ARDROSS (by Run The Gantlet) was one of the greatest stayers of all times and in addition to a string of talented performers on the flat and under National Hunt rules, he also gave us several successful stallion sons, two of whom were represented by winners at Kempton on Saturday.
Ericht, who won the two miles, four and a half furlong handicap chase, is by the 1995 Grade 1 Champion Hurdle hero Alderbrook, while the horse who won the Grade 2 BetBright Best For Festival Betting Pendil Novices’ Chase, over the same distance, is a son of Karinga Bay.
A five-times Group 3 scorer from eight to 12 furlongs, Karinga Bay was standing at Mickley Stud when he died at the age of 20, and like last year’s undefeated Grade 1 Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Coneygree, Killala Quay comes from his final crop.
That Charlie Longsdon-trained nine-year-old, who was rated 136 over fences before this latest success, has mountains to climb to reach the 172 on which Coneygree sits, but he has ability and a listed handicap chase entry at the Cheltenham Festival.
Killala Quay was bred by Nigel Franklin and he is the first foal out of Madam Bijou (by Atraf), an unraced sprint-bred mare whose most famous relation was a mile Group 1 star.
Her Tom Tate-trained four-year-old Ellerslie Joe (by Captain Gerrard) ran well below market expectations on his debut in a Southwell bumper on Sunday, her fifth foal is a Phoenix Reach (by Alhaarth) filly born three years ago, and she had a Multiplex (by Danehill) colt last May.
Madame Bijou is out of the unplaced Madame Sisu (by Emarati) and that makes her a half-sister to three multiple sprint winners, one of whom is the stakes-placed gelding Treasure Cay (by Bahamian Bounty).
Their dam About Face (by Midyan) was unraced, as were Killala Quay’s fourth dam Pushkar (by Northfields) and fifth dam Chippings (by Busted), and although that may sound unpromising, there are several blacktype horses within these generations, including the afore mentioned Group 1 star.
About face
About Face was one of only two of her dam’s 11 offspring not to race and her eight winning siblings included the Long Walk Hurdle winner Hebridean (by Norwick), the Grade 1 Oak Tree Invitational Handicap runner-up Eradicate (by Tender King), and the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes hero Bijou D’Inde (by Cadeaux Genereux).
He also won the Group 3 Futurity Stakes at the Curragh, he was a neck runner-up to Halling in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes, third behind that same star in the Group 1 Juddmonte International Stakes at York, and third in a three-way photo with Mark Of Esteem and Even Top in the Group 1 2000 Guineas, the trio pulling six lengths clear of fourth-placed Alhaarth.
Pushkar’s only two siblings were winners and one of them was Red Chip (by Red God), a pattern-placed listed nursery winner as a juvenile in 1978 and later successful in the Group 3 Brownstown Stakes at the Curragh.
It is fair to say that right now Killala Quay appears to represent a weak branch of a family that got some high-class performers in the past, but as he is his dam’s first foal it could be that some of that strength of old has been rediscovered.