JP MCMANUS had two blacktype winners at the weekend, and both winners were bred by Noreen, his wife. They possess very different pedigrees.

Uhavemeinstitches became the 57th blacktype winner for her Grange Stud sire Walk In The Park (Montjeu) when she won the Grade 3 Hugh McMahon Memorial Novice Chase at Limerick, a race won by her dam in 2009 when it was a Grade 2 contest.

Limerick is something of a favourite track for the James Motherway-trained winner, as it was at the same venue that the now six-year-old won over hurdles two years ago, and also where she was previously placed in a Grade 2 novice chase. It is apt that Motherway should train the winner, as he also guided the racing career of her dam.

Bluesea Cracker (Buster King) is the dam of Uhavemeinstitches, and she has a place in Irish racing history, having won the Irish Grand National in 2010. While it would make sense for Sunday’s winner Uhavemeinstitches to follow a similar path, she is unlikely to get into the race this year, but 2027 could be a possibility. Uhavemeinstitches is one of nine foals for Bluesea Cracker and the first to show any ability.

That said, only half of the first eight foals out of the Irish Grand National winner have been named, and three have run. The other pair were also trained by Motherway, ran nine times between them, and never looked likely to be involved in a finish. If the McManus team ever felt like giving up, it would have been understandable, but they persisted and have been rewarded. Bluesea Cracker’s two youngest progeny are the unraced five-year-old gelding Waterloo Prince (Wings Of Eagles), and a three-year-old Old Persian (Dubawi) filly.

Bluesea Cracker

A point-to-point winner at four, Bluesea Cracker won once over hurdles and three times over fences. She was purchased by JP McManus before her last run, in the Aintree Grand National, and she got around in the race, though well out of the money. She is the only foal out of the unraced Zelies Pet (Black Minstrel), a half-sister to four-time point-to-point winner Secret Progress (Safety Catch).

This has been a largely undistinguished family in recent generations, until Bluesea Cracker came along.

The fourth dam of Uhavemeinstitches was Princess Prospect (Escart III), born more than 60 years ago. She has just a single winner, Hard Outlook (Harwell) who won eight chases. His finest hour came at Aintree in the 1982 Grand National. This was a memorable race for many reasons, starting with the fact that 10 runners exited the race at the first fence. Only eight finished, the 48-year-old amateur Dick Saunders won on Grittar, and Anthony Webber was runner-up on Hard Outlook.

John O’Byrne

Demi O’Byrne is mentioned elsewhere this week in my column, and now up pops his brother John. Thirteen years ago, John spent 185,000gns on a yearling filly by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) out of the Group 2 juvenile winner Lady Lahar (Fraam) in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale. She was a full-sister to the listed winner Classic Legend (Galileo), and three-time winner I Have A Dream (Galileo) who had cost Demi 270,000gns a few years earlier.

Named Round Of Applause, JP put the filly in training with David Wachman, but she never made it to the racecourse. Always visiting flat stallions, she has become the dam of four winners, three of whom are winners under National Hunt rules. The most recent is Showurappreciation (Mastercraftsman) who won a listed novice handicap chase at Navan. The eight-year-old, trained by Jonathan Sweeney, is lightly-raced, having made just 11 starts, but he has won all his three starts this year, and his race record now stands at a pair of wins over hurdles and another pair over fences.

Showurappreciation is not the best of the four winners out of Round Of Applause. That honour goes to Putyourhandstogether (Caravaggio), winner last year of the hugely valuable Friends of the Curragh Irish Cesarewitch. That win for the Joseph O’Brien-trained runner came after he had won the Grade 3 Fred Winter Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, and run third in a Grade 1 at Aintree.

Mastercraftsman

European champion two-year-old Mastercraftsman (Danehill Dancer) earned that honour after he won the Group 1 National and Phoenix Stakes at two, and the following season added the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes. He died at the age of 15, but his legacy was to leave behind 20 Group 1 winners on the flat, with outstanding performers such as Alpha Centauri, Amazing Maria, The Grey Gatsby and more.

Over jumps, Mastercraftsman has sired 16 blacktype winners, and best of these have been the likes of Grade 1 Tolworth Hurdle winner Metier, Kerry National winner Busselton, and at least seven Grade 2 winners. Among his sons at stud is Kingston Hill who is enjoying a fine run of success.

While the family of Showurappreciation would be described as a flat pedigree, it has thrown up the occasional smart National Hunt performer. One that I fondly remember is out of the fourth dam of Showurappreciation, the unraced Brigadiers Nurse (Brigadier Gerard).

This was Arctic Weather (Montelimar), a multiple Grade 3 winner over hurdles and fences and who was runner-up in the Grade 1 Ladbroke Hurdle at Leopardstown. He won all his Grade 3 races with Tom Rudd in the saddle, Michael O’Brien being the successful trainer.