RISK Of Thunder was a legend as a racehorse and I can well remember his reign of glory over the La Touche course at Punchestown. But for the cancellation of racing in 2001 he would surely have won the race eight times – instead he had to settle for seven! He was a marvellous servant to the Enda Bolger academy.

The son of Strong Gale was 27 years of age when he died on Sunday of a heart attack while enjoying his retirement at JP McManus’ Martinstown Stud.

He was also a member of an outstanding family on his dam’s side and he made his own mark on the pedigree. He also came close to creating another piece of history when he finished second in the notorious Velka Pardubicka Chase.

His final tally at the end of his career was that he won 13 races on the track and five-point-to-points and he was placed a number of times. He also ran fourth in the Irish Grand National.

His dam was the Saint Denys mare Park Delight. She was a most prolific producer of foals, having 19 in total, but only three of them won on the racecourse. Risk Of Thunder was the most talented of them, though his half-brother Park Rainbow won seven times over jumps in West Germany (showing how long ago that was!) and one of these was a listed chase.

The family really came to prominence through Risk Of Thunder’s own-sister Park Breeze. She had six winners and an amazing tally of five graded winners under National Hunt rules. The best of these were the Grade 1 winners The Listener and Offshore Account.

The Listener, a son of Roselier, amassed earnings of more than £400,000 with his nine wins, seven of which were over fences. He won four times at Grade 1 level and, incredibly for an English-trained horse, they were all in Ireland. At Leopardstown he landed the Lexus Chase and the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup, and he also won the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase and the jnwine.com Champion Chase at Down Royal. He placed in many of the same races.

The Oscar gelding Offshore Account was a Grade 1 novice chase winner at Punchestown and, like The Listener, he was a far better chaser than hurdler. The other graded winners out of Park Breeze were Distant Thunder (by Phardante), Fork Lightning (by Roselier) and another son of Oscar in Dooney’s Gate.

As if all that was not enough, Park Breeze, through her unraced daughter Lightning Breeze, is the dam of the 2016 Grade 1 Tolworth Hurdle winner Yorkhill, in training with Willie Mullins.