TINAHELY
4yo maiden
RAPID ESCAPE (IRE)
4yo ch g Doyen - Kenzie (Presenting)
The Pat Doyle-trained Amber Gambler was responsible for providing Rapid Escape’s sire Doyen with his only previous successes between the flags in Ireland when making a winning debut in a four-year-old maiden in November 2014, before following that success up in winners’ company at Belharbour last season.
The Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum-bred 2004 Group 1 King George-winning son of Sadler’s Wells stands at Sunnyhill Stud and has bred high-class track winners such as Kumbeshwar, Valdez and Dandridge.
The Stephen Dowling-bred Rapid Escape was bought by Aidan O’Ryan for €46,000 at the Land Rover Sale and is out of an unraced Presenting mare who is a half-sister to Nicky Henderson’s Listed Ladbroke Hurdle victor Chauvinist. Rapid Escape is her seventh foal to date, with her third foal, Nicolas Chauvin, a son of Saffron Walden, the pick of her progeny so far having won three times for Nicky Henderson.
CRAGMORE
4yo maiden
THE BIG LENSE (IRE)
4yo b g Court Cave - Megans Joy (Supreme Leader)
The Big Lense proved to be winner number 49 in Irish point-to-points for the Boardsmill Stud-based stallion Court Cave and his 12th within the four-year-old maiden division. A €24,000 purchase as a store at the Tattersalls Ireland August Sale, the bay gelding is the third and final foal to date that his Supreme Leader dam Megans Joy has produced.
Among the six track successes which she accumulated from 18 starts for Colm Murphy, were a brace of victories in graded company including a Grade 3 novices’ hurdle at Down Royal in 2007 and a Grade 2 contest at Tipperary a year later.
Megans Joy is a well-bred individual as she is a half-sister to both Howard Johnson’s three-time winner Drever Route and Robinshill, a four-time winner for Nigel Twiston-Davies with a career high mark of 141 over hurdles. From her limited time in the paddocks, following her retirement from racing, Megans Joy has already produced Kerry Lee’s King’s Theatre mare Happy Diva, a recent runner-up in Grade 2 company.
BORRIS HOUSE
4yo maiden
SAINT FREULE (FR)
4yo b g Saint Des Saints - Topsy Blue (Anabaa Blue)
For the second consecutive fixture at Borris House, a Saint Des Saints-sired four-year-old returned victorious to the winner’s enclosure on his debut, as Saint Freule’s success last Sunday followed on from the win of the Michael Goff-trained Fabulous Saga at the Carlow venue in December. That latest success was the fourth four-year-old point-to-point victory for the French-based stallion, the sire of Cheltenham Gold Cup contender Djakadam. Saint Freule is the second foal which his Anabaa Blue-sired dam Topsy Blue has produced. She finished fourth on three occasions on the level in her native France and there are a number of flat lines to the pedigree.
Included within this are Lady Upstage, the 2000 Group 2 Pretty Polly Stakes winner and dam of last year’s valuable Kyoto Shimbun Hai victor Smart Odin, and Lycility, who was placed in listed company over a mile. Saint Freule’s dam has produced three horses in total to date, a half-sister to Saint Freule who has finished placed over one mile, two furlongs as a three-year-old at Le Lion-D’Angers and she also has a two-year-old colt by Godolphin’s Group 3 Horris Hill Stakes winner Evasive.