DURING the ITM Stallion Trail in January, one of my visits was to Robert Honner at Clongiffen Stud in Co Meath. I am embarrassed to say that, despite living about half an hour away for the past four years, it was my first time at the farm.

Robert has a single stallion there, but he was proud as punch to show me Kool Kompany, and why not? Apart from catching the eye, and being one of just two sons of the much-missed and hugely successful Jeremy (Danehill Dancer) available to breeders in Ireland, Kool Kompany has been making his presence felt on the racecourse from limited chances. This has not gone unnoticed with buyers.

In the space of 24 hours this week, Kool Kompany’s two runners in Britain both won, Kool Kid was successful over hurdles for Joe Tizzard, and Gaelic Pride for Warren Greatrex. This was a second win in 2026 for Gaelic Pride, and both these runners look capable of going on to do much better. Their wins will have been noted by many.

“Absolutely delighted,” was Honner’s response immediately after Kool Kid’s win on Monday. He added: “There is no better advertisement for the horse than winners, and there was a great response from those who saw him during the stallion trail.” A trawl through the list of breeders who used the sire last year shows that many were returning, a sure sign that he is getting good stock. His book of mares last year totalled 86, a big increase from 32 a year earlier. The word is definitely out!

Standing firstly at the Irish National Stud, and for all too short a time at Garryrichard Stud, Jeremy’s loss has been all too painful when you look at what he achieved. On the flat he got Group 2 winners Kool Kompany, Success Days and Baino Hope, and the first two are standing in Ireland. However, it was his performers over jumps that thrust him firmly into the big time, with standouts such as three-time Grade 1 winners Sir Gerhard and Appreciate It, as well as dual Grade 1 winners Reserve Tank, Jer’s Girl and the brilliant Our Conor.

Potential champion

The list doesn’t stop there, and Belfast Banter, Black Tears and Whiskey Sour were other smart winners at the highest level. With seven blacktype winners on the flat and 36 over jumps, Jeremy was clearly a potential champion sire. but he died at the age of 11. He showed his ability to get winners at all distances, and his son Corach Rambler followed up a Cheltenham Festival victory with success in the Aintree Grand National.

Group 1-placed Success Days retired directly to stud at Con O’Keeffe’s Kilbarry Lodge Stud and his first crop, already with winners posted, are five-year-olds. Kool Kompany was repatriated from Spain where he was for four seasons to stand at Clongiffen. There he has completed another four seasons, and is embarking on his fifth. The distinctively marked former Richard Hannon trainee is growing in popularity.

Kool Kompany was already a dual winner when adding a six-furlong listed contest at Naas in June of his two-year-old season, and he went on to land the Group 2 Railway Stakes and Group 2 Prix Robert Papin before finishing a half-length runner-up to Dick Whittington in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes. He won the Group 3 Craven Stakes first time out at three and later pipped Stormy Antarctic in the Listed Doncaster Mile.

Kool One

While it was no help to Kool Kompany directly when moving to Ireland, his small Spanish crops did produce winners, but where it did help was the fact that some of his progeny made their way to Ireland and Britain, and many of them won or placed. His jumpers have done even better, with five of his eight runners being winners, one of them being the Grade 3 hurdle second Kool One.

Gaelic Pride sold as a yearling to Mark Dwyer for £3,500, cost £30,000 as a store, and after winning a point-to-point was purchased by Highflyer Bloodstock for £50,000. He won one of his two bumper starts, and has been first or second in four of his five hurdle runs. His second win over the smaller obstacles came on Sunday when he won a novices’ hurdle at Fontwell by more than six lengths.

Almost exactly 24 hours later, Kool Kid, who placed in two point-to-points before selling to Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock for £60,000, looks like two miles is his ideal trip when adding a Plumpton hurdle win to a bumper success a year ago.

Williams keeps eye on a Moon landing

SINCE 2018 Spanish Moon (El Prado) commanded a stud fee of €5,000, but he died at the end of last year. So hats off to trainer Jane Williams who, at the Arqana Autumn Sale in 2023, negotiated a private sale for that very amount and took home a yearling filly by the stallion.

Now four, and named La Luna Artista, she has won three of her four starts, starting with a junior bumper over 13 furlongs last year, and culminating at the weekend with victory in the Grade 2 Adonis Juvenile Hurdle at Kempton. Bred by Haras d’Haspel, La Luna Artista holds an entry at Cheltenham, but I suspect she will head to Aintree instead. Even now, it is clear her trainer sees her as a chaser in the future.

While Williams and the owners of La Luna Artista got a bargain, so too did JMC Bloodstock at the Arqana National Hunt Breeding Stock Sale in November. They paid €8,000 for the dam of the Grade 2 winner, Perlefine (Voix Du Nord), who was sold in foal to Grade 1-winning hurdler Jigme (Motivator). Her purchase price was the same as the covering sire’s fee. Potential buyers were certainly asleep, as La Luna Artista had just won her bumper, and was the second winner from three foals for Perlefine. The other died at two without racing.

Smart runner

Perlefine won over jumps at three and four and has a three-year-old full-sister to La Luna Artista, and a yearling colt by Moises Has (Martaline). One of two winners for her dam, Perlefine is out of a listed-placed hurdler whose half-brother Si C’etait Vrai (Robin Des Champs) was a smart runner for Dessie Hughes, winning three times and being placed in graded hurdle races behind the likes of Hidden Cyclone and On His Own. This is the family of Grade 1 chase winner Poly Grandchamp (Poliglote).

Sporting the Juddmonte colours, Spanish Moon won the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud at five, while his international forays saw him placed twice in the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic and run second in the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase. He has done well with his runners over jumps in France and outside that country.

They include four-time Grade 1 chase winner El Fabiola, Grade 1 hurdle winner Laurina, and last year’s Grade 1 Grande Course d’Haies (French Champion Hurdle) hero El Clavel. Spanish Moon has done especially well with his runners in Ireland, and they include blacktype winners Moon D’Orange, Spanish Harlem, Hispanic Moon, Iberique De Seuil, Grand Roi and Dallas Des Pictons. Spanish Moon died at Haras d’Annebault where he stood for many years after beginning his stallion career at Le Lion d’Angers.