WHAT an incredible week of racing at the 2021 Punchestown Festival. It was such a relief to be able to stage this year’s racing, and even having it behind closed doors could not take away from the quality of the event. There was much to celebrate, and no one did so more often than Willie Mullins.

The final two days of the meeting saw four Grade 1 races held, and the score, on the breeding front, read two wins for France, one each for Britain and Ireland. Without doubt, and no matter how one looks at it, the show was stolen by the queen of National Hunt racing, Honeysuckle.

At this stage there is little new to add to what has been written countless times before, other than to append another number to the tally of victories. Her latest success, in the Punchestown Champion Hurdle, stretches her unbeaten record to 13, all her dozen starts over hurdles and her only run in a point-to-point. Bred by Dr Geoffrey Guy and his co-owners and managers of The Glanvilles Stud in Dorset, Doug and Lucy Procter, she is the fourth and penultimate produce her of dam.

This was Honeysuckle’s eighth Grade 1 win. She is a full-sister to a winner, half-sister to another, and they are three of just five foals from their listed hurdle-placed dam First Royal (Lando). Sold for €9,500 to Mark O’Hare in Part 2 of the 2017 Derby Sale, Honeysuckle resold less than a year later to Rathmore Stud’s Peter Molony at the Goffs Punchestown Sale for €110,000.

Irish-bred

Jennifer and Evelyn Cullen cheered home Jeff Kidder (Hallowed Crown) when he won the Grade 3 Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle at Cheltenham. Now they had more reason to be happy as he stepped up to Grade 1 level and won the Champion 4YO Hurdle.

Sold as a foal at Goffs for €16,500, he left a small profit when trading for €24,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland September Sale the following year. He is one of a pair of winners from his unraced dam’s first couple of foals, and she was bought for just 7,000gns seven years ago. Her third dam was the Group 1 winner and champion Cairn Rouge (Pitcairn).

Willie Mullins saddled both of the French-bred Grade 1 winners. Gaillard Du Mesnil (Saint Des Saints) started to make inroads into his €250,000 Arqana sale price when he won the Grade 1 Golden Cygnet Novice Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival.

He finished second in the Grade 1 Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, and at Punchestown took the Grade 1 Champion Novice Hurdle.

He and flat and hurdle winner Hardi Du Mesnil (Masterstroke) are two of the first three foals from Athena Du Mesnil (Al Namix), a two-time winner on the flat. This is a family that Willie Mullins knows. He trained Athena Du Mesnil’s half-sister Calie Du Mesnil (Kapgarde) to win a couple of hurdle races and be runner-up in the Grade B William Fry Handicap Hurdle at Leopardstown.

Skip one generation and you find Malory Du Mesnil (Le Pontet), the fourth dam of Gaillard Du Mesnil. She is grandam of Soldatino (Graveron) and he won the 2010 Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham.

French-bred Ireland

Sharing the same broodmare sire as Chacun Pour Soi, Stormy Ireland finally got the Grade 1 win she deserved at Punchestown, her eighth win over hurdles. By the sire of none other than the racing great Treve, she is by the Derby winner Motivator (Montjeu), and out of a listed chase winner in France, Like A Storm, a daughter of Ultimately Lucky (Kris).

This is a family one associates more with winning top-class races on the flat. Indeed, the Group 1 siblings Silverwave (Silver Frost) and Stormy River (Verglas) appear under the third dam.