WESTERNER (Danehill) ranked 102nd on the leading National Hunt sire list for the 2011/’12 season, when his first crop was four, turning five. The five-time Group 1 winner leaped up to 29th the next season, and then in 2013-24 he made it into the top 10, at number nine.

For the dozen seasons since, including the current one, he has only twice been out of the top 10, and last season achieved a high of third on the table, behind Walk In The Park and Getaway. He is behind those two again this season, and in a race with Soldier Of Fortune for the third spot. On the first day of the Punchestown Festival he took the sire honours with a pair of Grade 1 winners.

First to the mark was Eachtotheirown in the Champion Novice Hurdle. Owned by Tim O’Driscoll and the seven-year-old’s trainer Barry Connell, Eachtotheirown was sold from Michael and Ciara Carty’s Kilmoney Cottage Stud in Rathangan, Co Kildare at the 2022 Goffs Arkle Sale for €48,000. Sam Curling did the buying and had the gelding until he was sold privately to Connell and bloodstock agent Gerry Hogan.

Eachtotheirown was bred by Maurice and John Barry in Cork and purchased privately by the Cartys as a foal. This is the third time that they have done this with a Grade 1 winner, after Altior and Annacotty, while Grade 1 winner Captain Guinness was reared on the farm. Watch out for their draft at the 2026 Goffs Arkle Sale, as last year Kilmoney Cottage sold point-to-point winner Royal Response (Getaway) for €29,000, and she realised £290,000 at the Goffs UK Aintree Sale.

Patient approach

Runner-up on both his bumper runs – he didn’t make his debut until the age of six in June last year – Eachtotheirown has benefited from his trainer’s patient approach and won three of his five starts over hurdles. He is the first racecourse winner for his dam, the unraced Beautiful War (Presenting), but not the first to come to our attention.

Beautiful War’s first produce, Tinklers Hill (Milan), sold for €165,000 as a store and placed on two of his three starts. Eachtotheirown was next, followed by the unraced Milan Beau (Milan) who is at stud. Her fourth offspring is Beatonthestreet (Getaway) who won a point-to-point at the weekend on just his second start, while Coolmara Stables own a three-year-old Blue Bresil (Smadoun) three-year-old son of Beautiful War who cost the Mariga family €97,000 as a foal.

Beautiful War is a half-sister to the Leopardstown Chase winner Glamorgan Duke (Flemensfirth), and their dam is a half-sister to the Grade 1 chase winner Harbour Pilot (Be My Native). There is a host of well-known winners in this immediate family, Monty’s Pass (Montelimar) being one.

Martin Dibbs

The late Martin Dibbs, who bred the Grand National winner Comply Or Die, died two years ago. His prowess as a breeder was recalled when Western Fold (Westerner), born in the same crop as Eachtotheirown, followed that gelding into the winners’ enclosure at Punchestown after the Grade 1 Dooley Insurance Group Champion Novice Chase. On the gelding’s 27th start, his seventh win finally came at the highest level.

Western Fold is the best winner in four generations of this family, though it is a very solid, winner-producing one. He is one of four winners, along with a point-to-point winner, out of the unraced Fieldtown (Anshan). Her half-sister Brotenstown (Presenting) was runner-up in a listed chase, and in turn is the dam of the useful Look To The West (Westerner). Western Fold cost Peter Nolan €17,000 as a foal at Fairyhouse before making €82,000 at the 2022 Goffs Land Rover Sale.

It is no surprise that Martin Dibbs sent his daughter of Anshan (Persian Bold) to Westerner, as the sire’s second crop contained a Cheltenham Festival Grade 1 chase winner bred on the same cross, Western Warhorse.

THOUGH not at Grade 1 level, but another stallion to record a double on Punchestown’s opening day was Galiway (Galileo).

His six-year-old son Kalix Delabarriere, bred by Serge Duchene and Joselita Planchenault, is a graduate of the 2023 Goffs Arkle Sale, purchased by Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins for €90,000.

Galiway is a talented sire, capable of getting winners at the highest level under both rules. He stands for a fee of €30,000, and Willie Mullins has enjoyed great success with his progeny, notable Vauban. Gala Marceau and recent Cheltenham winner King Rasko Grey. Winner of his sole start in a bumper, beating Seo Linn, Kalix Delabarriere has now won three hurdle races, twice at listed level.

Mullins supplied the bumper winner Delamotte in the colours of Ed Ware, owner of this year’s Triumph Hurdle winner at Cheltenham. An €85,000 yearling purchase at Arqana, Delamotte is the second winner for his unraced dam Leah Hannah (Iffraaj), a full-sister to a Group 3-winning sprinter who is dam of the useful miler Embesto (Roaring Lion).

The most valuable bumper on the card was the Goffs Defender with a winners’ purse of €59,000. This will go some way to repaying the €160,000 Ger Morrin spent on the winner at the Goffs Arkle Sale last year. He was buying on behalf of Sean and Bernardine Mulryan, and the winner, Abbeyglen (No Risk At All), looks like he could be a bit special.

While winners are rare further back in the family, there is no scarcity of them up close. Abbeyglen is his dam’s sixth, and she is the two-time jumps winner La Courtille (Risk Seeker). Abbeyglen is a full-brother to Keskonrisk (No Risk At All) who sold for £370,000 after winning a bumper for Timmy Hyde. He won again over hurdles, ran third in a Grade 1, but died at the age of six.

A SEVENTH Grade 1 chase win, and ninth in all, came the way of Il Etait Temps (Jukebox Jury) in the feature on Tuesday, the William Hill Champion Chase. It followed his win in the two-mile centrepiece at the Cheltenham Festival. Also a Grade 1 hurdle winner, Il Etait Temps’ family is outstanding, and the gelding took his winnings over the £1 million mark.

Bred by Emmanuel Clayeux and Ecurie Couderc, Il Etait Temps is son of the three-time jumps winner Une Des Sources (Dom alco), and one of a pair of winners she is responsible for, along with the Grade 3-placed juvenile hurdler Jourdefete (Free Port Lux). The family has enjoyed Cheltenham success from different branches, Envoi Allen (Muhtathir) being the outstanding performer with 10 Grade 1 wins. Let’s not forget the Champion Hurdle winner Espoir D’Allen (Voix Du Nord), while Eldorado Allen (Khalkevi) was runner-up in the Grade 1 Arkle Chase.

When they sent Clear Skies (Sea The Stars) to Camelot (Montjeu) in 2020, I am sure J.P. and Noreen McManus were hoping to breed a high-class flat performer. The dam herself, a 500,000gns yearling buy, was trained by Aidan O’Brien to win five times at Dundalk, and she came within a length of landing a listed race at Gowran Park.

Her first foal made a single start, her second is Powerful who won for the third time at Punchestown, while in the wings are a three-year-old full-sister to Tuesday’s winner, and a yearling filly by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj). Clear Skies is a half-sister to the Group 1 Derby winner Motivator and Group 2 hero Macarthur, sons of Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells).

The opening cross-country race at Punchestown 2026 went to the Gerald Travers-bred Fountain House (Lucky Speed), his second win at the meeting. His dam Cabra Cruizor (Swift Gulliver) was a point-to-point winner and a half-sister to the listed hurdle winner Tikkanbar (Tikkanen).