OFFIAH will never be the best horse trained by Ger Lyons, but he will have a special place in the annals of his training career.

Making his eighth career start, Offiah chose his moment well to give the Co Meath handler his 1,000th win as a trainer, and it was only proper that the three-year-old is part-owned by Ger’s wife Lynne.

David Spratt and Sean Jones are the other part-owners of Offiah, and the gelding has been knocking on the door of success this year. He is one of three winners among the first four foals of the Lawman (Invincible Spirit) mare Levanto, and she carried the colours of the Hourihan/O’Brien Partnership to three victories when trained by Willie Mullins. She was just shy of stakes class.

Ballylinch Stud’s John O’Connor bred Offiah who is a full-brother to Adjuvant, both sons of Ballylinch stallion New Bay (Dubawi). While Offiah was a €50,000 yearling purchase by Gaelic Bloodstock, Adjuvant cost his trainer Michael Bell just £16,000 when he sold at the Tattersalls Ireland September Sale last year. The sale was held in Newmarket.

Adjuvant won his first two starts this year, already clawing back £9,000 of his sale outlay.

Levanto has a filly foal by Make Believe (Makfi) and has a very attractive covering to Waldgeist (Galileo), due in early March. Levanto may have won three times, but she was some way behind a couple of her siblings, her half-sisters Bonita De Mas (Lord Shanakill) and Super Nancy (Refuse To Bend) winning 12 and nine races respectively.

They are all daughters of Crossbreeze (Red Ransom), a half-sister to the Group 1 St Leger winner and Group 1 Derby runner-up Rule Of Law (Kingmambo).

New Bay’s first crop are three-year-olds and his winners to runners ratio is just shy of 60%. Given the level of improvement he made in his second season, we can expect him to build significantly on the start he has made, with two group winners in his first crop and eight other stakes performers already to his credit.