FOOTPAD, the hugely impressive winner of the Grade 1 Racing Post Novice Chase at Leopardstown on Tuesday is from a family that is very successful, but more generally known for producing leading flat runners.

That said, Footpad (Creachadoir) and his siblings have made their mark jumping, something that was unlikely to have been envisaged when their dam Willamina was born. She was bred by the Wertheimer brothers and is a daughter of Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) and the Alleged (Hoist The Flag) mare Animatrice. The latter was a very smart racemare, winning the Group 2 Prix de Malleret among others, and she was placed in the Group 1 Epsom Oaks.

Willamina did not possess the same talent as her dam on the racecourse, finally winning a minor race at four. She had seven foals, five winners and four of them earned some blacktype. All of the blacktype they did gather was over jumps. Footpad is the best of her runners, followed by Wanaba (Anabaa) who won a listed race at Auteuil as a four-year-old, Organisateur (Highest Honor) who was runner-up in both the Virginia Gold Cup Timber Chase and the Grand National Hurdle in the USA, and finally Wild Mania (King’s Best) who was placed in a listed chase as a three-year-old in France.

Bred by Louise and Camille Collet, Footpad is now a triple Grade 1 winner, landing the Champion Four-Year-Old Hurdle in France in addition to the Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown. He was runner-up in the Grade 1 BHP Insurances Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown earlier this year and placed in the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham last year.

Willamina is an own-sister to Sadler’s Flag (Sadler’s Wells) and she won the mile and a half Group 3 Prix de Royaumont at Chantilly as a three-year-old and was runner-up in a pair of Group 2s the same year. Additionally, three of Willamina’s siblings have produced a stakes winner at stud. Cioccalanio (Fappiano) bred the Australian stakes winner Bondi Iceberg (Danehill); Alymatrice (Alysheba) bred the French Group 3 winner Bailador (Alzao); while Abyla (Rock Of Gibraltar) got the Japanese Group 3 winner Jebel Musa (Agnes Tachyon).

Footpad’s grandam Anamatrice is a half-sister to four stakes winners, three of them by Rainbow Quest (Blushing Groom) and the other by Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer). The latter was Poliglote and he has been the most successful runner among them. As a juvenile he won the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud and the following year he was runner-up in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club, the French Derby.

As a sire his best runner on the flat was the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Solemia, while Don Poli is the best of a large number of high-class winners he got under National Hunt rules.

The three stakes-winning sons of Rainbow Quest were the Group 3 Royal Whip Stakes winner King Alex, the Group 3 Gordon Stakes winner Alexius, and the Japanese stakes winner Admire Kaiser.

Anamatrice is a daughter of Alexandrie (Vale De L’Orne) and she was a Group 3 winner in France. Her five stakes winners are mentioned above, while she bred a further eight winners, making it 13 in all. This was from 17 foals, all bar one of which raced. Her other daughters include Anamatrice’s full-sister Star Begonia who was placed in the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot and bred a winner at the same venue, the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes winner Five Dynasties (Danehill).

Another daughter of Alexandrie was Ring Beaume (Bering) and she produced a pair of stakes winners, notably Special Ring (Nureyev). He was a minor listed winner in France but blossomed when he went to America and won back-to-back versions of the Grade 1 Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar. Ring Beaume wasn’t the only daughter of Alexandrie to breed a Group 1 winner. Via Saleri (Arazi) is dam of I’m Your Man (Cape Cross) who won the Epsom Handicap at Randwick in Australia, and she is also responsible for the Grade 2 novice chase winner Hoo La Baloo (Unfuwain).

Go back one more generation and the Group 1 winners keep coming. Alexandrie’s half-brother Antheus (Northern Dancer) won the Group 3 Gran Premio del Jockey Club in Italy and then went to stud in France. Another Italian Group 1 winner is the 2016 Premio Vittorio di Capua heroine Waikika (Whipper), while the former Irish National Stud and Glenview Stud resident Indian Danehill (Danehill) appears in the family. He is the sire of the 2015 Galway Plate winner Shanahan’s Turn.

Creachadoir (King’s Best) won the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes and was runner-up in both the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas and the French equivalent. He was bred by Frank Dunne and trained for the early part of his career by Jim Bolger, owned by the Bolgers and John Corcoran. He then transferred to Godolphin and was trained for his career best performance by Saeed bin Suroor.

Originally a member of the Darley stallion team, he moved in 2015 to Haras de Lonray. The five-year-old Footpad is from his second crop and easily his best produce under both codes. Creachadoir is a half-brother to Group 1 winner and sire Youmzain (Sinndar).