ROBERT Hennelly will have derived additional pleasure from the recent Punchestown bumper success of his now six-year-old mare Moyhenna. The daughter of Westerner (Danehill) is the first foal, runner and now winner for Robert’s smart racemare Moskova. That daughter of Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells) raced on the flat for Lady O’Reilly before changing ownership and she thrived when running in Robert’s colours.

Lady O’Reilly gave €42,000 for Moskova as a yearling and the filly was placed five times for her as a three-year-old when trained by Declan Gillespie. She was then traded on to trainer Paul Nolan at Goffs for €55,000 and this was a wise buy as she went on to win nine times and earn some four times her purchase price. A single flat win, three hurdle wins and five chases included three Grade 3 races over fences, in addition to being placed in a couple of Grade 2 hurdle races.

Hennelly attempted to sell Moskova as a six-year-old but retained her instead for 125,000gns. Moyhenna is her first foal and she has made five starts in bumpers and over hurdles to date, finishing in the first four on all occasions. She is followed by an unraced five-year-old half-sister named Moskovite (Flemensfirth) and that mare’s four-year-old un-named own-sister. They are the mare’s only recorded offspring to date.

Moskova is a half-sister to two winners and the best of that pair is Lakil Princess (Bering) who won three hurdle races and two chases. She was also placed a number of times in decent chases, notably two Grade 2 races at Naas and Gowran Park. While she may have failed to win a blacktype race, she has gone on to breed a daughter who did so. Lastbutnotleast (Flemensfirth) has visited the winners’ enclosure six times between point-to-points, bumpers, hurdle races and chases and that valuable stakes win came in the Listed Doncaster Mares’ Novice Hurdle in 2017.

This is a female line that mixes producing high-class runners on the flat and over jumps with ease.

Russian Rebel (Machiavellian), the unraced dam of Moskova, is a full-sister to the listed flat winner Queen Catherine. She in turn is the dam of the Group 1 Italian Oaks runner-up and Group 3 winner Lady Catherine (Bering), and grandam of the 2015 Group 2 and Royal Ascot winner Illuminate (Zoffany), who was runner-up in the Group 1 Connolly’s Red Mills Cheveley Park Stakes.

Yet another full-sister to Russian Rebel is the winner Rossiya and she was sent to Australia where her offspring are headed by the Group 3 winner Girl In Flight (Commands).

Russian Rebel’s half-sister Princess Sofia (Pennekamp) won five times and she is best known at stud as the dam of Prince Gibraltar (Rock Of Gibraltar). He stands at Haras de Montaigu and his first crop have just in the last week become yearlings. He won the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud at two and as a four-year-old added the Group 1 Longines Grosser Preis von Baden to his tally.

Westerner is a five-time Group 1 winner and his fee for 2018 has been set at €6,000. Part of the impressive Coolmore National Hunt stallion roster, he is sire of Grade 1 winners Cole Harden (World Hurdle), Gilgamboa (Ryanair Gold Cup Novice Chase), Western Warhorse (Arkle Chase) and Captain Cutter.