THE irrepressible rise up the racing ranks of Airlie Beach is one of the most heart-warming tales in racing. The six-year-old daughter of Shantou is now unbeaten in seven starts, but her racing career had to be put on hold when an encounter with a then two-year-old colt resulted in an unexpected pregnancy!

This happened when Airlie Beach herself was just two and the colt with which she enjoyed the liaison, a son of Enrique that had been purchased as a yearling by Harold Kirk to join Willie Mullins, was subsequently gelded and named Miguel Angel. He made his own racecourse debut this year and in five starts has accounted for a maiden hurdle at Tramore and a placed effort at Ballinrobe.

Meanwhile, the dam of the now three-year-old son of Miguel Angel is climbing the ladder of success. Airlie Beach won her only start last year, a bumper at Kilbeggan, and she showed her affection for the midlands track when she followed up with a near nine-length win in a maiden hurdle and a 23-length demolition of two opponents in a novice hurdle.

Victory number four came at Galway and then Willie Mullins didn’t have far to travel with her when she tackled blacktype company for the first time, winning a listed race at Gowran Park. Plans were put in place to try to win the Grade 3 hurdle at Down Royal last month, which she duly did but in a manner that showed her battling qualities and many may have felt that this would be the pinnacle.

No one told Airlie Beach however that she had not stopped improving and at the weekend she won her first Grade 1, the Bar One Racing Royal Bond Hurdle at Fairyhouse. She races for the Supreme Horse Racing Club and K Sharp.

In addition to training the mare, Willie Mullins can also be happy with the fact that Airlie Beach was bred by his wife Jackie and she still owns the dam Screaming Witness. That daughter of Shernazar provided Patrick Mullins with his introduction to race riding back in 2005 and on their second outing finished fourth, and in the money, behind the smart Chomba Womba in a Punchestown bumper.

They were the only runs for Screaming Witness but her lack of a victory on the racecourse has been well compensated for at stud and her first four foals are all winners. The bumper and hurdle winner Dr Machini (by Dr Massini) started the ball rolling and she is now at stud where her first produce is a yearling filly by Famous Name.

She was followed by the Heron Island gelding Valerian Bridge, who was unbeaten in three bumpers for the Mullins yard back in 2014.

Airlie Beach is now the best of the winners from Screaming Witness and she may not be the only blacktype winner as her year younger Darsi half-sister Screaming Rose is knocking at the door of such a victory, having won a pair of bumpers, a hurdle race and been runner-up on her last two starts in listed hurdle races.

There are three younger produce in the wings – a four-year-old daughter of Mahler, a three-year-old filly named Irish Lass by Getaway, and it will be no surprise to learn that the Mullins family have a full-brother to Airlie Beach born this year. The sire, Shantou, stands not far away at Victor Connolly’s Burgage Stud. This year Screaming Witness visited Milan.

Screaming Witness is a half-sister to a couple of minor winners, but there is added success in the family thanks to her unraced Phardante half-sister Lenmore Lisa. She bred two smart performers in the Haydock Grand National Trial Chase third Lord Ba (by Craigsteel) and the ultra-smart Carroll Horse mare Our Girl Salley. Racing for Ann O’Neill and trained by Prunella Dobbs, that John Salley-bred mare won the Grade 3 ITBA Fillies Scheme Mares Hurdle at Leopardstown and a pair of listed races.

The grandam of Screaming Witness is Vieille Phoebe, a daughter of a sire called Gag, and her only success was is a listed hurdle race at Auteuil. She bred a pair of blacktype winners in France, Heliophanie (by Carmarthen) over fences and La Tarasque (by Labus) over hurdles. She is also grandam of the Nikos gelding Sphinx Du Berlais who won about £340,000 in France over jumps and three times in listed races.