FOLLOWING the success of Jury Duty (Well Chosen) in the Grade 1 Grand National Hurdle at Fair Hills last year I was contacted by Dr Declan Gill, a part-owner of the winner’s only registered thoroughbred sibling, a full-brother named Vandevart.

The owners, who paid the ‘princely sum’ of €2,000 for him, named him in honour of the talented Spurs and Dutch midfielder Rafael Van Der Vaart. The similarities did not end there, as both horse and player proved to be fragile in their legs! Sent to be trained by Gerry Lynch in Co Galway, Vandevart made a single start in a point-to-point.

Declan takes up the story. “The horse led from flagfall and jumped impeccably; had the entire field off the bridle and was cruising until he broke down completely on his off-fore superficial digital flexor tendon, and unfortunately had to be euthanized. He was a huge horse with tons of ability, had just taken a lot of time to come to hand and we thought the world of him.

“It is some poetic justice to follow the exploits of his full brother years later, and shows the highs and lows of National Hunt racing that enthrals us all.”

Thanks to Margie McLoone, I also learned that Jury Duty had two siblings registered in the Irish Horse Register as ISHs, both geldings. One of them is the 11-year-old Whitfield Jack Of Hearts, a son of Ricardo Z who also stands with Well Chosen at Tom Meagher’s Kedrah House Stud in Cahir, Co Tipperary. He is a leading show horse under side saddle and does working hunters, while the other was Pennard Picture Perfect, a son of the forever remembered Connemara Templebready Fear Bui.

Jury Duty was bred in Co Waterford by the late Tom Carroll with his daughter Frances. His win at the weekend in the BarOneRacing.com Chase was his first outing since the USA and brought his winnings to within touch of £360,000.

Though he failed to win a point-to-point, he has been successful six times under National Hunt rules, evenly divided between hurdles and chases.

Jury Duty’s record in graded races in Ireland shows that he recorded wins in the Grade 2 Proudstown Handicap Hurdle at Navan and the Grade 2 Liam and Valerie Brennan Memorial Florida Pearl Novice Chase at Punchestown. His many placed efforts include second in the Grade 1 Neville Hotels Fort Leney Novice Chase at Leopardstown and the Grade 2 PWC Gowran Champion Chase at Gowran Park, and third in the Grade 1 thetote.com Galway Plate and Grade 1 Growise The Ellier Champion Novice Chase at Punchestown.

Jury Duty’s sire Well Chosen (Sadler’s Wells) has featured regularly in these columns and he has excelled, especially with mares whose pedigrees might be a little short on class. This success has led to better books of mares and it is easy to suggest that the best is yet to come. Jury Duty is from the unraced Broken Hearted (Dara Monarch) mare Swan Heart and she was also one of just a pair of foals from her unraced dam Swan City (Jolly Jake); the other was never named.

You have to trawl back to the third generation to find the next winner, the useful Tinakellylad (Witness Box). This point-to-point, hurdle and dual chase winner was trained by Mouse Morris and ran third in the Grade 1 Munster National at Limerick in 2010. He was the only winner from six foals for his dam Iora (Green Shoon) who was placed twice in a couple of bumpers and over hurdles.

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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