HOW times have changed for race mares in this country. Tipperary-based owner/breeder Brett Merry can attest to that and he can use the pedigree of his recent Weatherbys ITBA Fillies Bonus winner to explain it.

His mare Merry Doyenne is the latest generation to race from a family line that goes back to the 1970s, back to a top class mare called Helenium, who his parents bred and raced.

“We’ve had the family for 60 years,” Merry explains. “Helenium is Merry Doyenne’s great granddam and she was the best mare in Ireland in her time. She won eight times and was third in a Supreme Novice Hurdle.

“She was the Honeysuckle of her generation but she didn’t have a 7lbs allowance as it wasn’t around at that time, she’d have won 20 races if she did! It’s a different landscape for mares now. The allowance is there and the programme is there. There are so many more opportunities for them. I think Merry Doyenne could be a little special you know?

She’s 17hh and she really catches the eye. We gave her plenty of time and I think she is still growing.”

Merry’s twin brother Hugo is a well respected bloodstock agent and well known for co-breeding and syndicating 2015 Irish Oaks winner Covert Love. But it’s always been the National Hunt for Brett, who his bred multiple winners, most notably including Grade 1 winner Ornua, five-time scorer Canelo and the twice Cheltenham Festival placed Becauseicouldntsee.

Surprisingly Merry Doyenne is his first winner as an owner after having nine horses in training. With the costs of competing in the ever increasingly competitive Irish National Hunt scene, Merry syndicated Merry Doyenne to a group of friends - Anna O’Donnell, Sharon O’Donnell, Pat Moore, Norman Davis and John Darcy - who are all thrilled with the mares’ progress under the watch of Waterford trainer Declan Queally.

“I’ve seven or eight broodmares but it’s a very expensive game to be at. The stud fees have gone through the roof really. In a way, National Hunt has become more elitist. You’ve got all these millionaires at the top end and it’s gotten very competitive at the bottom end, for small trainers and small breeders.

“By syndicating the mare, it just helps with the costs. I have a couple of nice four-year-olds related to her that I’d like to syndicate as well. There have been a few enquiries - it’s amazing what a couple of wins can do!”

Versatility

Merry Doyenne has run, and won, again since her mares’ maiden hurdle win at Killarney, showing her versatility by handling heavy ground over three miles at Wexford. She is now back in Merry’s base near Nenagh for her holidays, with lots to look forward in a few months time.

Her recent success is a sharp contrast to the beginning of her career when her run to finish fourth at Fairyhouse caught the attention of the stewards who found her effort to be in breach of Rule 212 a (the non-trier rule).

“The ground was heavy and she just ran through it late on, having looked like a rabbit in the headlights earlier in the race,” Merry recalls. “She was still beaten 30 lengths but she was banned for six weeks because they said we were a non trier.

“My last two horses in training both got killed on the track and one is a full brother to Canelo and a half-brother to her, and the other was a full-sister to Ornua. What do you do with these horses? You can’t be trying to literally kill them first time out.

“We were trying to give her a considerate run. She was 66/1 and it’s not like she was odds-on.”

Nevertheless, perhaps in some strange way, it all worked out for the better because if Merry Doyenne hadn’t been forced to miss six weeks, she may well have had enough time to run a couple of times more last season and she’d have lost her novice status for the first half of next season.

“I’m hoping she’s going to be a Grade 1 horse over fences,” Merry says.

“But she jumps hurdles just as well so we’ll keep her to that and see what she can do.

“We gave her plenty of time and I think she’s still growing now at six. As long as she stays sound. I think she could be special.”