FILLIES were very much to the fore at the weekend when you look at the blacktype National Hunt results.

In Cork Well Set Up beat the boys to capture the Group 3 Kerry Group Cork Stayers Novice Hurdle for owner/breeder Jean Corrigan. A six-year-old daughter of Gold Well (Sadler’s Wells), she is a half-sister to the dual Grade 2 hurdle winner On The Blind Side (Stowaway).

Corrigan bought Such A Set Up (Supreme Leader), the dam of Well Set Up, for IR2,000gns as a foal in 2000 and she was unraced, being covered at four and producing a filly What A Set Up (Zagreb). She was one of six offspring of her dam, only three of which were named and both her runners have been blacktype winners.

Such A Set Up had just one winning sibling and that was the Grade 2 Cleeve Hurdle winner Knockara Beau (Leading Counsel).

Gold Well did not race and died at the age of 13. A full-brother to Montjeu, he is sire of the Irish Grand National winner General Principle, Grade 1 winner Holywell, and a total of nine blacktype winners over jumps.

Well Set Up was joined as a winner at the Cork meeting by Elimay, her Grade 3 novice chase win adding to a listed hurdle race success at Killarney. A daughter of Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris winner Montmartre (Montjeu) she is slowly repaying the €310,000 investment made in her at the 2017 Arqana Autumn Sale by Horse Racing Advisory on behalf of JP McManus. Her sire is also responsible for Grade 1 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner Labaik, and dual Grade 1 winning hurdler Petite Parisienne.

Exciting juvenile

Elimay is a half-sister to the three-year-old Goshen (Authorized), one of the more exciting juvenile hurdlers in England at present with Gary Moore.

The five-year-old Minella Melody (Flemensfirth), a listed hurdle winner at Punchestown, is one of the best of her sex and age in Ireland, though she seemed to disappoint Henry de Bromhead when getting home by less than length from Mount Ida. A €60,000 Derby Sale purchase, Minella Melody is from a family accustomed to producing high-class racemares.

Minella Melody is out of an unraced King’s Theatre (Sadler’s Wells) full-sister to Glens Melody, a Grade 1 hurdle winner at Cheltenham and Punchestown. Their dam Glens Music (Orchestra) was a Grade 2 –winning chaser. Minella Melody was bred at Kilmoney Cottage Stud by Michael and Ciara Carty.

Finally, at Huntingdon Nicky Henderson captured the Listed Henrietta Knight Mares Bumper with Vegas Blue, another smart runner by the dual Group 1 German winner Getaway (Monsun). She joins Verdana Blue, Jarveys Plate, Danny Whizzbang, Talkischeap, Getabird and Getaway Katie Mai as blacktype winners for her sire.

Bred by Frank Motherway, Vegas Blue sold as a foal at Goffs for €10,000 to Kevin Ross, being resold from Rahinston Farm as a three-year-old at the Derby Sale to Highflyer Bloodstock for €30,000. She is now one of three winners out of the Milan (Sadler’s Wells) mare Bella Venezia, a half-sister to Bellshill (King’s Theatre). He is a multiple Grade 1 winner, successful at that level in a bumper, over hurdles and fences. His biggest successes came in the Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown and the Punchestown Gold Cup.

This is also the family of One Man (Remainder Man) whose 20 wins included the King George VI Chase and the Queen Mother Champion Chase.