YOU know that winter is coming when this column starts to review graded National Hunt successes. Wednesday’s Punchestown meeting featured a pair of Grade 3 chases, with Adamantly Chosen (Well Chosen) winning the Buck House Novice Chase for Willie Mullins, and Galvin impressing in the Irish Daily Star Chase for Gordon Elliott.

Bred by Martin Kenirons, Adamantly Chosen joins the choice group of Cheltenham Festival winner Chosen Mate, US Grade 1 Grand National Hurdle winner Jury Duty, Grade 2 winner Goulane Chosen and Grade 3 winners Carefully Selected and Mallards In Flight as a blacktype winner for the veteran Well Chosen (Sadler’s Wells). The stallion stands at Tom and Magette Meagher’s Kedrah House Stud.

Sold as a foal at Goffs for €20,000 to Rathmore Stud, Adamantly Chosen resold three years later at the Land Rover Sale for just €4,000 more, and that day Willie Mullins certainly bagged himself a bargain. On his racecourse debut the gelding earned €59,000 for winning the Goffs Land Rover Bumper, and he has now won over hurdles and been successful twice over fences.

Incredibly, Harold Kirk and Mullins acquired Adamantly Chosen’s four-year-old full-brother for €27,000 last year at the Derby Sale. In addition to breeding this week’s Grade 3 winner, their dam Sher’s Adamant (Shernazar) produced Kylecrue (Gold Well), a 12-time racecourse winner, six each over hurdles and fences, and he was placed on many occasions in graded chases.

Consistent

When it comes to consistency, Galvin is quite a model. He has won 13 of his 22 starts and been runner-up on four occasions. Bred by Gay O’Gara and Sean O’Brien, Galvin won the Grade 1 Savills Chase at Christmas, the highlight of his racing career to date. He is an eight-year-old son of Gold Well (Sadler’s Wells). Galvin provided Ian Ferguson, who purchased him as a three-year-old for €34,000 at the Derby Sale, with a 2021 Cheltenham Festival win when landing the Grade 2 National Hunt Chase.

Galvin is one of a pair of winners from Burren Moonshine, a multiple-winning daughter of Moonax (Caerleon). She too was bred by O’Gara and won a point-to-point, five hurdle races and a chase, being trained at different times by Donie Hassett and Peter Bowen. The other winner out of Burren Moonshine is Innisfree Beauty (Yeats), and she carries the colours of Gay and Sean. The second of her two hurdle wins this year came last month at Kilbeggan.

Gay O’Gara raced, but didn’t breed, Burren Moonshine’s dam Burren Beauty (Phardante). She was placed over hurdles, but did win a point-to-point. Burren Beauty has a single winning sibling, Nawrik (Orchestra) who won three chases.

Scarce

While winners are scarce until now in the family, Galvin’s fourth dam, the two-year-old winner Souza Rose (Songedor), bred three. She was a half-sister to Abergwaun (Bounteous) who had her biggest success in the 1973 King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, with Lester Piggott in the saddle.

Gold Well died after a single season at The Beeches Stud. He was an unraced full-brother to multiple Group 1 winner Montjeu, a sire whose influence on National Hunt racing and breeding has been immense. Gold Well moved from Arctic Tack Stud in Wexford where he had been standing, and Galvin is a product of his only year standing in Waterford.

Gold Well’s very first crop included the Grade 1 Mildmay Novices’ Chase winner Holywell, while Galvin has bookended that with another Grade 1 chasing success. Gold Well has a further major chase winner in General Principle, successful in the BoyleSports Irish Grand National, and they are among the 20 blacktype winners he has sired.