (Poliglote) put in a career-best performance to win the Grade 3 Swinton Hurdle there. A half-sister to La Segnora, La Vista (Kendargent), is dam of a leading three-year-old hurdler this year in France, Olga De Viev (Latrobe). She won the Grade 2 Prix Sagan Hurdle and Grade 3 Prix Magne Hurdle, both run at Auteuil.

Faugheen recalled after Cork win

UNTIL the appearance of Faugheen (Germany), there was little enough to recommend the female side of his family. He was a son of the unraced Miss Pickering (Accordion), and there was no blacktype in the family until you went back to her third dam, one of whose winners Ombra Del Sol (Ballymoss) won a Group 3 in Italy.

That was back in the 1960s!

Faugheen’s grandam took the family down the National Hunt route. She was Make Me An Island (Creative Plan) who showed the first sign of ability at six when she won a point-to-point, added a hurdle win at seven, and at the ages of eight and nine won a chase. She was a disappointment at stud, though fertile, and from 10 foals she bred the five-time winner Trotsky (Jurado) and two point-to-point winners.

Only half of Miss Pickering’s eight foals raced, but her strike rate was a little better, with two racecourse winners and another between the flags. Faugheen was outstanding, and he had a quite exemplary career on the track after winning his only point-to-point by eight lengths. Bred by Dr John Waldron, Faugheen was sold for €4,000 as a foal, and €12,000 as a three-year-old, at Tattersalls Ireland and Goffs respectively.

Champion Hurdle

After joining Willie Mullins, Faugheen won his only bumper, 13 of his 21 hurdle races, and three of his four chases. He had a host of Grade 1 successes, most famously in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.

More than that, he was the people’s favourite, and banked more than £1.1 million for Susannah and Rich Ricci.

It appeared for a while as though Faugheen might have been a freak in the family, but one of his unraced siblings is more than helping to keep it not only alive, but thriving. Molly’s Mate (Goldmark) is the mare in question and she has bred four winners from her first six foals, one of which was never named. Her son Blow Your Wand (Walk In The Park) was the first to get blacktype, and he won the Grade 2 Pendil Novices’ Chase at Kempton.

His full-sister Maughreen (Walk In The Park) looked for a time as though she would be the next to get blacktype, winning her first two starts, a bumper and maiden hurdle at Punchestown. She proved disappointing after that.

However, the next produce out of Molly’s Mate, Good Girl Kathleen (Getaway), has resumed normal service. Placed a few times between the flags for Colin Bowe, she joined Willie Mullins but moved to his nephew Emmet before she raced under rules.

Good Girl Kathleen won two of her first four starts, a Limerick bumper and Listowel maiden hurdle, and she seems to enjoy travelling south. Her two most recent starts have been at Cork, where she was runner-up in a listed novice hurdle before winning a Grade 3 at the weekend. She won the latter by more than eight lengths. We have not seen the best of her yet.