FINE Rightly took his record over fences to three wins from five starts when justifying favouritism in the Grade C Foxrock Handicap Chase over two and a half miles at Navan on Sunday. Runner-up in his first two starts over the larger obstacles, and winner of a Grade 3 contest for novices at Naas in March, he was unplaced over hurdles on his return to action last month, a Grade 2 bumper winner at Navan two years ago, and he looks like a horse who has a bright future.

It will be interesting to see how highly in the rankings Patricia Duffin’s homebred seven-year-old can go and it will also be interesting to see how far he will stay.

Fine Rightly is a son of the Shade Oak Stud stallion Alflora (by Niniski), making him one of many National Hunt graded winners to represent the Nijinsky (by Northern Dancer) sire line.

Alflora’s best include Wishfull Thinking, Farmer Jack, What A Friend, Wayward Prince, Hand Inn Hand, Amaretto Rose, and Central House, and having already been rated 140 before his latest success, he could take high rank among that roll of honour before long.

Fine Rightly is out of Bealtaine (by Zaffaran), a thrice-raced mare who was third in a Navan bumper, won at Musselburgh, and then finished fourth at Downpatrick on her only outing over hurdles.

Her daughter Aibrean (by Winged Love) earned some valuable blacktype when finishing a well-beaten third behind Eduard in a two and a half mile Grade 2 novice chase at Ayr last year, and her four wins under National Hunt rules include a three-mile handicap hurdle at that same venue.

Aibrean also won a point-to-point and her stamina was no surprise given the exploits of her dam’s full-brother Another Rum.

Staying is something that the Zaffarans (by Assert) often did quite well, and a few weeks after his seven-length score in the four-mile novice chase at Cheltenham, Another Rum finished third behind Joes Edge in the Grade 3 Scottish Grand National.

Sharp Fashion

Sharp Fashion VII (by Bustineto), the grandam of Fine Rightly, was out of a placed mare called Cloughan Lady (by Baragoi), and in addition to being a half-sister to the high-class hurdler Barton (by Prominer) and to the Yorkshire Chase winner Get Out Of Me Way (by Raise You Ten), she was also a half-sister to Garravogue (by Giolla Mear).

That mare was unraced and her son Whatever You Like (by Deep Run) was runner-up in the Grand Annual Challenge Chase at Cheltenham, but she was also the dam of the prolific and top-class Katabatic (by Strong Gale) whose 17 wins over fences featured the Queen Mother Champion Chase, the Melling Chase, and the Castleford Chase.

If you go back another generation you find that Fashion’s Frill (by Black Tarquin), the point-to-point winning fourth dam of Fine Rightly, was a half-sister to the dual Irish Grand National runner-up Height O’Fashion (by Artist’s Son), a multiple blacktype scorer whose four wins on the flat included the Irish Cesarewitch Handicap at the Curragh, and whose 14 over fences included two editions of a valuable chase at Punchestown.

This is a family that has a long history of producing high-class chasers, some of whom stayed marathon trips, and Fine Rightly looks one to note for the future.