LEADING Light stands at Dunraven Stud, and sired the Grade 1 Aintree winner Three Stripe Life. Until last year the farm also stood Ask (Sadler’s Wells), but he has moved to Kelsall in Cheshire this year to stand at Stuart Ross’ Willow Wood Stud.

Not too far from Aintree, the team at Willow Wood will have been cheering home the Grade 2 Weatherbys Bumper winner Lookaway, a breakthrough blacktype winner for Ask. If ever a sire deserved such a winner, it is the Group 1 Coronation Cup and Group 1 Prix Royal Oak winner. Before this seven horses from Ask’s first two crops had been runners-up in graded or listed races under National Hunt rules.

Lookaway was bred by William Neville and sold at the Tattersalls Ireland May Store Sale in 2020 for €6,200 to Sean Doyle. Last November he won a Goffs UK Yorton Farm-sponsored point-to-point at Kildorrery, was sent to Yorton Farm the following month and sold for £170,000 to trainer Neil King and Stroud Coleman. Now he is unbeaten on both his runs in bumpers.

Lookaway is the first runner for his dam Barrack’s Choice (Westerner). While she showed nothing in five bumper runs over a period of a year, she had four winning siblings, two of which, Shantou Ed (Shantou) and Indifference Curve (Bob Back), were placed in Grade 2 races. Their dam, the unraced Fair Maid Marion (Executive Perk), is a full-sister to the dam of Grade 2 winning hurdler Abbey Lane (Flemensfirth).

Royalty

Go back to Lookaway’s fourth dam and you find National Hunt royalty. That mare is Sinzinbra (Royal Palace), and she had eight winners, three of them graded winners and two more who were placed in blacktype events. Ironically, many will remember one of the latter quite well.

He was Mr Snugfit (Jukebox), bred to be a sprinter but who ran second to 50/1 shot Last Suspect in the 1985 Grand National, with Corbiere, Greasepaint and Classified just behind.

Sinzinbra’s three graded winners were Young Snugfit (Music Boy) who won the Tingle Creek Chase, Cashew King (Faraway Times) who was a Cheltenham Festival winner, and the Grade 2 winning hurdler and chaser Peanuts Pet (Tina’s Pet).