GRANGE Stud’s classic winning stallion Milan (by Sadler’s Wells) was one of the sires of the meeting at the recent three-day Aintree Festival, represented by two Grade 1 winners and a listed scorer.

For Sizing Granite, his win in the Grade 1 Doom Bar Maghull Novices’ Chase was his first blacktype success and it took his record over fences to four wins from five starts.

The seven-year-old was bred by Thomas Kelly, who sold him in Fairyhouse as a foal for just €4,200. What an opportunity that was!

He had previously won one from four over hurdles, and although he is a half-brother to the dual handicap hurdle winner Doransfirth (by Flemensfirth), it is fair to say that he is easily the best horse his family has produced for a long time.

That suggests that a great deal of the credit for his superior talent must go to his sire. It could also be that something about the Sadler’s Wells (by Northern Dancer) line just clicks with this family and if that is the case then that augurs well for the prospects of the mare’s youngest offspring.

Hazel’s Tisrara (by Mandalus) has a four-year-old son of Oscar (by Sadler’s Wells), a three-year-old full-sister to Sizing Granite, and she had a daughter of Scorpion (by Montjeu) last May.

Mandalus (by Mandamus) was a leading National Hunt sire, and so you would expect him to get plenty of successful broodmare daughters. That said, it catches the eye that of the nine National Hunt runners by Milan who have him as their broodmare sire, five are multiple winners, and one of those is the talented stayer Night In Milan who was 20/1 in the Grade 3 Crabbie’s Grand National on Saturday, a race he completed.

Perhaps it is the mare herself who is the magic ingredient, something she has as a representative of the Mandalus-Deep Run cross. We cannot know.

SUSSESSFUL BROODMARE

She is not the only successful broodmare in her family, of course, and she was one of four winners among 10 foals out of the unraced My Deep Fort VII (by Deep Run), a mare whose siblings included the bumper, dual hurdles and three-times chase scorer Mister Hartigan (by Menelek).

You can go back further and find the blacktype placed dual hurdle winner Le Fortune (by Fortina), and a branch of the family that eventually leads to blacktype earners such as Liscahill Hill (by Executive Perk) and Team Challenge (by Laurenco O), but nothing to indicate that Hazel’s Tisrara had obvious potential as the dam of a Grade 1 star.

Now that she has achieved that feat, with a son who made €68,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale four years ago, anything is possible for this family.