WHEN it comes to competition for which country will lead the table for most successful breeders at the Cheltenham Festival, that landscape has changed majorly over the past few decades.
Ireland has traditionally led the way, and back in my younger days the main challenger, though usually at a respectable distance, would have been Britain. As we all know, the huge success enjoyed by French-breds has led to a more competitive contest, with Britain now in third place. Occasionally, a runner carrying a USA suffix will emerge, while Germany too plays a role. Many winners will have good German female lines, but the numbers of horses born there are more limited.
That said, a German-foaled gelding won the feature race at this year’s Festival meeting, the Grade 1 Boodles Gold Cup, and this was the eight-year-old Gaelic Warrior. Mind you, he was bred by The Niarchos family out of the twice-raced Game Of Legs (Hernando), and that mare has had progeny born in France, Germany and Ireland.
Last season, Gaelic Warrior made a significant contribution to Willie Mullins’ push to win a second British trainers’ title, winning the Grade 1 Aintree Bowl in the hands of his and Jackie’s son Patrick, before adding the Grade 2 Oaksey Chase at Sandown on the last day of the season.
He came back this season with a bang, defeating Fact To File in the Grade 1 John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase, before suffering two defeats in the lead up to Cheltenham.
In 2024, Gaelic Warrior put up a stunning display in the Grade 1 Arkle Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham, having won the Grade 1 Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick. The highlight of his four hurdle wins was victory in the Grade 1 War Of Attrition Novice Hurdle at Punchestown. Also at the Cheltenham Festival he was beaten a short head in the Grade 3 Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle and finished second in the Grade 1 Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle.
Castlehyde Stud
Gaelic Warrior’s sire Maxios (Monsun) moved to Castlehyde Stud in 2020, and his first Irish crop are five-year-olds. Gaelic Warrior was a private purchase at BBAG as a yearling for €9,000. He is one of two winners for his dam, joined this year by his full-brother Our Trigger (Maxios), winner of a Gowran Park bumper but well-beaten in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper recently.
A product of a famous Ballymacoll Stud family, with Group 1 winners by the dozen, but the female line has also produced Grade 1 National Hunt winners such as Parlour Games (Monsun), winner of the Challow Hurdle, and My Tent Or Yours (Desert Prince), successful in the Christmas Hurdle and the Fighting Fifth Hurdle.
Maxios, a Group 1 classic sire on the flat, has a second Grade 1 National Hunt winner in Quilixios, and he gained one of his top-level successes at Cheltenham, also on Gold Cup day, when he landed the Triumph Hurdle.
Mixed feelings for winning breeder
FRANK McNulty has featured a number of times on these columns, and he does so again thanks to Johnny’s Jury (Jukebox Jury) keeping his unbeaten record under Jamie Snowden’s tutelage in the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle. However, this win was overshadowed for Frank by the loss of his wife Irene on the first day of the Festival meeting. She and Frank were together for 64 years.
Horse racing seems trivial when compared to life events, but hopefully Frank, his son Peter, his daughters and extended family can look forward to the future career of Johnny’s Jury with special interest now, and hope he can be as good as his half-brother Appreciate It (Jeremy), a Cheltenham Festival winner in the Grade 1 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. What an achievement for their dam.
Appreciate It and Johnny’s Jury are the best of four winners for Sainte Baronne (Saint Des Saints) who was placed for Frank McNulty on all her three starts in bumpers. She is also dam of Danny Kirwan (Scorpion) who ran second in the Grade 2 Kennel Gate Novice Hurdle at Ascot. There is more to come from this family.
Realised a dream
My friends Ed and Mary Ware realised a long-cherished dream when Apolon De Charnie won the Grade 1 opener on the final day at Cheltenham, the Triumph Hurdle. The French-bred son of Chanducoq (Voix Du Nord) was making his debut for the Willie Mullins yard, and started at 50/1. The only surprise for Mullins afterwards was the short price – he won the same race last year with a 100/1 shot.
Apolon De Charnie was bred by Yvan Mollière and is the best he has ever had. The breeder is based near Le Mans and has two mares, Apolon De Charnie’s dam, Lyss De Charnie (Turgeon), and her half-sister, Iris De Charnie (Robin Of Navan).
Mollière, a transporter, has been breeding for two decades. Eleven years ago he bought Hecate (Act One) at the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale for €9,000, carrying Lyss De Charnie.
A second blacktype winner for his sire, Apolon De Charmie is joined in that honour by Tutti Quanti who lined up for the recent Champion Hurdle, earning a right to do so when winning a pair of Grade 3 hurdle races at Newbury.
With two talented runners from a small number of foals and runners, it is no real surprise that Chanducoq, who sold at Arqana last year for €450,000, moves to Haras de Cercy and will stand for €6,000, more than four times his starting fee in 2019.
It will be no harm to his sire prospects that Chanducoq is a half-brother to Cokoriko (Robin Des Champs). He too stands at Cercy, is priced at €15,000, and is the sire of the recent Cheltenham Grade 1 winner Kitzbuhel.
Final Cheltenham round-up
DINOBLUE, a daughter of Doctor Dino (Muhtathir), was a second Cheltenham Festival winner in 2026 for her sire, and took the tally of French-bred winners for the week to 11, with an impressive seven of these in Grade 1 contests. Dinoblue won the Grade 2 Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Chase for the second time, and this was the eleventh chase win for the nine-year-old. She won once over hurdles, and all but one of her chase wins have been in blacktype contests.
Bred by ML Bloodstock, Dinoblue is the best of three winners out of Blue Aster (Astarabad), another being the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper runner-up Blue Sari (Saddex). Blue Aster is a daughter of the listed hurdle-placed mare Blue D’Avril (Pistolet Bleu). A close relation to Dinoblue was also victorious at Cheltenham. Royal Auclair (Garde Royale), a half-brother to Dinoblue’s grandam, won the Cathcart Chase.
The Grade 3 County Hurdle winner Wilful contributed to his sire Westerner (Danehill) having a memorable Cheltenham Festival. Bred by Michael Murphy, Wilful sold as a foal through Garryrichard Stud for €10,000 at Tattersalls Ireland, and for €105,000 at Goffs as a store. This was his second Grade 3 victory. He comes from a branch of the famous ‘Shuil’ family.
The 2026 Cheltenham Festival ended with a third winner at the meeting for Westerner, when Air Of Entitlement captured the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Hurdle. These three wins equalled the feat of Jukebox Jury, though the latter had two winners at Grade 1 level. Winning at the Festival is nothing new for Air Of Entitlement’s winners’ family. The seven-year-old mare comes from the same family as Minella Indo (Beat Hollow), whose success in the Gold Cup was a career highlight for breeder Ann Lalor.
Just as the ‘Shuil’ family is easily recognisable by the use of one word in naming many of the best runners, so too is the Lalor family’s ‘Carrigeen’ family instantly known. That said, Air Of Entitlement is out of a half-sister to the Irish Grand National winner Rogue Angel (Presenting).
Bred by Thomas Hutton, Barton Snow is unbeaten in five starts over fences following his triumph in the Princess Royal Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase. It might not be one of the better races at the meeting, but what a performance this multiple point-to-point winner put in. He is by the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes winner Snow Sky who stands at Ballycurragh Stud. Though short of blacktype horses, Snow Sky has done well with limited opportunities.
Barton Snow is a full-brother to a point-to-point winner, and his dam Academy Rose (Oscar) is out of a half-sister to the Grade 1 Punchestown Champion Hurdle winner Silent Oscar (Oscar).