IF there was a National Hunt broodmare of the year award it is possible that it would be won this year by the Phardante mare La Zingarella.

Two of her sons have done her proud in 2017, Sizing Codelco winning at Aintree and Punchestown for Colin Tizzard, while last weekend L’Ami Serge added a second Grade 1 victory to his tally when he captured the Grande Course de Haies d’Auteuil. Both were bred by Paul Ryan.

La Zingarella herself was bred by Jemima Scarisbrick from the unraced Buckskin mare In Memoriam. She was one of five winning offspring from that broodmare, another of significance being the Double Bed gelding The Wicketkeeper. His four chasing successes included the Byrne Group Chase at Ascot for Michael Scudamore and jockey Peter Buchanan. He was bred by Alfie Buller.

La Zingarella was sold for €77,000 at the end of her racing career, one in which she won three times in France and was placed many times, earning more than £100,000 in the process. The best of her victories was in the Listed Prix Wild Monarch Hurdle and she later went on to be placed over hurdles and fences, notably when third in the Grade 2 Prix Congress Chase.

Her three winning offspring, so far, have all earned some blacktype. L’Ami Serge, a son of the multiple champion sire King’s Theatre, is now a dual Grade 1 winner, having previously won the Tolworth Novices’ Hurdle. He is joined by Flemensfirth’s son Sizing Codelco, winner of the Listed Betway Chase at Aintree who followed up at Punchestown in the Grade B Palmerstown House Pat Taaffe Chase. The trio is made up of Viens Chercher, by Milan, who was placed in a listed hurdle and is a three-time winner.

Among the younger offspring of La Zingarella are a three-year-old Fame And Glory filly named La Mistinguett, a two-year-old son of Oscar and a yearling colt by Yeats.

Go back a further generation and you will find a family that has a great mix of major winners over jumps in Ireland, Britain and France. It is a most wonderful female line, one that has produced the likes of Triumph Hurdle winner Snow Drop, Grade 1 French winner Lina Drop, Noel Meade’s Snow Falcon and it is also the family of Grade 1 winner Don’t Touch It. He, like Sizing Codelco, was a winner at this year’s Punchestown Festival.