ITBA AWARDS: Red carpet rolled out for industry 'Oscars' 31 January 2020 Premium

CLOSE to 400 people attended the ITBA National Breeding and Racing Awards in The Heritage Hotel in Killenard, Co Laois on Saturday night.

Known as ‘the Oscars of the industry’, this awards night attracts breeders from all over the country and several local politicians were also in attendance, including TDs Martin Heydon, Sean Ó Fearghaill and Fiona O’Loughlin, and Senators Ian Marshall and Paul Daly.

Earlier in the day Paisley Park had extended his unbeaten run at Cheltenham and it was fitting that his breeder Micheál Conaghan of Evergreen Stud in Co Limerick was honoured. Now on a seven-race winning streak, the Oscar gelding was named Hurdler of the year.

J.P. McManus was the big winner on the night (see panel) and his promising filly Gypsy Island was named Young National Hunt Horse of the season. Trained by Peter Fahey, Gypsy Island won four bumpers but will miss all of this season through injury. Footage of her defeating Minella Melody with ease served as a reminder of how good she was, given the runner-up’s impressive Grade 3 win hurdles win last Saturday at Fairyhouse.

Next generation

For the first time the Next Generation wing of the ITBA sponsored and presented an award. Each year this award will go to a young person who has made a big impression in the business and the first recipient was Joanne Lavery.

Joanne Lavery

A graduate of the ITBA apprenticeship scheme, Joanne bought Lady Kaya as a foal and, when the filly was forced to miss the yearling sales, Joanne was brave enough to put her in training. Lady Kaya went on to be Group 1-placed as a juvenile, won a Group 3 on her three-year-old debut and was runner-up in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket before tragedy struck on the gallops as she was being prepared for Royal Ascot.

Ken Parkhill from Castletown, Co Meath, is no stranger to the stage at this event and his latest award winner is City Island, who won the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. Martin Brassil’s star has failed to shine over fences this season and could revert to hurdles at Cheltenham next month.

Another horse who will be on a recovery mission at Cheltenham is Gold Cup hope Lostintranslation. Winner of the Grade 1 Mildmay Novices’ Chase at Aintree last April and very impressive in the Betfair Chase this season, he won the Novice Chaser award for Andrew Kavanagh of Borris House. Andrew’s son Morgan accepted the award.

Fourth award

Based in nearby Portarlington, Paddy Behan could almost have walked to The Heritage to collect a remarkable fourth award as the breeder of Altior. Named Chaser of the year, the 10-year-old has won 20 of his 23 lifetime starts and, despite having his winning sequence ended this season, he is probably not finished winning big races just yet.

Paddy and Rose Behan

The Kildangan Stud table did not have far to travel either and their contingent included Jimmy Hyland who represented Godolphin, breeders of champion juvenile colt Pinatubo. Winner of all six of his starts last season, the homebred son of Shamardal had been crowned European champion just days before receiving this latest accolade.

Irish breeding also produced Europe’s champion juvenile filly of 2019, the Jessica Harrington-trained Millisle. Bred by the Jennings family’s Stonethorn Stud Farm, Millisle won the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket and Thomas Jennings was on hand to accept the award here.

There were two three-year-old filly awards – one for Iridessa and one for Search For A Song. Bred by Aidan and Annemarie O’Brien, Iridessa was trained by their son Joseph to win three races at the top level last season – the Pretty Polly Stakes, the Matron Stakes and the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf.

Ana, Aidan and Sarah O'Brien

Search For A Song gave all connected with Moyglare Stud a special day when she won the Irish St Leger and Eva Maria Bucher Haefner travelled from Switzerland especially to pick up the award. Pat Smullen, Dermot Weld and Chris Hayes, who rode the filly at the Curragh, were among Moyglare’s guests.

It was a good week for Timmy Hyde Snr of Camas Park Stud. He sold the top lot at the Goffs UK January Sale and picked up the Three-Year-Old Colt award as breeder of Ten Sovereigns. Timmy was joined on stage by his daughter-in-law Carolyn Hyde and Charles Shanahan, representing co-breeders Lynch Bages and Summerhill. Trained by Aidan O’Brien, the No Nay Never colt won the July Cup at Newmarket.

AWARD WINNERS

Next Generation: JOANNE LAVERY