IT is doubtless an exciting time at Killeen House Stud. Owned by Paddy and Frankie Griffin, parents of Ronan (Goffs) and James, it is home to the training yard that is preparing Maggio for a tilt at next week’s Randox Health Aintree Grand National.

It is also home to a 14-year-old broodmare named Dontcallerthat. The daughter of Anshan was ridden by James to a point-to-point victory as a six-year-old before she retired to the paddocks. She is due to foal any time now to Califet, the only one of the four stallions at Boardsmill Stud not to sire a Grade 1 winner at the recent Cheltenham Festival! Such is the success he is enjoying however, that it was not necessary to ensure his continued popularity

To date Dontcallerthat has had just a pair of offspring. The younger of the two is a three-year-old Arcadio filly, while her year older Gold Well (by Sadler’s Wells) half-brother is Bullionaire. In training with Harry Fry, this £37,000 Goffs UK Spring Sale purchase by Matt O’Connor Bloodstock from Peter Nolan Bloodstock, won on his debut at Newbury last weekend.

This was no ordinary win however. The race was a valuable sales-related bumper and the winners’ purse of more than £31,000 almost paid for the gelding in full. He is most certainly a horse to watch for and the winning trainer’s post-race comments were noteworthy. Describing him as a big, scopey horse that he likes a lot, Fry plans to plot his career carefully and it is certain that he will make an impact.

Dontcallerthat was bred by Paddy Griffin and is out of the Crash Course mare Smash N Lass. Paddy owned and trained her too and she graduated from winning a maiden point-to-point to landing a chase at Roscommon in the hands of Frannie Woods. She had two winning offspring, Dontcallerthat and the Montelimar mare Monty’s Lass. The latter was a good point-to-point mare in England and won a hunter chase final at Newton Abbot. She is the dam of a number of winning pointers.

BLACKTYPE

One more generation back and the blacktype horses start to appear. Smash N Lass is one of three winning daughters of Vagrant Lass, a winning hurdler by Peter Jones.

The most prolific of those winning offspring was Gypsy Lass, a winner of a bumper, a hurdle race and a couple of chases.

A daughter of King’s Ride, she has gone on to breed three winners, the best of which were Bohemian Lass and Hotel Hilamar. The former, by Moscow Society, won a listed mares’ chase, while the Flemensfirth gelding Hotel Hilamar was runner-up in the Grade 2 Flyingbolt Novice Chase.

Another winning daughter of Vagrant Lass was the Raise You Ten mare Glen Of Hawthorn. She won a bumper and a chase and bred the smart Strong Gale chaser Clash Of The Gales. She is better known however as the grandam, through her unraced Roselier daughter Mrs Jones, of Alvarado and Character Building.

The former, a son of Goldmark, won the Grade 3 Murphy Group Chase at Cheltenham and last year was runner-up in the Scottish Grand National.

Character Building, by Accordion, won five times, three of them over fences, and was third to Denman in the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup.

Skip back a couple of more generations, to Bullionaire’s fifth dam Mrs Mustang, and you will discover that she is ancestress of a number of notable performers. Road To Riches, a current star of Noel Meade’s yard, the Grade 1 winning bumper and hurdle horse Davenport Milenium, and the Leopardstown Chase winner Sullane River are among them.