FOR many, the use of the term domination seems to be associated with something bad. Mention the word in connection with racing and it gets people’s hackles up. For this opening I am going to use a different word.

Willie Mullins’ influence on Irish National Hunt racing has put him in a position of great strength, and with is has come incomparable success. No need for me to elucidate on those successes, apart from saying that the Punchestown Festival continued his relentless pursuit of excellence, and delivered another bag full of Grade 1 prizes. In most cases Mullins was winning races for the umpteenth time.

Most victories were gained by horses who already had big race wins to their credit. I will deal with Jade De Grugy elsewhere, but for now I will add three others to my review list. The first two day’s winners at Punchestown were looked at last week.

Willie’s name is often associated with the best-performing French-breds, but not to the exclusion of Irish-breds. Final Demand is a good example. The son of Coolmore National Hunt division’s champion sire Walk In The Park (Montjeu) headed to Cheltenham this year for the Grade 1 Turners Novices’ Hurdle unbeaten, and was sent off a strong favourite. He suffered his only defeat when chasing home The New Lion and The Yellow Clay, but he was impressive at Punchestown in the Grade 1 Alanna Homes Champion Novice Hurdle.

The Ken Parkhill-bred six-year-old won the opening Grade 1 Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival, and he comes from the same female line as Ballyburn (Flemensfirth) who was denied a fifth Grade 1 by Champ Kiely at Punchestown. Ballyburn is a prior winner of the race won last week by Final Demand. Both geldings share the same fourth dam, bumper winner Sharpaway (Royal Highway). She has been the source of many branches of a family that has gone from strength to strength.

Final Demand is a €230,000 Derby Sale graduate who went on to win his only run in a point-to-point. He is one of 11 Grade 1 winners for his Grange Stud sire, and one of five successful offspring of Zuzka (Flemensfirth) who won a couple of Grade 3 hurdle races and placed at Grade 1 level. She is out of a half-sister to the Grade 1 novice chase winner The Railway Man (Shernazar).

There is little more to say about State Man (Doctor Dino) that has not been said many times before. His twelfth Grade 1 win in 20 starts, and three placed efforts at the same level, have meant that he gets more mentions than most, and deservedly so.

State Man’s third successive win in the Grade 1 Boodles Champion Hurdle equals the number of wins in the Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown. He dramatically failed to retain his Cheltenham Champion Hurdle crown when five lengths clear, and falling, at the last this year, but he has lost none of his zest for racing, and 2026 will hopefully provide another opportunity.

Along with luminaries such as seven-time Grade 1 winner Sharjah and Sceau Royal, State Man is one of many stars for Doctor Dino (Muhtathir), and a second Grade 1 winner out of Arret Station (Johann Quatz).

His half-sister Statuaire (Muhtathir), also trained by Mullins, four years ago won the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse.

State Man was bred by Vincent Barrett’s ML Bloodstock and he raced Arret Station, having bought her as a five-year-old at Osarus for €13,000. She won a listed hurdle race at Auteuil at three, and added a further win over fences at six.

What a future lies ahead for the five-year-old Majborough. The son of Martinborough (Deep Impact), born on April 6th 2020, has won five of his seven starts, been placed on the other occasions, and his dam was sold for €2,500 the year after he was foaled.

A dual Group 3 winner at five in Japan, Martinborough (Deep Impact) is standing his first season outside France at Ger O’Neill’s Capital Stud in Kilkenny. What a flagbearer he has in the shape of the Grade 1 Barberstown Castle Novice Chase winner Majborough, winner last year of the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham, and of the Grade 1 Arkle Chase at Leopardstown in February.

Bred in France by Hubert Langot, Majborough won on his first start at Auteuil, and his Irish debut saw him thrown in at the deep end at last year’s Dublin Racing Festival where he was edged out by stable companions in the Grade 1 Juvenile Hurdle. He is one of a pair of winners out of Janimone (Lavirco), an unraced half-sister to a Warwick Grade 2-winning chaser, Majala (Lavirco).

Another Cheltenham Festival winner in the family is from third dam Majathen (Carmarthen) who bred Mildmay of Flete Chase winner Majadou (Cadoudal), and is third dam of the McManus and Mullins Grade 1 winner, Janidil.

Two quality Alexander mares to the fore again

CARRYING the same silks but different coloured caps, Kenny Alexander and Willie Mullins had two of the six runners in the Grade 1 SBK Irish EBF Mares Champion Hurdle, and the pair finished first and second. Jade De Grugy, part of a good meeting for her sire Doctor Dino (Muhtathir), had plenty to spare over Gala Marceau (Galiway), the latter having been covered by Walk In The Park. Since 2016, Mullins has also won the race with Annie Power, Whiteout, Benie Des Dieux twice, Stormy Ireland, Echoes In Rain and Lossiemouth.

Haras du Mesnil’s Doctor Dino, standing for €24,000, had three winners at Punchestown, Jade De Grugy and State Man in Grade 1 races, while Dinoblue was a facile winner of a Grade 2 mares’ chase.

Alexander and Mullins have won Grade 1 races with Jade De Grugy, Gala Marceau, Kargese and the recent Aintree scorer Murcia, while Honeysuckle, who this past week foaled a colt by Blue Bresil (Smadoun), will forever be remembered for her exploits in Alexander’s colours.

Last year Jade De Grugy won her first Grade 1, ironically the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Honeysuckle Mares’ Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse, and it was about the same time that Honeysuckle delivered her first foal, a filly by Walk In The Park (Montjeu).

Jade De Grugy won her only start at three over a mile and a half in France, but it was some 14 months before she reappeared and won from Willie Mullins’ yard.

She has won five of her seven starts out of Closutton, and was runner-up to Lossiemouth in the Grade 1 Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham in March.

Sire De Grugy

The dam of Jade De Grugy, the unraced Diane De Grugy (Ballingarry), is a half-sister to Sire De Grugy (My Risk). He won the Grade 2 Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle at Kempton, but it was over fences that he became a star. Sire De Grugy established himself as the leading two-mile chaser in Britain with wins in the Grade 1 Tingle Creek Chase twice, Clarence House Chase and Queen Mother Champion Chase.

Unusually in a French pedigree, both the dam and grandam of Jade De Grugy were unraced, but her third dam Tara Kane II (Chamberlin) won three times over jumps, taking until the age of six to do so. The best of Tara Kane II’s four successful offspring was listed chase winner Orlando Magic (Assessor), and she is third dam of the Sandown Grade 3 chase winner Hudson De Grugy (Falco).

Jade De Grugy is another mare to advertise Doctor Dino’s prowess as a sire. Others by the multiple-winning globetrotter are Grade 1 heroines Dinoblue, Royale Margaux, La Bague Au Roi and the aforementioned Murcia. His geldings include Grade 1 Champion Hurdle winner State Man, multiple Grade 1 winner Sharjah, Sceau Royal, the great French chaser and three-time Grade 1 winner Docteur De Ballon and dual Grade 1 French hurdle winner Master Dino.