MARESCA Sorrento is not a name that is very familiar, yet the stallion has left a mark on the sport of National Hunt racing as the sire of the 2014 Aintree Grand National winner Pineau De Re. The gelding was an emphatic winner of the race from Balthazar King.

That victory came in the same year that the son of Cadoudal (Green Dancer) began a three-year stint at Haras du Lion, following a long time standing at Rousselière where he retired in 2002. He died two years ago at the age of 22 following a severe bout of colic.

In a short racing career under the tutelage of trainer Elie Lellouche, Maresca Sorrento won twice over hurdles at Auteuil, never having run on the level. He was out of a smart hurdler in French Free Star (Carmarthen) and the most talented of his siblings was the Group 3 winner Bonnet Rouge, later a sire himself.

Maresca Sorrento did very well from very small crops, though the Grand National success led to a temporary, and very late, rise in popularity. His largest ever book of 92 was recorded in 2015. Most of his best runners performed in France. Farlow Des Mottes was probably the best of them, winning the Grade 2 Prix Murat Chase and three other graded races over hurdles and fences.

The potential for another star has emerged with the victory of his six-year-old son Felix Desjy in the Grade 2 Sky Bet Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle at Punchestown on Sunday. The gelding was a real bargain when purchased by Mags O’Toole for only €29,000 at the 2016 Goffs Land Rover Sale from Moanmore Stables. Bred in France by Catherine Bodin and Martine Boullier, he won a point-to-point before graduating to the racecourse and then won his first two starts in bumpers. A Cheltenham Festival challenge is now on the cards.

Mags O’Toole is one of the most successful independent bloodstock agents in the business and she features more than most in this column. Felix Desjy is the not the first big race winner she bought from this family either. The third dam of Felix Desjy is Lady Jeff (Jefferson) and she was a five-time winner in Austria and runner-up in a listed race at Vienna. Nowadays Austria has no races that entitle the winner or placed horses to blacktype.

Lady Jeff bred six winners, the best being the Group 3 Prix Penelope winner La Monalisa (Gorytus). Her non-winning offspring included Ingerence (Akarad) who was placed but she in turn bred Pan Jammer (Piccolo). Mags O’Toole bought the colt 21 years ago as a foal and he later went on to win the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes at the Curragh for Mick Channon at two.

Lady Jeff was a half-sister to the multiple group winner Bon Sang (Gyr) and those successes included the Group 2 Criterium de Saint-Cloud and the Prix Neil. He later enjoyed some success as a stallion.