BALLINROBE racecourse was in the news for all the wrong reasons this week, a great pity given that the management team there is one of the most progressive in Irish racing and their care and love for the track and its facilities is second to none.

Three races were staged before racing was abandoned and Ado McGuinness, whose stable is enjoying a purple patch, supplied the first two winners on the card. One of these successes was with Catherine Cashman’s Final Treat, the last offspring of the stakes-placed Musical Treat (Royal Academy) who was a great $100,000 purchase through BBA Ireland at the Keeneland November Sale back in 2003.

Musical Treat was owned by Robert Sangster and bred at his Swettenham Stud. She was trained in England by Peter Chapple-Hyam where she won as a three-year-old and was placed a few times in listed races. She was just beaten a neck in a maiden too by the subsequent King’s Stand Stakes winner Cassandra Go. Sent to race then in the USA, Musical Treat added two further victories to her record.

At the time of her sale to join the broodmare band at Rathbarry Stud Musical Treat was carrying a filly by Mr Greeley (Gone West). That progeny was sent to the Goffs Orby Sale in 2005 and sold for €340,000 to Al Eile Stud, leaving the Cashmans with plenty of profit. What an even better investment the yearling’s purchase proved to be when, trained by Jim Bolger, the subsequently named Finsceal Beo came within inches of landing the 1000 Guineas in three countries, narrowly failing in France after annexing both the England and Irish versions.

Finsceal Beo was also a Group 1 winner at two when she captured the Prix Marcel Boussac, a victory that ensured she was named the champion juvenile filly in Europe.

Having made her mark on the racecourse, Finsceal Beo has also done so in the sales ring with her Group 2 winning son Ol’ Man River (Montjeu) and her 2018 winning daughter La Figlia (Frankel) selling for €2,850,000 and €1.8 million respectively.

Finsceal Beo heads a list of eight winners, from 10 foals, for Musical Treat and she is not the only classic winner among them. Frozen Power (Oasis Dream) was born three years after Finsceal Beo and his greatest racing moment came at Cologne in Germany where he won the Group 2 Mehl-Mulhens Rennen, the 2000 Guineas. He is at stud in Italy where he has had some success with his runners, the eldest of which are just five-year-olds.

Final Treat and Finsceal Beo are two of only four fillies out of Musical Treat, and both of the others were stakes-placed. They are Musical Bar (Barathea) and Zabeel Park (Medicean). Frozen Power, Zabeel Park and the winning Lunasea (Sea The Stars) all realised 500,000gns when they were sold as yearlings. This is a very smart female line and Musical Treat’s first three dams have the distinction of being stakes winners on the racecourse. Her dam Mountain Ash (Dominion) won 10 times in Italy, the best of her four stakes wins coming when she won the Group 3 Premio Royal Mares. Her dam Red Berry (Great Nephew) was a very smart two-year-old who won four times at that age, including the St Catherine’s Stakes at Newbury, and she was runner-up in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes.

Red Berry, in turn, was a daughter of Big Berry (Big Game) and in addition to being a listed winner, she was second in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Acclamation (Royal Applause) has been a mainstay at Rathbarry Stud since he retired there in 2004 and this year he covered at a fee of €40,000.

His twelfth crop of racing age are this year’s two-year-olds and they include the stakes winner Well Done Fox. His Group 1 and 2 winners include a number of established and new sires and he has made quite a mark in that sphere. His leading runners include Dark Angel, Equiano, Marsha, Aclaim, Harbour Watch, Mehmas, Lilbourne Lad, Expert Eye, Lidari and Saayerr.