THE fledgling training career of Irishman Paul Fitzsimons has had a major boost following the success of the three-year-old filly Tassmania in the Danish 1000 and 2000 Guineas. Paul started his love affair with horses in show jumping, before going to R.A.C.E.at the age of 15. He was apprenticed to Reg Akehurst and won on his first ride in public. He also partnered several winners for champion trainer Richard Hannon.

Paul started to train at Saxon Gate in Lambourn in 2010 but sold the yard five years later to concentrate on his broodmares and working as a remedial rider for Brian O’Rourke Bloodstock. Married to Helene in Sweden in 2017, the couple bought a farm outside Skurup, in the south of the country. While he has other business interests, he has also recommenced training.

Now his stable star, and the best three-year-old filly in Scandinavia, is Tassmania and she is something of a fairytale story. She may not yet have blacktype, but hopefully that will be a matter of time. Her dam Transsylvania earned blacktype when she won the Lanwades Stud Stakes at Ovrevoll as a four-year-old. In addition to listed status, the winning owners also received a nomination to the champion two-year-old, Derby winner and Group 1 sire Sir Percy.

The 17-year-old son of Mark Of Esteem (Darshaan) is the last representative of the Mill Reef sire line in these islands and Dean Olsen took up the offer of using him for free for Transsylvania. The result was the current racing star. Transsylvania is a daughter of Polliwilline (Mull Of Kintyre) and she was a listed winner in Sweden and she comes from the immediate family of Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac winner Mary Linoa (L’Emigrant).