SEAN O’DRISCOLL

Home By The Lee (Ire), 2015 g. by Fame And Glory out of Going For Home, by Presenting

THE Grade 1 Stayers Hurdle takes centre stage at Cheltenham on Thursday, and what a showcase this year’s race was for older horses, 11-year-olds finishing first and third. Great joy for the owner and breeder of the winner, Sean O’Driscoll, and how proud he was of his Home By The Lee.

On his fifth attempt to win the Stayers, Home By The Lee put up the best performance of his 35-race career, one that encompasses an unbeaten career in bumpers, three wins over fences, and seven hurdle victories, among then two editions of the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle at the Leopardstown Christmas meeting. For his owner, Home By The Lee is “the horse of a lifetime”.

O’Driscoll raced the gelding’s dam Going For Home who won a point-to-point. She was trained by Joe Crowley after being purchased by his daughter Frances Smullen at Goffs for €16,000. The family connection continues as Crowley’s grandson Joseph O’Brien trains Home By The Lee. Going For Home has three racecourse winners, and another who won a couple of point-to-points. In addition to Home By The Lee, she bred his own-sister Beautiful Citi who won a couple of bumpers, a hurdle race and was placed in a listed hurdle for O’Driscoll.

Home By The Lee is the best horse in his family since Neblin, trained by Toby Balding to bring off a notable double, winning the Tote Gold Trophy at Newbury quickly followed by the County Hurdle at Cheltenham.

FRANK MCNULTY

Johnny’s Jury (Ire), 2020 g. by Jukebox Jury out of Sainte Baronne, by Saint Des Saints

FRANK McNulty has featured before in this Breeder of the Month competition, and he does so again thanks to Johnny’s 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, a son of Jeremy who was 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 who was placed for Frank McNulty on all her three starts in bumpers when trained in Ireland by Matthieu Palussiere, on the last occasion going down by just a neck. She is also dam of Danny Kirwan (Scorpion) who ran second in the Grade 2 Kennel Gate Novice Hurdle at Ascot, and was also graded-placed over fences. There is more to come from this family.

Saint Baronne’s half-brother Bingo Bell gained all but one of his nine wins over jumps in France, and his best win was in a Grade 3 chase at Auteuil.

MATTHEW FOGARTY

Old Park Star (Ire), 2020 g. by Well Chosen out of Norwich Star, by Norwich

MATTHEW Fogarty has been breeding good winners for a long time, going back to when Montelimar’s son The Oozler sold at the Goffs Land Rover Sale 30 years ago. He realised IR£10,500, and on his second start won the inaugural Goffs Land Rover Bumper. The breeder was in the winners’ circle after the Grade 1 Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, won by a graduate of his Golden, Co Tipperary farm.

When Old Park Star was born, Fogarty was in contact with The Irish Field to submit a photograph of the colt, and who could have forecast that he would progress to become a star of this National Hunt season? This spring there is bound to be lots of competition for a three-year-old half-brother by Rich History, who, like Old Park Star’s veteran sire, stands at Kedrah House Stud.

Old Park Star’s dam Norwich Star slipped last year, but Fogarty reports the 20-year-old as hale and hearty. Should she go in foal again, and produce a healthy offspring next spring, Fogarty would be happy if it was a filly, as Norwich Star has had colts to date. In fact, she has only had four foals to date – and two Cheltenham Festival winners.

Old Park Star is a full-brother to Chosen Mate who won the Grand Annual a few years ago. Sold at Tattersalls Ireland as a foal for €50,000 to Norman Williamson, Old Park Star was a profitable sale to Tom Malone and Paul Nicholls for €120,000 at the Goffs Arkle Sale.

CHRISTOPHER MCKEEVER

The Mourne Rambler (Ire), 2021 g. by Well Chosen out of Lobinstown Girl, by Luso

WELL Chosen sired the winner of the opener at the Festival, and The Mourne Rambler won a poignant Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper run in honour of the much-missed Sir Johnny Weatherby.

Bred in Co Meath by Christopher McKeever, a near neighbour and lifelong friend of trainer Noel Meade, The Mourne Rambler was bought as a foal by Peter Nolan in partnership with Peter Molony for €32,000 at Tattersalls Ireland, sold for €45,000 at the Goffs Arkle Sale to Paddy Turley’s Kingsfield Stables, and owner Philly Polly bought out Turley’s half-share after the gelding ran second in a point-to-point.

The bumper winner’s dam Lobinstown Girl was a €3,000 buy at the predecessor to the Goffs Arkle Sale, the Land Rover Sale, and she placed twice in nine starts for Meade. The Co Meath trainer has had great success with the mare’s offspring, including the Grade 1-placed She’s A Star and the ill-fated Grade 2-placed Sixshooter, both full-siblings to The Mourne Rambler, and also the listed-placed hurdler Blue Mosque (Berkshire).

To make it a Meade takeover of the immediate family, he also trains She’s A Star’s son Colcannon (Berkshire – who stood at Kedrah House), and that Grade 2 bumper winner last year was placed behind Bambino Fever in the Grade 1 Champion Bumper at Punchestown.