THE most valuable handicap chases are highly competitive affairs and we tend to expect to see them being won by experienced campaigners.

At Fairyhouse last Monday, the Grade A BoyleSports Irish Grand National Chase went to a horse having only his seventh start over fences.

Thunder And Roses was a novice staying hurdler last season and he made his chasing debut in a two and a half mile contest at Down Royal in late October, finishing second. He was then third over a furlong and a half further at Fairyhouse, fell at that same venue in December, and won a three mile novices event there the following month.

He was beaten 20 lengths when third behind Very Wood in the Grade 2 Ten Up Novice Chase at Navan in February, and was beaten when unseating his rider at the last in the four mile novices’ event at the Cheltenham Festival, so with this record him it was no surprise to see him go off at 20/1 on Monday.

Ridden by Katie Walsh, the Sandra Hughes-trained gelding landed the spoils by four and a quarter lengths, another major winner to carry the famous Gigginstown House Stud colours, and yet another one to represent Glenview Stud’s multiple champion sire Presenting (by Mtoto).

The late Dessie Hughes secured the horse for €130,000 at the 2011 Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale, just across the road from the racetrack. The winner’s prize on Monday was €154,750.

Thunder And Roses is the sixth foal out of Glen Empress (by Lancastrian), a mare who won a two and three-quarter mile hurdle event, was placed several times over fences, and won a single point-to-point. She has been a tremendous success at stud and all five of her winning progeny have earned blacktype.

Shirley Casper is a full-sister to the newly crowned Irish Grand National winner and she was a Grade 1-placed Grade 2 scorer in bumpers before going on to Grade 3 success over hurdles at Fairyhouse. She also won over fences and in a point-to-point, and her Milan (by Sadler’s Wells) filly made €26,000 in the foal section of the Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale several months ago.

Her half-sister Oligarch Society (by Moscow Society), who won the Listed Shannon Spray Novice Hurdle at Limerick and was Grade 3-placed at Fairyhouse, also had a foal at that auction, and the Presenting colt made €48,000.

Last summer her now four-year-old son Brahma Bull (by Presenting) made €170,000 at the Derby Sale, and she also has a three-year-old son of Yeats (by Sadler’s Wells) who fetched €40,000 at the same venue, but different sale, two years ago.

Lonesome Dove (by Milan) is another half-sister to Thunder And Roses and this bumper and hurdles scorer earned her blacktype when finishing third in a mares’ novice event at Fairyhouse in 2011. Her first two foals are a son and daughter of Flemensfirth (by Alleged), now aged two and one respectively.

The other member of the Glen Empress blacktype quintet is Wrath Of Titans (by Oscar) and he, like his now famous half-brother, is also a member of the Hughes stable.

He is a €150,000 graduate of the Goffs Land Rover NH Sale, he has won a point-to-point, a bumper, and a maiden hurdle, and although only fourth at Navan on his most recent outing, he was third in a Grade 3 novice hurdle at Clonmel in February.

The mare’s only other runner, so far, is the ill-fated Sustainable Legacy (by Old Vic) who showed little in three starts.

Her five-year-old daughter Regal Empress is a full-sister to Thunder And Roses and to Shirley Casper, and her King’s Theatre (by Sadler’s Wells) four-year-old, Flemensfirth (by Alleged) two-year-old and Oscar (by Sadler’s Wells) yearling are also fillies.

The stamina of her son is hardly a surprise for not only do we know that the Presentings can stay well, but she is a daughter of the ace flat stayer Lancastrian and her siblings include the Scottish National runner-up Bishops Island (by The Parson).

If you go back another couple of generations you will find the high-class two-mile chaser Stopped (by Cracksman), with another step backwards finding the Galway Plate scorer Highfield Lad (by Flamenco) and a family branch that leads to Ten Plus (by Raise You Ten) and to the 1999 Irish Grand National runner-up Feathered Leader (by Supreme Leader).

The relationship that Thunder And Roses has to that latter star pair is sufficiently remote to be negligible, but their presence in the branches of his family show that a mixture of stamina and class has been a part of it for a long time.