PAUL Murphy’s €35,000 investment in a Kalanisi (Doyoun) colt at the 2013 Tattersalls Ireland November Sale has been well justified and that purchase is now winner of four of his five starts, and has amassed earning in excess of three times that spend.

Subsequently named Kalashnikov, the five-year-old is trained by Murphy’s daughter Amy and on Saturday the gelding won the richest handicap hurdle run in Britain, the Grade 3 Betfair Hurdle at Newbury. This was the most significant of his four wins to date, and the only time he suffered defeat was in the Grade 1 Tolworth Hurdle last month when he was third to Summerville Boy.

At the time of Murphy’s purchase of Kalashnikov he had at home the gelding’s full-sister Kalane (Kalanisi) who had been placed on her only start in France. She then joined Charlie Longsdon and won a bumper and a listed hurdle race at Newbury before running third to Annie Power in the Grade 1 Mares’ Champion Hurdle at Punchestown.

Kalane won over fences for Longsdon but transferred to Amy Murphy in 2016 when she took out a trainers’ licence and won two of her three starts subsequently over the larger obstacles, closing out her racing career with a victory in a listed chase for mares at Doncaster in late December 2016. Her five career successes and similar number of places in 14 starts saw her accumulate more than £90,000 in prizemoney. She had been purchased as a foal by Amy Murphy for €32,000.

Two blacktype winners for the unraced Fairy Lane (Old Vic) is a just reward for their breeder, Michael Hickey’s Sunnyhill Stud in Kilcullen. Breeder and stallion master Hickey has had a long association with this particular family, though interestingly all but one of Fairy Lane’s foals to date have been by sires standing at other farms.

Fairy Lane is actually the dam of three winners, the third being Pixie Lane (Gamut), the only one of her foals by a Sunnyhill Stud stallion. That mare won over hurdles last year when trained by Colin Bowe, racing in the colours of Michael Hickey’s wife Sheelagh.

Fairy Lane is building quite a record for herself. Her first six foals have produced five runners, three of which are winners and the other two have been placed. The only unraced offspring among that first half dozen is Fairy On The Moor (Presenting) and it is interesting to note that she had a colt born last year by Kalanisi.

The placed pair include Holdbacktheriver (Presenting) and this six-year-old with Evan Williams looks to be a winner in waiting after his runner-up effort on his most recent outing at Sandown earlier this month.

Offspring number seven to 10 for Fairy Lane are four fillies, a four-year-old by Shantou (Alleged), a three-year-old by Stowaway (Slip Anchor) and a two-year-old and yearling, both by Sageburg (Johannesburg) who stands with Michael Hickey’s brother Denis at Garryrichard House Stud.

IMPRESSIVE START

Fairy Lane’s impressive start at stud mirrors that of her own dam Fairy Blaze (Good Thyne), another unraced mare by a former Sunnyhill Stud stallion. Fairy Lane is a full-sister to the best runner bred at Sunnyhill, the Grade 1 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Kicking King (Old Vic). Tom Taaffe trained Kicking King to land five other Grade 1 successes, the King George VI Chase twice, Punchestown Gold Cup, John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase and the Arkle Chase at Leopardstown.

Kicking King is the best of nine winners from 10 runners out of Fairy Blaze, and among the others are the blacktype earners Colonel Monroe (Lord Americo), Whistle Dixie (Kayf Tara) and Four Commanders (Old Vic).

Kalanisi was a top-class racehorse for the Aga Khan over a mile and a quarter and a mile and a half when trained by Sir Michael Stoute. While he had some minor success with his flat runners, he has become a leading sire under National Hunt rules and has been based at William Flood’s Boardsmill Stud since 2008. This year he is available for €4,000 and Kalashnikov now becomes one of his top 10 rated runners.

That group is headed by Katchit, the 2008 Grade 1 Cheltenham Champion Hurdle winner, while also produced by a cross with an Old Vic mare was the smart Brain Power.