HULA Angel was an early pinhook success for Gerry Burke of Glidawn Stud, who sold the daughter of Woodman as a yearling at Goffs in the 1997 Orby Sale for IR£85,000 to BBA Ireland. Burke had acquired her in America as a foal and the daughter of Woodman (Mr Prospector) was bred by Gainsborough Farm, owned by the late Maktoum Al Maktoum.

Sent into training with Barry Hills, Hula Angel won the Group 2 Rockfel stakes as a juvenile and the following season she beat 16 rivals to land the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas at the Curragh, the highlight of her racing career. At stud she has been bred to the best, her offspring including sons and daughters of such as Sadler’s Wells, Galileo, Redoute’s Choice, Giant’s Causeway, Elusive Quality, Rock Of Gibraltar and Montjeu.

Last year her now two-year-old son of High Chaparral (Sadler’s Wells) sold for €50,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale and was sent to Sweden, while the 21-year-old mare has a filly foal by No Nay Never (Scat Daddy).

With opportunities like that it would be reasonable to hope you might breed a classic contender or two, if not the actual winners of such prestigious contests, but in fact Hula Angel has made an impact on the National Hunt scene. On Thursday her son Tigris River, knocked down for 20,000gns at the Tattersalls Horses In Training Sale in 2014, won the Grade A Guinness Galway Hurdle for JP McManus. This is the richest prize in Ireland for a hurdle race.

Tigris River was bred by Paul Shanahan’s Lynch Bages Ltd and is a six-year-old son of Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells). What an impact this exceptional racehorse made on the track and later at stud, and to think that he died in 2012 at the age of just 16. In 2000 he beat Fantastic Light to win the 50th running of the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and a glittering career at stud was predicated.

Montjeu lived up to those hopes and a list of his sons alone is mouth-watering. Hurricane Run, Authorized, Fame And Glory, Motivator, St Nicholas Abbey, Camelot, Pour Moi, Tavistock, Montmartre, Scorpion, Leading Light, Frozen Fire, Walk In The Park, Papal Bull, Jukebox Jury, Joshua Tree, Gallante, Green Moon and many, many more have brought him glory as a stallion.

His influence on National Hunt racing has been no less impressive, with many of his sons above continuing the legacy, while you only have to mention the world record holder for Group/Grade 1 wins Hurricane Fly among his many fine runners over jumps to know you are talking about equine royalty.

Back to Tigris River and his pedigree on the dam side. He is not the first blacktype winner for his dam as he joins The Fist Of God (Sadler’s Wells) for that honour. Listed-placed on the flat, The Fist Of God was owned by Phonsie O’Brien and trained by Noel Meade. The gelding died as a four-year-old but not until he had shown that he was potentially a very smart hurdler and he had already won the Grade 3 Weatherbys Ireland GSB Hurdle at Fairyhouse and run third in the Grade 1 Champion Four-Year-Old Hurdle at Punchestown.

Tigris River and The Fist Of God and the best of the six winners to date from Hula Angel and she was one of eight winners from Jode, a winning daughter of Danzig (Northern Dancer). Jode was herself one of a dozen winners from Belle De Jour (Speak John) and the best of these was the champion American three-year-old colt Spend A Buck (Buckaroo) who won the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby in 1995.

He also numbered the Grade 1 Arlington Futurity at two and the Monmouth Handicap among his 10 victories, which even then netted connections more than £3 million in prizemoney.