THE National Hunt season rolls to a close in the coming week, with the annual extravaganza that is Punchestown. Last week the main action over jumps was in Scotland, at Ayr to be precise, and the feature was the Grade 3 Coral Scottish Grand National.

The race was robbed of some of its attraction with the late withdrawal of five runners due to the changed ground, and while there were no fallers, only six of the 16 that went to post completed the course, all of the remainder pulling up. The race produced an exciting finish with just a length and a half separating the first three over the line, and the first four home were bred in France.

Philip Hobbs and Johnson White train the winner, Kap Vert (Kapgarde) for a syndicate called If The Kap Fits, and the six-year-old raced for Ronnie Bartlett up to the 2025 Punchestown Festival. Purchased at the Derby Sale in 2023 by Ian Ferguson for €50,000, Kap Vert raced in two point-to-points for Bartlett, his best effort coming when he was runner-up at Toombridge to a horse who has been a big disappointment.

Kap Vert joined Hobbs and White, and last season won a novice hurdle at Exeter and placed at Sandown, but looked to be a moderate runner at best. However, a change of ownership and taking on fences has proven to be the making of him, and this season he has won three of his seven starts in chases, now culminating with his victory at Ayr. A tilt at the Randox Grand National has to be in the gelding’s future plans.

Derby Sale

Bred by Antonia Devin, Kap Vert was sold through Ballyreddin & Busherstown at the Derby Sale, and he is the best of the two winners to date from the smart racemare Tavera (Turgeon). She too was bred by Madame Devin and raced for her, starting 13 times. She won twice, both times over fences, and the second and most important of these was her victory in the Listed Prix James Hennessy Chase at Auteuil.

Kap Vert is the second produce of Tavera, the first did not race, and the mare’s third offspring, now a five-year-old, has not run. Tavera is back on track now with her fourth foal, the four-year-old Tavaco (Doctor Dino). He was placed from three starts over hurdles, and on his first outing over fences at Auteuil in February he posted a victory. There are a number of interesting young stock out of Tavera, namely a three-year-old daughter Taviana (Goliath Du Berlais), a two-year-old filly Evisa (Doctor Dino), and the latter’s yearling full-brother.

Best runners

Tavera and her son Kap Vert and the best runners in recent generations of the family, and the next set of blacktype winners appear under the fourth dam, the unraced Star System (Northern Treat). She bred three stakes winners on the flat, notably the French Group 3 and US listed winner Kerrygold (Tel Quel), and she is grandam of the useful dual Grade 2 chase winner Turgeonev (Turgeon), who was ridden to three of his wins over fences by David O’Meara, now a Group 1 trainer.

Kap Vert is blacktype winner number 67 for Kapgarde (Garde Royale). A Grade 3 hurdle winner and runner-up at four in a Grade 1 chase, the former Haras de la Hetraie sire is sure to sire many more high-class performers.

Now pensioned, Kapgarde’s final crop are yearlings. He has two three-year-old fillies who will be offered at the Goffs UK Spring Sale, the catalogue for which is now online.

WHILE rated higher, a Grade 2 contest, than the Scottish Grand National, the Scottish Champion Hurdle plays a supporting role on the big day at Ayr, and the winner, Dedicated Hero (Shirocco) has bounced back quickly from wind surgery to be at his best.

Bred by Patrick and Bernadette Vaughan O’Connor, Dedicated Hero was sold as a newly-turned yearling from Glen Stables at Tattersalls Ireland for €9,500 to Tom Keating, and though listed as having sold to Millwood Bloodstock at the Goffs Land Rover Sale for €12,500, he actually raced twice in point-to-points for Keating, being placed on each occasion.

On the first of those outings he was seven lengths in arrears of the winner, a certain Romeo Coolio, and Keating then sent him to the Goffs UK Spring Sale in 2023, where Bobby O’Ryan and the gelding’s trainer Sandy Thompson paid £40,000 for him. He won a couple of bumpers and two hurdle races, including the Grade 2 Rossington Main Novices’ Hurdle at Haydock before his form tailed off. Since he had surgery, he has won both his starts, and added a second Grade 2 to his roll of honour.

Dedicated Hero may not be among the very best runners sired by Shirocco (Monsun) who spent the larger part of his stallion career at Glenview Stud, but he is one of 34 blacktype winners over jumps sired by that winner of four Group or Grade 1 races in four countries, the German Derby, Coronation Cup, Gran Premio del Jockey Club and the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Shirocco’s best National Hunt runner was Annie Power, while on the flat his Group 1 winners included another winner of the German Derby, Windstoss.

This is a good old-fashioned Irish National Hunt female line too. Dedicated Hero’s dam is a half-sister to the listed chase winner Ellerslie George (Presenting), while his fourth dam bred the Cheltenham Cathcart Cup Chase winner Straight Accord (No Argument) and two other blacktype scorers. A more recent name that crops up in the family is Grade 1 Cheltenham star The Real Whacker (Mahler).

RONNIE Bartlett may rue having sold the Scottish Grand National winner Kap Vert, but he ended the day at Ayr with a winner in the shape of Skerry Hill (Order Of St George).

Bred by Liam Queally, the five-year-old Skerry Hill sold as a foal to Ian Ferguson for €40,000, and what a fine investment that has proven to be. Sporting the colours of Wilson Dennison, he won a three-runner maiden at Farmaclaffley on his only point-to-point start, a race in which two finished and was run over two and a half miles. His eight-length success was comfortable, but how do you evaluate his potential on this single start?Last year, Aidan O’Ryan and Gordon Elliott took a punt with him, giving £205,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale. The catalogue stated that “it was notable how well [Skerry Hill] jumped for a newcomer, and that allowed him to put his two rivals under pressure from some way out. An eye-filling son of Order Of St George, this certainly has to be considered a dominant debut.”

Now Skerry Hill has won both his bumpers, and it will be interesting to see if he takes his place this week in the Grade 1 bumper at Punchestown. Whether he does or not, he is a fine chasing prospect. His unraced dam is a full-sister to Burn And Turn (Flemensfirth), and she was very useful, winning a Grade 3 at the 2014 Punchestown Festival and running second in the Galway Plate. This is the family of Space Trucker (Kambalda), raced by Liam Queally’s mum Eileen, who won the Grade 2 Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle and the Grand Annual Chase at Cheltenham.