WHILE just four went to post for the Listed Irish Stallion Farms EBF Future Champions INH Flat Race at Navan, a race that in the past decade has been won eight times by Gordon Elliott, it is safe to say that we will be hearing a lot more about the latest winner, On My Word (Poet’s Word). He was following up his debut win at the Co Meath track four weeks earlier.

In 2016, Elliott won the listed bumper with Samcro, and his winners since include Envoi Allen, Sir Gerhard, American Mike and The Enabler, while Joseph O’Brien broke the sequence with Uhtred. Tom Cleary trains Oh My Word for his owner/breeder Seamus Ross, and the gelding is the second winner for his dam Mulleady (Definite Article). The first was Wat Ua Doin (Dylan Thomas), and she was also the first produce of her talented dam.

Exciting sort

Wat Ua Doin was an exciting sort who had no luck. She won her maiden hurdle at Wexford by 15 lengths and ran second at Punchestown. She then returned after 18 months off to win a handicap hurdle in emphatic fashion. Her racing career was cut short by a paddock accident and she is now at stud. The second offspring of Mulleady was Dontrushslowtouch (Milan). He was runner-up on his first two starts in point-to-points, but never ran again after being pulled up next time out.

Mulleady’s third foal hasn’t raced, and Oh My Word is the fourth. He is followed by a three-year-old full-brother. Mulleady won a couple of hurdle races and was second in the Grade 3 Lartigue Hurdle at Listowel. Her back pedigree is a flat one, and her half-brother was the speedy An Saighduir (Acclamation). His 12 wins on the flat, up to the age of 11, included the Listed Cork Stakes.

This was a breakthrough blacktype winner for Poet’s Word (Poet’s Voice), who stands at Boardsmill Stud, and Oh My Word is from the first crop he sired there. He stood a single season in England for Shadwell. He has two other blacktype performers, Pacini (runner-up in a Grade 3 juvenile hurdle at Naas) and Poetic Sound, who placed at Navan in the Listed Vintage Crop Stakes.

Poet’s Word’s stock has been the talk of the sales ring, and they are doing it on the track and in point-to-points too. A day after Oh My Word won the Navan feature, Poet’s Word’s four-year-old daughter Tiktok Casey won her bumper at Naas.

Everywhere you turn, his sons and daughters are winning, and he looks certain to deliver on all the promise shown to date by his stock at the sales.

A grandson of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), Poet’s Word was the champion older horse over middle distances at five, when his wins included the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes, both at Ascot. During his racing career he defeated no less than 23 individual Group 1 winners.

Best son

Poet’s Word, who cost £300,000 as a yearling, is undoubtedly the best son of his sire Poet’s Voice (Dubawi), who was also an Ascot star when winning the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. Other top performers by Poet’s Voice include Australian Group 1 star Trap For Fools and four European classic winners, among them Italian Derby star Summer Festival. It is noteworthy too that Poet’s Voice sired a Grade 1 hurdle winner, and six blacktype winners over jumps. This bodes well for his son.

Raced once at two when he was fourth, Poet’s Word was never out of the money in five outings the next season, winning comfortably at Goodwood and Nottingham. Trained by Sir Michael Stoute and improving all the time, he chalked up two more wins at four, including the Group 3 Glorious Stakes at Goodwood. Then as a five-year-old Poet’s Word showed even greater improvement and was officially rated as one of the best half dozen horses in the world on 126 in the World Rankings, with Cracksman the only European horse above him, while Crystal Ocean and Enable were also on 125.

He defeated Cracksman in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes by two lengths, then in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes he got the better of Crystal Ocean by a neck following a tremendous duel, these two finishing nine lengths clear of the third horse Coronet. Poet’s Word was second to the three-year-old champion Roaring Lion in the Group 1 Juddmonte International at York.

HARRY Herbert’s Highclere Racing, which he founded and is its chairman, has enjoyed success on the flat and over jumps, in Europe and beyond, and must rank as one of the best syndicates around. Their familiar sky blue colours have just been carried to another notable success, this time over hurdles.

The Irish-bred Carlenrig (Soldier Of Fortune) was bred by Tom Conway in partnership, but failed to sell in the ring when offered as a foal in 2020, the bidding stopping at €15,000.

That was the last we saw of him until December 1st last year when he appeared in a point-to-point for Ian Herbert, and won by an impressive 15 lengths. Twenty shares were then offered in him, placing a value of £75,000 on his head, and sold out immediately. Carlenrig was sent to be trained by Dan Skelton.

Move forward 11 months and Carlenrig appeared in a maiden hurdle at Chepstow, and made a good start, finishing second. Somewhat surprisingly, perhaps, he then headed straight to a Grade 2 at Cheltenham, the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, and showed great battling qualities to win by a short head and a neck, collecting a winners’ prize of £47,500.

The dream is now alive, and Skelton revealed that he would have one ore run before the Cheltenham Festival.

Reading between the lines, it would appear that whatever Carlenrig does over hurdles is a bonus, and Skelton believes he will make a lovely chaser. Meanwhile, he was cut from 66/1 to 16/1 for the Albert Bartlett in March.

Richard Aston

Elsewhere this week, I mentioned Richard Aston who died in 2023. The Goldford Stud owner, with his wife Sally, bred Tenmoku (Westerner), the dam of Carlenrig.

Tenmoku was trained by Jonjo O’Neill and placed three times in eight starts, including a bumper on her first run and over hurdles on her last. She then sold to Rathbarry Stud for £10,500, and Carlenrig is her second runner and first winner. She has a number of young progeny to race in the future.

Tenmoku is a half-sister to the Grade 2 Ascot novice chase winner Wee Robbie (Bob Back) and the Cheltenham Festival runner-up Isn’t That Lucky (Alflora). They are among four winners produced by Blast Freeze (Lafontaine). She won a bumper, three hurdle races and was talented enough to be placed in the Grade 2 Kingwell Hurdle and the Grade 3 Swinton Hurdle.

Soldier Of Fortune (Galileo) was bred by Jim Bolger, won the Group 1 Irish Derby, and the following year added the Group 1 Coronation Cup. He started his stud career in France, shuttled to South America, and then moved to The Beeches Stud.