TWENTY years ago John Oxx was champion trainer in Ireland, with 99 winners at home and more abroad. This also ensured that Johnny Murtagh was crowned the champion jockey. It was a notable year too for the Currabeg handler as he won Group or Grade 1 races in four countries with the brilliant Ridgewood Pearl, owned by Sean and Anne Coughlan.

That year he also trained Timarida and her haul of group races did not include a Group 1, but it did include three races that are now elevated to the top tier. She annexed the Trusted Partner Matron Stakes in mid-September and then, in a glorious fortnight in October won the Prix de l’Opera and the E P Taylor Stakes.

Other group winners that year were Shemaran (Gallinule and Royal Whip Stakes), Hushang (a Group 2 in Germany), Aylesbury (Killavullan Stakes) and Russian Snows. The latter is the further focus of this piece.

A daughter of Sadler’s Wells and racing for Sheikh Mohammed, Russian Snows gained her biggest success at the end of September when she won the Group 2 Prix de Royallieu with Michael Kinane in the saddle. She had earlier finished best of the Sheikh’s three runners in the Kildangan Stud Irish Oaks when chasing home Pure Grain in the summer classic at the Curragh.

A magnificently-bred filly, her dam Arctique Royale having won the Irish 1000 Guineas, Russian Snows enjoyed moderate success at stud – moderate only by the highest standards set by many other family members. She bred the French stakes-winning gelding Buckwheat (by Manduro) and stakes-placed daughters by Dalakhani, Dubai Destination, Darshaan and Pivotal.

Russian Snows traces back to the 200gns yearling purchase Arctic Melody, a daughter of leading National Hunt sire Arctic Slave, who established one of the stud book’s great families. Her story was told in this column in The Irish Field on August 22nd.