THE 20th Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Breeder of the Year Awards were presented at the Curragh Racecourse on Tuesday evening.

All the monthly winners from June 2024 to May 2025 received their awards before the overall Flat and National Hunt winners were revealed.

Incredibly both the overall winners live just 15 miles from each other in Co Limerick. The National Hunt Award went to Geoffrey and Eithne Thompson of Morning Star Stud in Rathcannon, Kilmallock, and the Flat Award was presented to Bobby and Honora Donworth of Roundhill Stud in Patrickswell.

The Thompsons bred Cheltenham Festival winner Bambino Fever. The five-year-old mare remains unbeaten after adding a second Grade 1 bumper, this time at Punchestown, to her victory in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper. Yet, incredibly, the daughter of Burgage Stud’s Jukebox Jury was unsold at the Goffs Arkle Sale.

Bambino Fever is from a female line that Geoffrey and his family have developed over many generations. Bambino Fever’s dam is the fourth daughter of the unraced Midnight Pond to produce a blacktype National Hunt winner. The best of the others is arguably the Grade 2-placed Presenting mare Midnight Gift, responsible for the Grade 1 hurdle and chase star Death Duty.

The Grade 1 Cheltenham Festival chase winner One Knight, Grade 1 hurdle winner and a Cheltenham Festival winner Commander Of Fleet, listed winner Shannon Spray and the smart Grade A-winning chaser Foxrock are among many other familiar names that appear under Bambino Fever’s third dam Midnight Oil, a daughter of the great Menelek.

Geoffrey’s father Claude bred Gold Cup winner Saffron Tartan and he also established the ‘Midnight’ family when he bought Ballinacree, a half-sister to Champion Chase winner Lough Inagh.

Honora and Bobby Donworth bred the outstanding miler Field Of Gold.

He is one of 14 Group 1 winners for the European champion Kingman, and Bobby and Honora have a yearling half-sister by Ghaiyyath, while their dam Princess De Lune is in foal again to Kingman. The couple’s son Tim is training a two-year-old daughter of Dubawi from the family and she is one to watch out for.

Field Of Gold is the latest star in a line that the Donworths have since the purchase of his grandam Princess Serena for $150,000 as a four-year-old in 2003. In the decades since, she has become the dam of nine winners, a Group 1 winner and Group 1 second, three stakes winners, and she is grandam of two Group 1 winners and a Grade 1 runner-up. Field Of Gold is the seventh blacktype winner under that mare.

Group 1 winners Rizeena and Zabeel Prince were also bred at Roundhill Stud, as was demoted 1000 Guineas winner Jacqueline Quest.

Award winners

NH Breeder of the Year: GEOFFREY & EITHNE THOMPSON

Flat Breeder of the Year: BOBBY AND HONORA DONWORTH

June 2024: Guy & David O’Callaghan for Khaadem

July 2024: Jimmy Mangan for

Pinkerton

August 2024: Grangemore Stud for Charyn

September 2024: Coolmore Stud for Lake Victoria

October 2024: Derek and Gay Veitch for Anmaat

November 2024: Thomas Fahey for Found A Fifty

December 2024: Ger Flynn for

Potters Charm

January 2025: Gerry McGrath for Jetara

February 2025: Brendan amd Mary Fitzpatrick for Handstands

March 2025: Geoffrey and Eithne Thompson for Bambino Fever

April 2025: Dermot Day for Spindleberry

May 2025: Bobby and Honora Donworth for Field Of Gold

Connolly’s Red Mills/Irish Field Breeder of the Month Awards 29/7/2025 Dermort and Rose Day receive the April 2025 Award for Spindleberry from Jane Davis (Red Mills). \ Lorraine O’Sullivan