CURTAIN Time has shown that when given the chance, he is as capable as any of the top sires of not only getting a winner, but of getting a good one.

Almost all of the top 20 stallions this National Hunt season have had as many runners in the past 10 or 11 months as Curtain Time has had in his entire stud career, which started back in 2004 with Liam and Gary Norris at Woodfield Farm Stud near Kilmacthomas. The son of Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) was a winner on his debut in a 10-furlong maiden at Newmarket when trained by Henry Cecil for owner-breeder Charlie Wacker.

Though he failed to build on that success in two subsequent starts, reported to have suffered an injury, he had a pedigree and a half to go to stud with. He had three Group 1 winning siblings, triple Group 1 winner and National Hunt sire Taipan (Last Tycoon), Sussex Stakes winner Ali-Royal (Royal Academy), and the 1000 Guineas heroine Sleepytime (Royal Academy).

To date nearly 20% of Curtain Time’s racecourse runners over jumps have won, two of them landing major races. Texas Jack was trained by Noel Meade and won his only bumper and a couple of hurdle races, while his four chase victories included a pair of Grade 2 contests. He was beaten a nose by Boston Bob in a Grade 1 novice chase at Leopardstown.

History

Now Curtain Time will be forever in the history books thanks to the victory of his nine-year-old son Freewheelin Dylan in the BoyleSports Irish Grand National. Ironically, he won the 150th edition of the race at odds of 150/1.

Freewheelin Dylan was bred by Liam Norris in Co Waterford and sold for €30,000 as a foal to Tim Hyde. He didn’t do so well when he was pinhooked at the Goffs Land Rover Sale, and there he was snapped up for just €13,000 by Shane Donohue. He is the first foal of his unraced dam, Gaye Future, and she is a daughter of Beat All (Dynaformer). Freewheelin Dylan, who is owned by Sheila Mangan and trained by Dermot McLoughlin, is her first foal.

Gaye Future’s second foal, a colt, was sold to the Limerick-based Stow Stud, but the five-year-old has not been named. Last year Edward O’Grady gave €22,000 for Freewheelin Dylan’s now four-year-old Walk In The Park (Montjeu) half-brother and he is named Camulus. Following on are a three-year-old Presenting (Mtoto) gelding, and two colts, a two-year-old and a yearling, by Woodfield Farm’s resident stallion, Frankel’s three-parts brother Bullet Train (Sadler’s Wells).

Winners abound

Going back a far as you like on the female side of this family, top-class performers abound, so it is no real surprise that another big race winner should emerge. In fact, just the matter of a length is the difference between Freewheelin Dylan being the first Irish Grand National winner in the immediate family, and being the second.

Gaye Future is a half-sister to the bumper and hurdle winner Gaye Fame (Ardross) who has become a very successful broodmare, the best of her winners being Oulart (Sabrehill). He finished a length behind the winner Point Barrow in the 2006 Irish Grand National for Dessie Hughes. His four wins included the Pertemps Final at the Cheltenham Festival a year earlier.

Gaye Future is now one of four daughters of Gaye Memory (Buckskin) to breed a National Hunt blacktype winner, while their siblings also include Simon (Overbury), and this six-time winner gained his biggest success in a Grade 3 chase at Kempton.

Sweeney’s family

This is a family that is inextricably linked to the late Phil and Margaret Sweeney at Orwell Stud in Co Tipperary. Gaye Memory was one of 12 winners on the track for the unraced Artiste Gaye (Artist’s Son) who was born 60 years ago. Five of that dozen were noteworthy, but three deserve special mention.

Artistic Prince (Indigenous) won the Grade 1 John Jameson Cup Chase at Punchestown, but even that pales beside the achievements of his siblings, the full-brothers Gaye Chance and Gaye Brief (Lucky Brief). The latter won the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham and the Grade 1 Templegate Hurdle at Liverpool, while Gaye Chance won both the Sun Alliance Hurdle and the Stayers’ Hurdle in the Cotswolds.

Dubawi enlists in yet another exclusive club

JOINED at stud, under the Darley banner, this year by his son Ghaiyyath, the world’s best racehorse of 2020, Dubawi set a new benchmark this week when his daughter Philomene brought her earnings to £43,741 with her second win. She thus became the 200th individual stakes winner for her sire Dubawi (Dubai Millennium).

Successful on her only outing last year, this daughter of Prudenzia (Dansili) made her three-year-old debut in the Group 3 Prix Penelope at Saint-Cloud and the manner of her victory would suggest that she could yet match the achievements of two of her siblings and become another Group 1 winner for her dam.

Philomene was bred by Ecurie des Monceaux and Skymarc Farm in partnership and sold at the 2019 Arqana August Sale for €1,650,000 to Godolphin. Trained by André Fabre, this classic hopeful is actually owned by a partnership of Godolphin and the breeders, the former having a half-share and the breeders retaining a quarter-share each.

Millionaires

It is odds on that a son or daughter of the listed winner Prudenzia will bring a seven-figure sum when offered for sale. Her best runner to date has been Magic Wand (Galileo), and she repaid her €1.4 million yearling price when winning the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot, before her overseas trips brought victory in the Group 1 Mackinnon Stakes. She won close to €4.2 million.

Magic Wand was preceded by Chiquita (Montjeu). Though she only won once, it was the Group 1 Darley Irish Oaks and she was acquired by Coolmore when she sold for €6 million at Goffs in 2013. She is now the dam of a couple of winners, including the group-placed Secret Thoughts (War Front).

Philomene is the third stakes winner from Prudenzia, while that mare’s other four winners include the group-placed Je Ne Regretterien (Galileo). Last year M.V. Magnier paid €2 million for Prudenzia’s now two-year-old son of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells).

Philomene’s fourth dam was the stakes-placed winner Souk (Ahonoora) and, through her daughter Shouk (Shirley Heights), she is the grandam of Group 1 winners Alexandrova (Sadler’s Wells) and Magical Romance (Barathea). Shouk’s winning half-sister Sitara (Salse) is the dam of the Group 1 Melbourne Cup winner Rekindling (High Chaparral).

With 44 Group 1 winners among that group of 200 stakes winners, it is easy to understand why Dubawi can be called the best sire to have stood in Britain. This could be the year the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas winner clocks up his half-century of top-level winners.

It has been reported that Prudenzia has already been covered this year by Dalham Hall Stud’s Dubawi.