Put The Kettle On (IRE)

2014 f. by Stowaway (Slip Anchor) out of Name For Fame (Quest For Fame). Bred by Butlersgrove Stud

At one time the busiest stallion in Ireland, Stowaway doubled his Grade 1 tally on Wednesday when Put The Kettle On became the first mare to win the Queen Mother Champion, on a day when his son Monkfish took the former RSA Chase. He is now sire of seven Grade 1 winners.

The seven-year-old Put The Kettle On has now won four graded chases at Cheltenham, and last year she captured the Arkle Chase. She brings her tally of victories to nine, with five placings, from just 16 starts. She is a fine advertisement for the value to be got from racing a mare and her winnings of over £395,000 are a great return on the €22,000 Put The Kettle On cost Keith Phelan as a three-year-old in the Goffs Land Rover Sale.

Put The Kettle On is a half-sister to a single winner in Carningli (Old Vic). He won two bumpers and a pair of hurdle races for Rebecca Curtis and showed the family’s love for Cheltenham when runner-up in a listed bumper there. The pair are out of Name For Fame (Quest For Fame) who was bred and raced successfully by Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms.

Sold as a four-year-old for 8,500gns, Name For Fame then won over hurdles at the age of six and earned blacktype when third in a Grade 3 novice hurdle at Tipperary. Put The Kettle On was bred by Charlie Purcell’s Butlersgrove Stud in Co Kilkenny.

Bob Olinger (IRE)

2015 g. by Sholokhov (Sadler’s Wells) out of Zenaide (Zaffaran). Bred by Kenneth Parkhill

Winners of the Grade 1 Lawlor’s of Naas Novice Hurdle read like a who’s who of National Hunt racing, and this year’s winner Bob Olinger has enhanced its reputation further following his second Grade 1 success in this week’s Ballymore Novices’ Chase. He has now won five of his six starts, including a point-to-point for Pat Doyle, suffering his only defeat on his hurdling debut behind Ferny Hollow.

Bob Olinger was bred by Ken Parkhill whose family has a long and distinguished connection with the pedigree. Ken has now bred a Grade 1 winner at the last three Cheltenham Festivals, Bob Olinger joining the aforementioned Ferny Hollow and City Island.

Zenaide was bred by Ken and 15 years ago, trained by his wife Lulu and ridden by their son Peter, she won a 24-runner mares’ bumper at Cork on her first start and was beaten a short-head on her only other run. She has shown ability well above the norm as a broodmare, being the dam of five winners on the track and another who won a point-to-point.

Her first two foals, fillies, were trained by Willie Mullins and were three-time bumper winner and listed-placed at Cheltenham, Darling Carlotta (Kayf Tara), and the listed novice hurdle winner Myska (Presenting).

Bob Olinger doubled Rathbarry Stud’s Sholokhov’s tally this week, joining Shishkin as a Grade 1 winner.

Heaven Help Us (IRE)

2014 f. by Yeats (Sadler’s Wells) out of Spare The Air (Trans Island). Bred by Paul Hennessy

One of the most popular wins of the week was that of Heaven Help Us in the Grade 3 Coral Cup. Paul Hennessy is no stranger to big race success with greyhounds, and here he was winning at Cheltenham and with a mare that he bred himself. He also raced the dam, and she was never a danger on any of her six career outings.

The grandam Clear Procedure (The Minstrel) won for Moyglare Stud but was a hugely disappointing broodmare, breeding a single winner who was successful in Greece. Heaven Help Us’s third dam was the champion Easy To Copy (Affirmed), dam of three stakes winners and third dam of Group 1 winner Gallante (Montjeu) and Grade 2 winning hurdler Plinth (Montjeu).

Four-time Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup winner Yeats is sire of Grade 1 National Hunt winners Shattered Love, Figuero, Flooring Porter, Tudor City, Augusta Kate, and also this year’s Cheltenham Festival winner Chantry House.

Monkfish (IRE)

2014 g. by Stowaway (Slip Anchor) out of Martovic (Old Vic). Bred by Cyril O’Hara

A year ago Westmeath native Cyril O’Hara (pictured), Ennel Bloodstock, enjoyed his first win in a Grade 1 race at Cheltenham as a breeder when Monkfish won the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle. A winner second time out in point-to-points for Cormac Doyle, Monkfish won three of his four starts over hurdles and was runner-up on his only bumper start.

Now the seven-year-old is unbeaten in four outings over fences, three at Grade 1 level. He added a nerve-racking victory in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase to prior successes in the Neville Hotels Novice Chase at Christmas and the Grade 1 Flogas Novice Chase at the Dublin Racing Festival.

Sold for €12,500 as a foal at Tattersalls Ireland to Furziestown Stables, he made a nice profit when resold by Richard Busher for €36,000 to Monbeg Stables at the Derby Sale.

His point-to-point win saw Cormac Doyle benefit tremendously when, at the 2018 Cheltenham May Sale, he sold Monkfish to Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins for £235,000.

Monkfish is the best produce so far from Martovic who was placed a few times for Kim Bailey, and he also trained Monkfish’s grandam, the very smart racemare Martomick (Montelimar). This nine-time winner was runner-up to Monsieur Le Cure in the Grade 1 Sun Alliance Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham and to Merry Gale in the then Grade 2 Martell Cup Chase at Aintree. A listed chase winner, she was a winning graduate too of the point-to-point sphere.

Tiger Roll (IRE)

2010 g. by Authorized (Montjeu) out Swiss Roll (Entrepreneur). Bred by Gerry O’Brien

Once owned by Sheikh Mohammed, Tiger Roll sold for 70,000gns as a foal at Tattersalls to John Ferguson, as a three-year-old at Doncaster to Nigel Hawke for £10,000 and was sold by Thorne Farm Racing to Mags O’Toole for £80,000 at Brightwells.

The dual Grand National winner is now a five-time Cheltenham hero, winning the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle, the Grade 2 JT McNamara National Hunt Chase and three runnings of the Cross-Country Chase. He has earned more than £1.4 million.

He is a half-brother to Group 2 winner Ahzeemah (Dubawi) who was runner-up in the Group 1 Irish St Leger, and to the group-placed Austrian School (Teofilo) who stands at Clongiffen Stud. Swiss Roll is a stakes-placed full-sister to Berenson (Entrepreneur) who finished second to Dubawi in the Group 1 National Stakes. Derby winner Authorized is also sire of Nichols Canyon.

Sky Pirate (GB)

2013 g. by Midnight Legend (Night Shift) out of Dancingwithbubbles (Supreme Leader). Bred by CB Brookes

A winning graduate of the British point-to-point sphere, Sky Pirate is a son of the multiple listed flat winner and Grade 1 winning hurdler Midnight Legend, best known as the sire of the Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Sizing John.

Sky Pirate has been to the sales four times, selling to Norman Williamson as a foal for €32,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland November Sale, realising €34,000 at the Derby Sale, and purchased by Jonjo O’Neill as a winning pointer at the Cheltenham Sale for £150,000. Last year Lady Bamford sold him at the Goffs UK Spring Sale for £82,000.

Wind surgery and dropping back in trip, along with almost a year off, has seen him rejuvenated and he won the Grade 3 Grand Annual Chase this week, a career-best performance. His dam was a smart bumper and hurdle mare and she was a daughter of the Grade 1 Cleeve Hurdle winner Kate’s Charm (Glacial Storm).

Sir Gerhard (IRE)

2015 g. by Jeremy (Danehill Dancer) out of Faanan Aldaar (Authorized). Bred by Keatingstown Bloodstock

Cheveley Park Stud won the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper for the third successive year, and Sir Gerhard crowned an amazing week for Jeremy, giving the former Irish National Stud and Garryrichard Stud sire his third Grade 1 and fourth winner of the week.

Gordon Elliott Racing gave £400,000 at the 2019 Tattersalls Cheltenham December Sale for the gelding who had won his only point-to-point start for Ellmarie Holden. That was the third time in a sale ring for the Fitzpatrick’s Keatingstown Bloodstock-bred. He was sold as a foal at Goffs to Peter Molony’s Rathmore Stud for €17,000 and returned a handsome profit at the Land Rover Sale, realising €72,000. He is unbeaten in three bumpers.

Sir Gerhard is the first foal from the Authorized (Montjeu) mare Faanan Aldaar, winner of a maiden hurdle at Roscommon. She was bred by Rabbah Bloodstock and is one of eight winners from the Group 3 winning juvenile Ya Hajar (Lycius). The best of the rest was Prince Of All (Iffraaj), winner of the Listed Patton Stakes at Dundalk seven years ago.