DESSIE Hughes was a renowned judge of horseflesh and he purchased many good winners at the sales.

While pedigree was an asset, Dessie was more impressed with the horse in front of him and one of his best ever purchases was the great Hardy Eustace.

His prowess for picking winners was recalled when Ball D’Arc landed the Bar One Racing Dan Moore Memorial Handicap Chase, a Grade A race run at Fairyhouse on Sunday. The six-year-old son of Network earned a fraction short of €60,000 for the victory, boosting his winnings to just over €160,000 – double his sale price at the Goffs Land Rover Sale in 2014 when he was bought by Dessie from Moanmore Stables.

Winner of a three-runner point-to-point on his debut for Pat Doyle, he then joined Gordon Elliott and has won one of his three starts in bumpers, three times over hurdles including the Grade 2 Johnstown Novice Hurdle at Naas and a listed hurdle race at Punchestown, and his victory at the weekend was his second over fences. In less than two years he has been out 20 times, so he is well experienced for such a young horse.

When Ball D’Arc sold for €80,000 at the Land Rover Sale, it would be fair to say that while he was the son of a successful racehorse and sire, his dam’s pedigree might have been considered just about good enough. He was the first foal of an unraced daughter of Moon Madness (by Vitiges), and she was one of 10 foals from the unraced Neustrian (by Matahawk) mare Lextrienne. Half of those foals had raced and three were winners, the Le Triton gelding Royal D’Arc being the best. He had won 10 races and was listed placed over hurdles, and since then added three more victories as a 10-year-old.

Lextrienne never ran and she is now the dam of four winners, the Ballingarry mare Chanelle D’Arc being successful over jumps in France last year.

Ball D’Arc is the outstanding runner in the family and he has added further to the reputation of his sire who is most famously responsible for the brilliant Sprinter Sacre.