THE bumper on the third day of the Leopardstown Christmas Festival has been won on five of the last 10 occasions by a Willie Mullins-trained runner. Four were partnered by his son Patrick, but he was deployed to Limerick to ride a Grade 1 winner this time, and so Jodie Townend came in for the ride on Bentraghhill (Getaway). The pair won with ease, and this is a horse to keep an eye on.

Bred by Frank Motherway and Kevin Curtin, Bentraghhill has already been in the news. Back in May last year he was the joint sale-topper at Tattersalls Ireland when selling for €150,000 to Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins.

Bloodstock agent Kirk has bought countless Grade 1 winners throughout his career, and one of the best suppliers of these has been the legendary Wilson Dennison. Kirk was hoping that such success would in time apply to his purchase of the then four-year-old Bentraghhill who was sold through Dennison’s Loughanmore Farms.

Sourced as a short yearling at the 2021 Tattersalls Ireland February Sale for €40,000 by the shrewd judge Ian Ferguson, Bentraghhill joined the Mullins team at Closutton. Kirk commented at the time of the sale: “He is a gorgeous horse, and we have bought many Grade 1 winners from Wilson Dennison, at least eight or nine individual horses. We also had Getabird by Getaway, who was a Grade 1 horse.

“This horse ran fantastically well for a big horse on his first run [a Fairyhouse point-to-point]; he was only beaten three lengths. He has a lot of filling out to do, he has a good pedigree and is a beautiful model. He will go to grass now; he needs time as he is a big horse.” Well, the summer at grass has obviously benefitted Bentraghhill, and the dream of becoming a Grade 1 horse is very much alive.

Bentraghhill was placed on his only start in a point-to-point but caught the eye of many, beaten by Smoke Trail (now a maiden hurdle winner for Lucinda Russell) and Lazare De Star, who sold to Mags O’Toole at the Goffs Punchestown Sale for €190,000. The latter won earlier on the same card at Leopardstown as Bentraghhill for Robcour and Gordon Elliott.

Party Central

Bentraghhill is a half-brother to the smart bumper and hurdle-winning mare Party Central (Yeats), and the Grade 3 hurdle winner Craigneiche (Flemensfirth). Party Central won eight times, four each on the level and over hurdles. She was a most adaptable sort, winning two bumpers, one of them a listed contest, two flat races at the age of seven, and three of her four wins over the smaller obstacles were in blacktype races. They included a Grade 2 mares hurdle at Leopardstown.

Craigneiche earned his Grade 3-winning stripes at Ascot, while at the Cheltenham Festival he was runner-up in the Grade 3 Coral Cup. They and Bentraghhill are among the six runners and winners out of Itsalark (Definite Article), and that mare won a bumper on the only time she raced. Itsalark was trained by Philip Hobbs for owner Caren Walsh, having been purchased at the Derby Sale for €15,000 through Bobby O’Ryan.

One of two racecourse winners, alongside a point-to-point winner, Itsalark is a daughter of bumper and hurdle winner Ardsallagh’s Lark (Beneficial). She was an own-sister to Washington Lad (Beneficial), a Grade 3 novice hurdle winner who was placed in the Grade 1 Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown, and later in the Galway Plate. Another smart runner pops up under Bentraghhill’s fourth dam, and this is the Grade 2 Punchestown chase winner Lastoftheleaders (Supreme Leader).

Sixteenth season

Getaway (Monsun) is about to embark on his sixteenth season at Grange Stud, and his sire was a top-class racehorse and one of the greatest German stallions of all time, leaving a powerful legacy. Monsun (Konigsstuhl) stallions have had a powerful impact on the National Hunt sector, especially with such as Network, Shirocco and Getaway. It was no surprise that Getaway was added to the roster at Grange Stud. A champion and dual Group 1 star, he is a full-brother to the champion and classic heroine Guadalupe (Monsun), and his dam is a half-sister to Royal Rebel (by Robellino), dual winner of the Group 1 Gold Cup at Ascot.

With 33 blacktype National Hunt winners, Getaway is sire of such high-class winners as Handstands (Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase, Sandown), another winner of that same race, Sporting John, Feronily (Grade 1 Ellier Champion Novice Chase, Punchestown), Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle winner Verdana Blue, Glan and Assemble. His Grade 2 winners comprise Getabird, Tripoli Flyer, Classic Getaway, Motu Fareone, Rock My Way, Thosedaysaregone, Newtide, Danny Whizzbag and Getaway Katie Mai.

Change of scenery and luck

EOIN O’Morain bred the five-year-old Aisling Oscar (Rajasinghe), and the gelding ended up with Craig O’Neill who saddled him to win twice at the start of his three-year-old career, within the space of three weeks. Both wins were on the all-weather at Dundalk.

Having failed to build on those successes, Aisling Oscar was catalogued last year, at the age of four, in the Tattersalls September Online Sale, where Dan Astbury secured him for 3,200gns. Moved to join Adrian Keatley, he was placed at Wolverhampton on his first run for new connections, and then rattled up four wins in a row within a month, all at Newcastle. In total, the four victories earned Astbury a paltry £12,400, but he did get a nice bonus of £20,000 for owning the leading all-weather points earner in December.

Aisling Oscar is one of three winners out of the winning Azamour (Night Shift) mare Goodnightsuzy, and the second by Rajasinghe (Choisir) who stands at the National Stud in Newmarket. The other is Waiting All Night, a four-time winner who was runner-up, albeit at a respectable distance, behind Naval Power in Ascot’s Listed Pat Eddery Stakes at two. Goodnightsuzy’s third winner, Grace Plunkett (Brazen Beau), was sold as a horse in training for 1,000gns, having won that same year.

I urge readers to look at the pedigree of Lot 843 in the Goffs November Foal Sale catalogue, when Baroda Stud’s catalogued a Marie’s Diamond (Footstepsinthesand) half-brother to Aisling Oscar, though the colt was withdrawn. Goodnightsuzy’s three winners come from just four runners, and the other (not included on the catalogue page) was placed. The pedigree then goes on to say, hilariously, that “she also has a three-year-old filly (died as a foal)”. A little editing would have been a good idea!

Goodnightsuzy has done well as a broodmare, and while her pedigree was a little light up close, it was still an insult that she was sold, carrying Aisling Oscar, for 2,000gns. Goodnightsuzy traces back to her grandam Poppy Carew (Danehill). That mare’s four wins included a listed race at Yarmouth, and she was many times placed in group and listed races. Outstanding among Poppy Carew’s placed runs was to finish second in the Group 3 Prestige Stakes behind the Group 1 Irish and Yorkshire Oaks winner Pure Grain.

Poppy Carew’s nine winning siblings included her full-brother, dual Group 3 winner Leporello (Danehill), and the winning June Marlowe (Danehill), and she bred the Group 1 Irish Derby third Stellar Mass (Sea The Stars).