RICHARD Tanner bred the Presenting gelding Ballycasey and the Willie Mullins-trained 10-year-old was back to his winning ways at Gowran Park on Saturday, landing the feature Grade 2 Red Mills Chase for the Ricci/Mullins/Walsh trio.

This was victory number nine in his career to date, a third of which have been gained at the Co Kilkenny track where he also won the Grade 2 PWC Champion Chase last year. Seven of his nine wins have been over fences and the most important of these was at Leopardstown when he annexed the Grade 1 Dr P J Moriarty Novice Chase.

Although he has enjoyed a stellar career over fences, it is interesting that he failed to win a point-to-point, being placed on a couple of occasions.

While he holds an entry in the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham, it is unlikely that he will travel and that his trainer instead will seek opportunities at home. Ballycasey remains the only runner to date for his dam Pink Mist, an unraced daughter of Montelimar.

He was preceded by an Old Vic filly named Top Missile who never ran, while the third foal of Pink Mist is the five-year-old unraced Presenting gelding Quasi.

Following on are a four-year-old daughter and a yearling colt, both by the Glenview Stud veteran. A three-year-old son by the same sire was omitted for mention last year in sales catalogues.

Ballycasey is not the first star in the family, though he is the outstanding runner in the first two generations. His dam is a half-sister to a four-time winning mare Two For Joy (by Mandalus) and she in turn is responsible for a couple of winners, including the prolific scorer Al Alfa, a son of Alflora.

Misty Joy, the grandam of Ballycasey, was a daughter of General Ironside and she was placed over hurdles. She was one of a pair of progeny from the unraced Darjoy to race and not win, the other eight all being successful.

The best of these was Royal Athlete, a son of Roselier, who famously won the Aintree Grand National. He was a very smart chaser otherwise and was victorious in the Reynoldstown Novice Chase and ran third in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Dis Fiove was a listed hurdle winner by Le Bavard and a daughter also of Darjoy. She later bred a few winners and a couple of her daughters were successful as broodmares. Joining Misty Joy as a non-winning runner out of Darjoy was the Deep Run mare Super Athlete and she compensated for her lack of racing ability by producing the Grade 3 Monksfield Novice Hurdle winner Get It Done.