LAST weekend’s feast of top-class National Hunt racing featured some of the most highly-rated and exciting horses in training, and it also revealed some young up-and-coming individuals who could take their place among the stars later in the season.

Shantou Village is one of the latter and the Neil Mulholland-trained gelding extended his unbeaten record with a 15-length score in the Grade 2 Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle (registered as the Hyde Novices’ Hurdle) over two miles, five furlongs at Cheltenham on Friday week.

Bred by Mary Griffin, who sold him for €6,500 in Goffs as a foal, he returned to that venue two and a half years later and made €27,000 at the Goffs Land Rover NH Sale.

When Mulholland secured him for £80,000 at last year’s Cheltenham November Sale it was three weeks after his winning debut in a point-to-point at Loughanmore, and his debut under National Hunt rules came four months later when he justified favouritism in a Wetherby bumper.

The only other time that Shantou Village has raced is his 19-length winning debut over hurdles at Carlisle last month, and although he had just three rivals at Cheltenham there is every reason to hope that this talented five-year-old could go all the way to the top.

As his name suggests, he is a son of the Group 1 St Leger winner and Burgage Stud stallion Shantou (by Alleged), and that stallion completed a big-race double last weekend when Shantou Flyer won the Grade 2 Florida Pearl Novice Chase at Punchestown last Sunday.

In addition to his long list of talented National Hunt horses, Shantou’s progeny also include the Group 1 Prix Vermeille winner Sweet Stream, and in Shantou Village he has a son who is the direct descendant of a classic-placed filly.

The first foal out of an unraced mare called Village Queen (by King’s Theatre), last week’s Grade 2 scorer has a four-year-old full-brother named Bun Doran, and that Tom George-trained gelding, who easily won a point-to-point at Necarne in May, made a winning debut in a Chepstow bumper 17 days ago.

Griffin got €7,200 for him as a foal, also in Goffs, and he joined his current connections after making £76,000 at the Brightwells Cheltenham Premier NH Sale 12 days after his success between the flags.

The mare’s third foal is a three-year-old gelding that made €53,000 at the Goffs Land Rover Sale in June, and her only other registered produce is her Shantou colt foal that was born in early May of this year.

Village Queen is a half-sister to the Grade 1-placed hurdler In The Forge (by Zilzal) and her unraced dam Harir (by Kris) has 11 winning siblings, including the Group 3 Sagaro Stakes runner-up Shaya (by Nashwan) and the Group 3 Prestige Stakes third Elshamms (by Zafonic).

The latter is, in turn, responsible for 10 winners, one of whom is the stakes-winning sprinter Taqseem (by Fantastic Light), and producing at least one blacktype scorer at stud is a feat that five of Harir’s other siblings have also achieved.

Asaleeb (by Alhaarth) is the dam of the South African Group 2 heroine Tajmeel (by Nadeem), and Niyabah (by Nashwan) has been represented by Group 3 winner Croc Valley (by Western Winter) and listed scorer Galileo’s Night (by Galileo) in that country.

Naazeq (by Nashwan) has given us the Grade 1-placed US stakes winner Tamweel (by Gulch), and is the grandam of the talented sprinter Ghost Is Clear (by Ghostzapper) and of the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes third Lottie Dod (by Invincible Spirit), while Mamma Morton’s (by Elnadim) successful progeny include the Listed Rose Bowl Stakes winner Master Of War (by Compton Place), a colt who was runner-up in the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes and in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes.

The talent of these horses is in line with what you might expect of descendants of Gharam (by Green Dancer), third dam of Shantou Village and the filly who took third in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (French 1000 Guineas) and in the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes of 1990.

A half-sister to the US Grade 1 scorer Talinum (by Alydar), and daughter of the US Grade 3 winner Water Lily (by Riverman), Gharam is also a half-sister to Noble Lily (by Vaguely Noble), dam of the classic-placed pattern scorer Simeon (by Lammtarra) and the mare from whom pattern winners such as Noble Rose (by Caerleon), Notability (by King’s Best) and Simon De Montfort (by King’s Best) descend.

There is even a Group 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas winner in a branch of the family.

Despite the strong flat orientation of much of the pedigree, Shantou Village is not its first major winner under National Hunt rules, and that is because Harir’s blacktype-producing siblings also include Fatina (by Nashwan), dam of 2011’s Grade A Dan Moore Memorial Chase hero Idarah (by Aljabr).

Time will tell us just how good Shantou Village will be when he reaches his peak, but as an unbeaten Grade 2 scorer whose wins over hurdles have been by an aggregate margin of 34 lengths, he is clearly an exciting prospect.