IN the week that the death was announced of Glenview Stud’s Robin Des Champs, sire of five Cheltenham Festival winners in Quevega (six times at the meeting), Sir Des Champs, Un Temps Pour Tout, Vautour and Blow By Blow, the Philip Hore-bred Sizing Tennessee landed a pot of £140,000 when winning the Grade 3 Ladbroke Trophy Chase for trainer Colin Tizzard and in the colours of the late Alan and Ann Potts.

Robin Des Champs was trained by Guillaume Macaire to land four of his five starts over hurdles, all at Auteuil, and he retired to stud at the age of four. His biggest success came in the Prix Stanley Hurdle and his sole defeat came in the Prix Aguado Hurdle in which he finished second.

His French-bred offspring included six-time Grade 2 David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle winner Quevega who also won the Grade 1 Tipperkevin Hurdle four times, the ill-fated Vautour who won three races at the Cheltenham Festival, namely the Grade 1 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Grade 1 JLT Novices’ Chase and the Grade 1 Ryanair Chase. Sir Des Champs won twice at the Cheltenham Festival and was runner-up to Bobs Worth in the 2013 Grade 1 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

In spite of his name, the Irish-bred Un Temps Pour Tout won two editions of the Grade 3 Ultima Handicap Chase, while Blow By Blow joined the Cheltenham Festival roster of winners this year.

The roll of honour of Grade 1 winners by Robin des Champs includes Woodland Opera, Potters Point, Un Atout, Sous Les Cieux, Chercheur D’Or and Oeil Du Maitre. As a broodmare sire, Robin Des Champs’ best runner to date is Bacardys.

Sizing Tennessee was sold by breeder Philip Hore as a three-year-old at the 2011 Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale to Harold Kirk for €76,000. A dual bumper winner, he has added a pair of hurdle wins and three chase successes to his tally and netted some £245,000 in the process. His 10-length win at the weekend was easily his biggest success, though he has put up some smart performances when placed at Cheltenham.

The dam of Sizing Tennessee is the 19-year-old Jolivia, a daughter of Dernier Empereur (Trempolino) who won a listed four-year-old hurdle race in France, one of three victories over jumps having also been successful as a two-year-old. She was placed second in a listed chase at Pau. Despite her race record, and earning some £80,000 on the racecourse, she sold for just €22,000 carrying her first foal, the subsequent winner Lordolivia (Lord Of Man).

Now the dam of four racecourse winners and a point-to-point scorer, Jolivia was the best performer in the family for three generations until her son Sizing Tennessee emerged. Jolivia’s third dam Via Maris (Dancer’s Image) was a stakes winner in the USA and her six winning offspring were headed by Velin (Valdez), winner of the Grand Steeplechase at Strasbourg, Nantes and Lyon-Parilly. Her grandson Zeus De Berlais (Cadoudal) won the Grand Steeplechase d’Enghien.

Another of the weekend’s major winners is a son of a remarkably successful stallion who was part of the Coolmore National Hunt roster.

Oscar had a curtailed race career that saw him finish second in the French Derby, but any shortcomings on the track were more than made up for at stud. His list of Grade 1 winners is like a who’s who of the jumping game – Our Duke, Finian’s Oscar, God’s Own, Kilbricken Storm, Felix Yonger, Wrath Of Titans, Rock On Ruby, Mallowney, Jetson, O’Faolains Boy, Oscar Whisky, Lord Windermere, At Fishers Cross, The Tullow Tank, Minella Class, Big Zeb, Oscars Well, Oscar Dan Dan, Peddlers Cross, Black Jack Ketchum, Refinement, Silent Oscar and Offshore Account.

Now you can add another to that list, the six-year-old Quick Grabim who won the Grade 1 Royal Bond Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse. Bred by Oliver Loughlin, he was sold as a foal at Tattersalls Ireland for €18,000 and he was turned over for €22,000 a year later. The next time he appeared in a ring was at the Goffs Land Rover Sale and he sold to Denis Leahy there for €30,000.

The best of five winners from his unraced dam Top Her Up (Beneficial), Quick Grabim’s two-year-old Leading Light (Montjeu) half-sister was surely a bargain buy when she sold as a foal to Steven Kelly for just €4,200.

Top Her Up is a half-sister to Grade 2 hurdle winner Paddy The Piper (Witness Box), Grade 3 chase winner Love And Porter (Sheer Grit) and Grade 3 Grand National Trial Chase winner Tell The Nipper (Riberetto). Love And Porter is also the dam of Grade 3 hurdle winner Give Me A Break (Scorpion).

Breeders, stallion masters and readers are invited to contact Leo Powell at leopowell@theirishfield.ie with news and updates for the column, and to visit our website www.theirishfield.ie for daily breeding news