FOLLOWING the disappointment of Constitution Hill, it was heart-warming to see Nicky Henderson back in the winners’ enclosure with Lulamba following the Grade 1 Ballymore Champion Four-Year-Old Hurdle. The trainer has been a big fan for many years of Punchestown, and his four-year-old son of Nirvana Du Berlais (Martaline) revenged his Cheltenham defeat at the hands of Poniros in the Triumph Hurdle.

What a start to the career of Nirvana Du Berlais, standing for his sixth season at Haras de la Hetraie at an unchanged fee of €6,500. His popularity is best shown by the fact that he covered 160 mares in 2024, a phenomenal number in France. His first crop are four-year-olds and he has made a fine start, with a Grade 1 winner in Lulamba and the blacktype-placed Lady Ga.

Nirvana Du Berlais can lay claim to be the best runner among the six successful produce of Katioucha (Mansonnien), a winner over jumps who was second in the Listed Prix Finot Hurdle at Auteuil. The Grade 1 Prix Cambacérès Hurdle for three-year-old was the better of two triumphs for Nirvana Du Berlais, while the other came in the Grade 3 Prix Aguado Hurdle, also at Auteuil. The chesnut, who is just over 16.2 hands, is from a leading family in jumping circles.

Four of Katioucha’s winners won graded contests. Toscana Du Berlais (Shantou) won the Grade 2 Prix Ingre Chase, Aubusson (Ballingarry) landed a Grade 3 hurdle at Haydock while his placed efforts in France included finishing second in the Grade 1 Grand Prix d’Automne Hurdle, and Trianna Du Berlais (Presenting) is a Grade 3 French winner over hurdles and fences.

One might attach more significance to the fact that Nirvana Du Berlais’ full-sister Nice To Meet You (Martaline) is the dam of Haras de Montaigu’s new sire for 2025, Nietzsche Has (Zarak). He was introduced at a tasty fee of €7,000, reflecting the importance breeders there attach to his pedigree and performance. On the last of his seven starts, just after Christmas, he garnered a fourth win when taking the Grade 2 Coral Finale Juvenile Hurdle at Chepstow.

Bred by Thierry Cypres, Lulamba is one of two winners for Ejland (Vision D’Etat), and she won three hurdle races in France and was runner-up in the Listed Prix d’Arles Hurdle at Auteuil. Ejland’s dam Septland (Agent Bleu) also won three times over jumps and bred four winners. It is when you go back to Lulamba’s fourth dam, Queensland IV (Citheron), that you find a number of blacktype winners descending from that winner. Queensland VI’s own list of 10 winners is led by the very good chaser Cumberland (Cyborg).

In fact, different branches of the family have been making headlines in the past couple of years, thanks the likes of dual Grade 1 chase winner Figuero (Yeats) and last year’s French Grade 1-winning hurdler (Cokoriko), while a familiar name from a few years past is the dual Grade 3 Scottish Grand National winner Vicente.

Teahupoo puts a big smile on Elliott’s face

TWO wins for Gordon Elliott at Punchestown is a disappointing reward for a trainer who saddled the winners of more than €4 million during the recently ended National Hunt season in Ireland, and his nine winners in Britain netted a short head less than £800,000.

One of the best of his performers last season was Teahupoo (Masked Marvel) who, for the second year running, won the Grade 1 Ladbrokes Champion Stayers Hurdle.

What a pity the eight-year-old had to miss Aintree, and Punchestown was just his third run of the season. He was runner-up to Lossiemouth at Fairyhouse back in December, and went down by less than two lengths to Bob Olinger in his attempt to retain his Grade 1 Stayers’ Hurdle crown at Cheltenham. The 12-time hurdle winner, one of them in France, has also won the Grade 1 Hatton’s Grace Hurdle twice at Fairyhouse.

Always remembered, if not forgiven, as the horse who lowered the colours of Honeysuckle for the first time, Teahupoo is one of three winners at the highest level for the Group 1 St Leger winner Masked Marvel (Montjeu).

Bred by Haras Du Hoguenet and partners, Teahupoo is the best of three winners from the Sassanian (Roberto) mare Droit D’Aimer, and she was a precocious runner who was successful four times over jumps in France as a three-year-old. One of her other winners, La Haute Couture (Montmartre), was runner-up in the Grade 3 Prix d’Indy Hurdle at Auteuil. Droit D’Aimer and her full-sister Miss Lordy (Sassanian) were the only winners from Mago Less (Saumarez), and Miss Lordy’s winners at stud include Alix Pretty (Le Fou) who was runner-up in a listed chase at Cagnes-Sur-Mer.

Many of the stakes performers under the fourth dam Belgaum (Dictus) have been on the flat, including the Group 2 German 2000 Guineas winner Poetic Dream (Poet’s Voice) and the 2023 Group 3 winner Ocean Quest (Sioux Nation), but the best runner has been Top Notch (Poliglote) who was second in both the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle and Fighting Fifth Hurdle. His nine wins over fences were headlined by his victory in the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices Chase.

Teahupoo is from the second crop of Masked Marvel, one which also includes the Grade 1 Grand Steeplechase de Paris winner Sel Jem and Grade 3 Greatwood Gold Cup winner Heltenham. His first crop had a single blacktype winner, Maskada, the Cheltenham Festival Grand Annual Chase winner, while a more recent star is the Grade 1 Maghull Novices’ Chase winner Kalif Du Berlais, just a five-year-old.

Local success as Baron Noir wins a bumper

EIGHT British-trained winners at Punchestown were proof, if it was ever needed, that our prizes are worth plundering from time to time. One of these was the Alan King-trained Baron Noir, a five-year-old son of Vadamos (Monsun) and out of the flat and hurdle winner Scooping (Dylan Thomas).

Shane Lawlor and his wife Carmel were beaming from ear to ear after Baron Noir, who they co-bred with Mary Butterfield, added the JP & M Doyle INH Flat Race to a December victory in a Plumpton bumper, and in between he ran third in a listed race at Newbury. Baron Noir carries the colours of the Noel Fehily Racing Syndicate, and came just before Fehily and David Crosse bought six lots at the Goffs Punchestown Sale.

Lawlor, the inn-keeper for many years at the eponymous Lawlor’s Hotel in Naas and very closely associated with Punchestown, was thrilled with the win for this €30,000 foal purchase, and revealed that the winner’s half-sister Apres Bridget (Flemensfirth), a dual winner in France, had earlier that day returned after a long break to finish an encouraging fifth at Dieppe, and is still in his ownership. Last December at Goffs, a colt foal by Vadamos, a full-brother to Baron Noir, sold to Eimear Fallon for €22,000 and was one of four purchases the Meath-based pinhooker bought.

Scooping was one of six foals, four runners and two winners for the unplaced Meseta (Lion Cavern), and Scooping’s only successful sibling was a good one, who enjoyed the highlight of his career at the Punchestown Festival in 2008 for trainer Sabrina Harty and jockey Davy Russell.

That day Won In The Dark (Montjeu) beat nine opponents, including Quevega, in the Grade 1 Champion Four-Year-Old Hurdle, having run third in the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham. His Punchestown success was one of two in Grade 1s.

Meseta’s was a daughter of Melodist (The Minstrel), and two of her three victories were in classics. She won the Group 1 Oaks d’Italia before travelling to the Curragh for the 1988 Kildangan Stud Irish Oaks. There, in a memorable finish, she dead-heated with Diminuendo. Both winners on the day were trained by Sirs, Michael Stoute and Henry Cecil. Melodist did not enjoy comparable success at stud, and the best of her six winners was Song Of The Sword (Kris), a Grade 2 hurdle winner.