IT doesn’t get much better than breeding a Group 1 winner with the first horse produced in your own name. Step forward Shane Molan in Riversfield Stud, Co Limerick. He watched with joy when Waikuku denied two-time Horse of the Year Beauty Generation a second win in the Group 1 Stewards’ Cup at Sha Tin last Sunday, adding his own name to a distinguished roll of honour for one of Hong Kong’s iconic races.

The son of Harbour Watch (Acclamation) had come close to breaking through at the highest level last month at the international meeting when he was a half-length runner-up to Japanese raider Admire Mars in the Longines Hong Kong Mile. His latest and most important victory pushes his earnings past £1.75 million.

This is a real Molan family success story. Shane’s parents Tom and Geraldine bought Riversfield more than 15 years ago from Dolores O’Riordan, the late lead singer with the international group The Cranberries, and her husband. There they have bred a number of good winners, one of which was the aforementioned Harbour Watch.

The talented runner was trained by the now retired Richard Hannon and was a smart juvenile, being undefeated in all three starts. His shortened career was capped by a victory in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes at Goodwood and the plan was to point him at the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes. Sadly an injury prevented that happening, and proved to be career-ending. Having failed to make it back to the track he retired to stud at Tweenhills in 2013 and completed five seasons there before an arthritic condition forced his early retirement from the breeding shed. He died in 2018.

Waikuku is Harbour Watch’s breakthrough winner at Group 1 level. He is one of a pair of stakes winners from his sire’s second crop. The first crop gave us the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin winner Tis Marvellous, while the fifth and last crop is headed by last season’s listed-winning juvenile Pyledriver. Half of all Harbour Watch’s runners won a race.

The decision to use Harbour Watch may have had elements of sentimentality about it, but it has proven to be inspired too. Shane Molan had the advantage of seeing the first foals by the stallion before he chose to use him. He told The Irish Field last year, when Waikuku was one of the favourites for the Hong Kong Derby: “We liked his first foals; he was really stamping his stock. He was a good-sized horse himself and a very good two-year-old, and he was the sort we wanted for her first foal.”

Molan purchased the dam of Waikuku, London Plane, at the Goffs February Sale in 2013 for €13,500, doubling the amount she made two months earlier when she sold to Hyde Park Stud for 5,500gns at the December Sale. The daughter of Danehill Dancer (Danehill) was a €50,000 yearling and she showed useful form for Tommy Stack over seven furlongs at three without winning,

What attracted Molan to London Plane at the sale? “She represented good value, first and foremost, and she’s by a good broodmare sire,” he said. “She had a good bit of size and was a full-sister to quite a good horse in Al Waab.” A few months before London Plane’s purchase Al Waab, trained by Sir Henry Cecil, had won his first two starts, finished second to Havana Gold in a listed race and run third in the Group 3 Royal Lodge Stakes.

Molan added: “On pedigree we wanted to buy something that we could afford and then, on physical, she had good bone, a good step and a very nice frame. She was a bit light coming out of training and she didn’t look all that impressive at first, but there was a nice bit of quality there to work with. She was a very straightforward filly that was affordable on the day for us.”

London Plane’s first visit at stud was to Born To Sea (Invincible Spirit), a first season sire that year at Rathasker Stud. That mating failed to produce a pregnancy and then the decision to travel to Gloucestershire was taken. The resulting colt was sold at the Tattersalls Ireland September Sale to John Oxx for €33,000. Molan was thrilled to sell him to such a good judge.

A promising debut at two, running fifth in a big field at the Curragh, set the heart racing, but it was to be almost a year until Waikuku reappeared at Leopardstown, winning well over seven furlongs. Alastair Donald noted the run and while connections were convinced that they had a group horse, the offer to sell to Hong Kong was irresistible. The rest is history.

A return to Born To Sea produced a colt who has not started, followed by a really good-looking son of Tamayuz (Nayef) who sold as a yearling at Tattersalls Ireland for €100,000 to Kevin Ross, for Paul and Clare Rooney. Entrusted to the care of Clive Cox, It’s Good To Laugh ran four times last year as a juvenile, winning and being placed second twice. He is a good prospect to go on and added further glory to the family.

Last year London Plane had her fourth foal and first filly, a daughter of Highland Reel (Galileo) and a member of the first crop of that £7.5 million earner who won seven Group 1 races, including a couple in Hong Kong. He also won the Breeders’ Cup Turf, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Prince of Wales’s Stakes. Molan said this week: “Options are open for her at the moment, but I would love to retain her.”

Now attention turns to the foal due this spring, by the dual Derby winner Australia (Galileo), while plans presently are to cover London Plane by Acclamation (Royal Applause), the sire of Harbour Watch.

The standard of international form shown by Waikuku on his two most recent starts would indicate that he is not only the rising star of Hong Kong racing, but the five-year-old could also make his presence felt on a wider stage. Meanwhile London Plane and her Highland Reel daughter are enjoying the lush pastures of Riversfield in Kilmallock.