WHEN Colreevy won the Grade 1 Champion Bumper at Punchestown on Wednesday, she was one of just a pair of mares in the 10-runner field. She was the second of her sex to win the race in three years, the ill-fated Fayronagh landing the spoils, again for Jamie Codd, two years earlier.

Colreevy joins Apple’s Jade and La Bague Au Roi as the three mares in Ireland this National Hunt season to land a Grade 1 in open company; Honeysuckle won a Grade 1 for mares only at Fairyhouse last month.

Today at Punchestown five mares will compete for just the second Grade 1 race confined to mares only in our calendar.

The debate about whether we should keep developing a programme, including one of excellence, for fillies and mares will never fully go away, but the need to keep doing it is, for me, an imperative. In the current season, which comes to a close today at Punchestown, fillies and mares continue to make progress and an impact.

Omitting yesterday’s results, 28 individual fillies and mares have been successful in 41 blacktype races this season, a notable achievement and one that has a positive influence on their future careers as broodmares. Significantly, 17 of these wins were against geldings, a 41% win rate.

PUNCHESTOWN SALE

Three of the eight lots to make €100,000 or more at the Punchestown Sale this week were mares, and only five members of that sex were offered. When it comes to performance, owners and trainers are realising that a good mare can win plenty of money, and they also have a post racing value too.

Certainly, the fact remains that for many breeders a filly foal is a disappointment, but this can have more to do with some persevering with moderate or poor pedigrees. Your mare should be well enough bred and related to be able to sustain a filly foal.

One thing is certain – the bias against fillies is lessening; I only wish the pace of change would speed up. It is moving in a positive way and participation by fillies and mares is growing. I commend Lee Mottershead, writing about the situation in Britain, who summed up what I have said many times.

“It is imperative for jumping’s future that people want to breed mares, buy mares, own mares and train mares. The joined-up mission to make all that happen is paying dividends.”

Now it is time for owners to press their trainers and advisors to take a look at the mares on offer this spring, and realise the lucrative programmes of races that they can compete for. Buying a store can be an investment in the future rather than a punt.