RECORDS have been broken at some rip-roaring National Hunt store sales of late, but one of the most exciting deals with the potential to shake-up the jumping scene took shape away from the sales-ring spotlight last month.

Few will be watching the exciting Zia Zabel’s progress more closely than trainer Natalia Lupini and her partner Craig Bryson, who expertly prepared the Ghaiyyath colt to finish second in the Group 3 Gallinule Stakes at the Curragh before his big-money move to become a dual-purpose talent. He has also been touted as a potential National Hunt stallion down the line, given that he has not been gelded.

News that Irish Grand National-winning owner Paul Byrne had snapped up the highly-regarded three-year-old in a private deal from owner Peter Trainor made real waves across Irish racing, and it can be safely assumed that the Tattersalls Irish Guineas Festival runner-up changed hands for a pretty eye-watering sum.

Zia Zabel’s sale is just the latest advertisement of Lupini and Bryson’s talents. Without dealing with major numbers or spending vast sums, the couple have made an extremely favourable impression in the training ranks; finding and polishing diamonds including Irish Champions Festival heroine Kitty Rose, three-time Galway Festival winner Dunum and Listed Blenheim Stakes scorer Rebel Diamond (subsequently sold for 300,000gns to Wathnan Racing).

After a near miss at blacktype success with Zia Zabel, the pair went one better at last week’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby Festival when Summer Island, who had the eye-catching booking of Oisin Murphy, justified favouritism in a seven-furlong handicap. It was the three-year-old’s third win in six starts since joining the Co Down yard, improving from a mark of 59 to 80 since February.

A total of 10 victories for 2026 has left Lupini nicely poised to potentially post her best return of winners in a calendar year (her previous best was 16 in 2023, followed by 15 in 2025).

“It was fantastic for us to have a winner on a big weekend like that,” says Lupini, originally from Milan but now based in the Banbridge area. “We have in or around 36 horses, between two-year-olds, three-year-olds and some older handicappers. We have room for more horses, but we want to keep everything manageable.

“It’s hard to find staff and we prefer having quality horses over a bigger quantity of them.

“It’s been a growing operation since Craig and I started in 2022. We only had a handful of horses at the beginning, mostly our own, and we were lucky enough to sell them on and build our facilities. It built our business, really.

“We’re happy with the number and with the staff on our team. Our staff have the same ambitions as we have, and that’s what we look for when people come to us. Dynamic people and young people keen to learn and progress fit in well. We then try to be as accommodating as we can to people’s needs.”

More to come

Given we’re only at the halfway point of the year, one of the most exciting elements heading into the remainder of the season is that the Lupini yard has yet to run any of its two-year-olds. Since 2022, this place has been the source of the winners of 20 juvenile races in Ireland.

“The year has been going fairly well for us and winners on weekends like the Derby are where you always want to be,” says Bryson, whose homeplace is where the yard is situated.

“Some of the early horses who won for us this year are sold and gone. It’s exciting that none of our two-year-olds have run yet. We think we have a nice bunch of them; there’s definitely a few of them that seem to be above average. We’re happy with the rest too.”

On the recruitment of young stock, he adds: “Every year, if we can, we try to get 10 two-year-olds into the yard. You need to keep that wheel turning and we’re trying to get better horses every year. We don’t mind too much what type of horses we get, but I prefer to have the seven-furlong/middle-distance types, to be honest. Yes, the fast ones get you out early and can be good but, in the long run, those nicer horses are the way we’d like to go.”

Lupini continues: “We don’t like to run our two-year-olds overly early, but we might have our first runner at Navan next week. Most of them are for the second part of the season, so we’ll be getting them out in July, August, September and so on.”

Last January marked 10 years since Lupini saddled her first winner on these shores, and the operation has been going from strength to strength in recent seasons. Bryson, a former work rider in Ballydoyle who travelled with some of the Coolmore operation’s leading horses internationally, had long been ambitious about a training career. The alliance with Lupini has helped the pair grow together in a short space of time.

“I’m enjoying what we do,” says Bryson. “There’s plenty of hard work in it, but when myself and Natalia are doing it for ourselves, it’s a wee bit easier and more enjoyable.

“Winners like Dunum at Galway last year definitely help get us up there, they help with a bit of publicity. Even Oisin Murphy coming over and teaming up with him for a winner on Derby weekend, albeit he was over to ride for Joseph [O’Brien], it does give everyone in the yard and the owners a kick. It probably gets noticed more as well.”

Top operation

What was Bryson’s biggest learning from his years spent at Ballydoyle, with a view to their own training systems at the Lupini operation today?

“It wouldn’t be right to say there’s one thing that Aidan does right down there - he just does everything right,” he says. “The galloping, the consistency… All the little things that others might overlook, he gets them right and pays attention.

“I suppose if you could take that perspective on yourself, you try to help your horse in every way you can. Aidan doesn’t miss anything. You have to suit your operation and own horses.

“I think it was 2009 when I went there. My cousin, Steven Crawford, was working down there, and I was tipping around doing other things at the time; lorries, tractors, farming and machinery. I decided to go back to horses and gave him a call - that’s how I got in. Steven is a very good horseman in his own right.”

Lupini, who comes from a family without any interest in horses but followed European and American racing while in her native Italy, insists the stable’s Ulster base is in fact more accessible than you may suspect.

“We’re actually not in a bad location at all, just a mile off the main Dublin to Belfast road,” she says.

“It’s very handy for us to travel, and for the owners to come and visit us. We jump in the two-box to go galloping, to go racing - it’s pretty handy on the main road. Dundalk is our local track and Down Royal is close too; it’s basically 20 minutes each side. The Curragh is two hours away. Provided traffic is good, we have quite a smooth journey wherever we’re going.”

A 19% strike rate for the yard so far in 2026 makes for smart reading in any case. Their emphasis placed on trading the business’ best stock makes it even more striking as a statistic.

It is no surprise that many of Lupini’s 22 Irish maiden winners since 2022 have been sold to continue their careers for new connections,

“Trading horses is a necessity,” Bryson says, matter-of-factly.

“Especially for a yard like ours or a yard coming up, you have to trade. Don’t get me wrong, of course, you’d love to keep some of them and showcase your talents in better races. But at the end of the day, if you’re getting good throws of money and making profit, you can’t stand in the way of it.

“If an owner down the line comes to us with some horses for training, that’s perfect too, but the majority of ours will be for sale at some stage. It will be an interest for some owners to get a return on their investment too.

Key support

“We have plenty of good local supporters, who send us horses every year, and we’ve broadened that out a bit too. We have owners from across Ireland. The likes of Peter Trainor have been a very important backer of the yard and we’re very grateful for his support. He sends us plenty of nice types.”

Lupini adds: “The way our business is set up is to sell. We love to produce horses at two and three to sell on, but when you come across one like Zia Zabel, you’d obviously really like to keep them in the yard.

“It’s always kind of a heartbreaking sale with one like him, because he’s got all that quality and potential to compete at group level. That’s where we actually want to compete. We hope owners keep them with us, but we understand owners have their own business to keep in mind.

“We have great owners in our yard, though. Peter will hopefully invest in some more yearlings and we’ll continue to work together. Hopefully one of them turns out to be as good as Zia Zabel.”

The next chapter in the Gallinule second’s career will be highly intriguing to watch, now in the care of Emmet Mullins. The colt’s form has only been enhanced since changing hands too. His Curragh conqueror Causeway, trained by Aidan O’Brien, continued his rampant run when registering Royal Ascot honours in the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes a fortnight ago.

“Peter bought him in Book 1 [of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale for 100,000gns], the horse was pre-trained in England and then he decided to give us a chance to train him,” Lupini explains.

“He came to us in January 2025 and always showed us great potential. He was a very big two-year-old, so had a couple of runs late in the season before a break to let him fill out properly. He had every quality that a good horse should have; scope, size and a great mind towards his work and racing. It was a pleasure to train him and we’re delighted Peter gave us the chance to train for him.”

Despite being rated just 88 and thought to be on an attractive mark to win a handicap after his Cork win in April, Lupini rolled the dice in Group 3 company and very nearly pulled off the upset.

“Sometimes in a race like that, you wonder if you’re entitled to be running of that quality, but he showed us so much potential that we felt we needed to give him a chance. He didn’t let us down and Causeway is obviously highly rated by Aidan,” she says.

Improvement expected

Bryson adds: “I think he could be anything. Going to the Gallinule, I thought he had a chance of running very well and that running in a race like that would improve him again. When horses can run in a better race like that and take it well, it steps them forward. You see that with horses of Aidan’s who run in trials and then jump forward to win classics and Group 1s. They have to run at that level to bring them forward.

“This horse has a great constitution too. He can take his runs and races, and you can keep training him. Hopefully he can do what they want him to do. I think they have a nice horse on their hands.”

How might the extremely early 10/1 second favourite for the Triumph Hurdle take to the discipline of hurdling?

“He has the scope and size to adapt, and I don’t think he’ll mind a cut in the ground either,” notes Lupini. “Hopefully he’ll have lots of success for his new connections. He’s been one of the most successful horses we’ve had in the yard - sale-wise and on the track as well.”

The days in the lead-up to finalising the private deal must have been bordering on box office for those at the heart of negotiations.

“It would have been more exciting to win the race!” quips Bryson. “But we were delighted and everyone gets a thrill out of it. Shane Hassett, who was in Ballydoyle at the same time I was there, probably rode the horse 95% of the time he was here, so he got as much of a buzz out of it as anyone.

“If you get those results, going out and taking on Ballydoyle, Joseph O’Brien and all the rest of them on a big weekend, everyone is proud of what they’ve done. It’s fantastic to come across a good horse. They’re hard to find, hard to place, but getting the result and showing you can produce them into those good races means a lot.”

Family involvement

Sharing those successes right alongside your partner only adds to the satisfaction.

“It’s pretty much horses all the time, but it’s good to have someone to share those interests with,” Lupini says. “It’s been working well so far and we’ve got a great team of staff in the yard.”

Bryson adds: “Myself and Natalia get our own space away from it too, as much as we can, but a lot of the day is horses. Then the next majority of the day is the young lad!”

The arrival of two-and-a-half-year-old Timmy has added a new dynamic for the pair, though the early signs are that he won’t be straying too far from the family business any time soon.

“He’s starting to get a bit of interest in what’s happening. When he sees the jockeys weighing out, he’s always around what’s going on in the weighing room! We’ve got him a little pony as well,” says Lupini.

“It can be pretty hard balancing everything, but we have plenty of great help. My parents and Craig’s parents are huge for us; they help us a lot and without them we’d be lost. My parents travel back and forth, they come to help us during the busiest time of the season.”

That allows the astute horse people to maintain their focus in a training landscape that is one of the most demanding anywhere in the world.

“You have to be all in - this country is so competitive,” Bryson sums it up. “There’s any amount of good trainers, everywhere you look.”

With a steady string of impressive results in terms of winners and trading, Lupini and Bryson very much find themselves in that same category of yards to be taken extremely seriously.

The future is bright for the talented duo, just as it is for their most exciting young graduate. A fascinating National Hunt chapter lies in store.

IN just a few weeks’ time, the Gilford-based team will take aim at the top operations once more when seven-time winner Dunum returns to Ballybrit for another tilt at some of the Galway Festival’s biggest handicaps.

At the age of eight, he has yet to be seen this season, though he is only 4lb higher than when winning the Colm Quinn BMW Mile in 2025 (also finished third in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Ahonoora Handicap last year).

“Dunum is in great form,” says Lupini. “Being an older horse, we’re trying to mind him and aim him at the races at tracks he likes. He enjoys a cut in the ground, so we’re not overly panicking with him. We had been hoping to get a couple of runs into him, but the ground has been pretty quick for the races we had in mind and we’ve had to miss them.

“We’re getting him ready for Galway again and we’re happy with him. He’s going to a place he loves. He’s won two premier handicaps down there and the plan is to run in both the Mile and the Ahonoora. We’re looking forward to it. He’s happy in himself. To be honest, he looks great for an eight-year-old.”

She adds: “It’s brilliant for the owners, the yard and everyone working here to have a horse who you feel brings everyone together. He’s the type of horse the crowds begin to know at a place like Galway. To come back and win the Mile last year, it’s so nice to have a horse who is liked by the public. He feels well supported there.”

When Lupini and Bryson clearly have an eye for spotting young talent, and the operation always has an eye on the future, it only feels fitting to wrap up proceedings with a name to note for the future.

Who might be the next star to emerge from Co Down?

“We think we have a nice two-year-old filly by Starspangledbanner called Miss Cashman Hooke,” says Lupini.

“She hasn’t run yet, but we think she has nice ability and is fast. The plan is to give her a couple of runs in maidens and hopefully aim for the Ingabelle Stakes at the Irish Champions Festival.

“We’ve been lucky in that race before and we usually like to aim one for there when they have the ability for it. She’s been working like an above-average filly, so we hope she can translate that to the track.”

As for Bryson, he notes: “Miss Cashman Hooke seems to be a very smart filly, she’s definitely one to note. We’ve also got a nice Wootton Bassett colt out of Oblong Song, not named yet, and he’ll hopefully run later in the season.

“He could be a very smart horse. I think he’ll mature into a real nice three-year-old and he does everything very well. He isn’t one for the next three weeks, but we like him plenty.”