THREE Grade 1 novice hurdle races were run at the Aintree meeting, and were won by horses bred in Ireland, Britain and Germany.

Breeder Neville Reid is responsible for Storming George (Order Of St George) who was making his third trip to Liverpool when sent to contest the Grade 1 Top Novices’ Hurdle. Having won on his bumper debut at Doncaster, he ran fifth in the Weatherbys-sponsored bumper behind Green Splendour, with dual Grade 2 winner Koktail Brut in third.

He was back at Aintree in December after winning a novice hurdle, again at Doncaster, to run in his first Grade 1, but performed badly, though trainer Neil King said afterwards that he returned home a sick horse. He made two more starts before regaining the winning thread at Newbury in March, and now his fourth win has come at the highest level. Clearly highly regarded by King, for whom this was a first Grade 1 win, Storming George’s future would look to lie over fences.

King selected the gelding at the 2023 Goffs UK Spring Sale, buying him for £32,000 from Peter Molony’s Rathmore Stud. The consignor was acting for Tim Dennis’ Thorne Farm who bought the Grade 1 winner as a foal for €18,500 at Tattersalls Ireland. Neville Reid raced Storming George’s dam Nickel (Presenting), and she won a Kirkistown mares’ maiden on her final point-to-point start. She ran four times between the flags, winning and placing on the three times she completed.

Unfortunately, Nickel did not transfer her pointing form to the racecourse, beaten a long way any time she finished, but she has shown herself to be a much better broodmare.

Nickel also has an Aintree connection, having been bred by Brian Walsh who owned Silver Birch. He sold Nickel as a foal for a scarcely believable €1,600 to Oliver Brady at Tattersalls Ireland, and when she reappeared at the Goffs Land Rover Sale she cost Carol Henley €10,500, sold from Ken Parkhill’s Castletown Quarry Stud.

Storming George is from the first crop of triple champion stayer Order Of St George (Galileo), a dual Group 1 Irish St Leger winner who won the Group 1 Gold Cup at Ascot and was part of the famous 1-2-3 for Ballydoyle in the 2016 Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe when third to Found and Highland Reel, the race that year run in Chantilly. Storming George is his sire’s second blacktype winner, and the first was Seo Linn who landed a Grade 2 bumper at Aintree 12 months ago.

At Tattersalls Ireland in November, Matt Coleman paid €32,000 for a full-brother to Storming George, and how wise that spend looks now. Nickel’s first three foals include two winners and a placed horse, and there are youngstock waiting in the wings. Last year Nickel was covered by Order Of St George.

Jack Hobbs

Overbury Stud’s Group 1 Irish Derby and Dubai Sheema Classic winner Jack Hobbs (Halling) went to stud a year before Order Of St George, and he had his breakthrough Grade 1 winner when Bossman Jack, bred by Richard Kelvin-Hughes, took his record to three wins in five starts over hurdles, running out a convincing winner of the Mersey Novices’ Hurdle.

Successful on his only run in a bumper in January 2025, he didn’t win on his hurdling debut, finishing third, but made no mistake on his next two starts. He was not disgraced when beaten just over four lengths into sixth behind King Rasko Grey at Cheltenham, making a crucial mistake at the last, and he is clearly a most talented performer. Chasing would look to be his likely forte.

Bossman Jack is from Jack Hobbs’ second crop, and the first contained his Grade 2 chase-winning son Jax Junior. Also among that first cohort was the Grade 2 runner-up Intense Approach.

When Bossman Jack’s half-brother Gidleigh Park (Walk In The Park) emerged as a rising star, he was one of a pair of winners from the Presenting (Mtoto) mare Lindeman. Bred by Colman O’Flynn, Lindeman sold for £140,000 as a four-year-old 19 years ago, quite a price then, being closely related to the great Denman (Presenting). She won one of two starts in bumpers, at Cheltenham, and one of three runs over hurdles. She had been disappointing as a broodmare at the time. Not anymore.

Gidleigh Park also ran at Aintree, well beaten in the Grade 1 Melling Chase, but this time last year he was not beaten far when second to Impaire Et Passe in the Grade 1 Manifesto Novices’ Chase, with another of last week’s Grade 1 winners, Jango Baie, in third. Gidleigh Park is a Grade 2 winner over hurdles and fences, and he and Bossman Jack are among five winners from their dam.

Very best

Lindeman is also one of five winners out of the point-to-point and hurdle winner Southcoast Gale (Strong Gale), while her unraced own-sister Gales Present (Presenting) bred a Grade 3 Cheltenham chase winner in Vienna Court (Mahler). The family is at its very best under Bossman Jack’s third dam, Polly Puttens (Pollerton). Unplaced in four starts, Polly Puttens hardly put a foot wrong at stud.

Her nine winners are headed by Denman, who graduated from the point-to-point sphere where he won to be successful 14 times over hurdles and fences. He first demonstrated his class winning the Grade 1 Challow Hurdle at Cheltenham, and he put up an outstanding string of victories that saw him win the Grade 1 RSA Chase and Grade 1 Gold Cup at Cheltenham and the Grade 1 Lexus Chase at Leopardstown. He was second in three consecutive Gold Cups.

Denman’s full-brother, Silverburn (Presenting), a year his junior, won a pair of Grade 1 races, the Tolworth Hurdle and Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase. Far Horizon (Phardante) came close to giving Polly Puttens a third Grade 1 winner when Nicky Henderson sent him to Punchestown for the Champion Bumper, where he was beaten by Liss A Paoraigh. Miss Denman (Presenting), a full-sister to Denman, is dam of Polly Peachum (Shantou) who came agonisingly close to a Grade 1 win at Cheltenham, only denied by Glens Melody.

The rest

Zeus Power was third to King Rasko Grey at Cheltenham (with Bossman Jack sixth), and he made amends when stepped up in trip for the Grade 1 Sefton Novices’ Hurdle. He was bred in Germany and is raced by Power Thoroughbreds, Wexford-born brothers, and they achieved some fame as they part-owned the winner’s sire Protectionist (Monsun), who won the 2014 Group 1 Melbourne Cup.

The Powers bought the dam of Zeus Power, Zippity Do Da (Makfi), for €135,000 at Goffs as an unraced three-year-old, and her pedigree suggested she would breed a classic winner rather than a Grade 1 hurdler. This is the immediate family of Group 1 Falmouth Stakes heroine Veracious (Frankel), and Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest winner Garswood (Dutch Art).

Finally, a quick mention for the Grade 1 juvenile hurdle winner at Aintree, Mange Tout. This four-year-old filly is the third Grade 1 hurdle winner for Born To Sea (Invincible Spirit), after A Wave Of The Sea and Talk The Talk. Bred by Haras de Peyre and Mrs Pascale Papon, Mange Tout is worth a fortune as a racemare and a potential broodmare, though for years the family was ordinary enough.

Then along came the multiple-placed mare Bruno Ecossaise (Le Fou), and this 15-year-old has four winners bred, among them Mange Tout and her half-brother Impaire Et Passe (Diamond Boy). Mange Tout has a way to go to match the latter’s record of five Grade 1 wins, and he was in with a chance of a sixth when falling to out in last week’s Grade 1 Aintree Bowl.