WHERE were all the good judges of form on October 21st last year?

Less than two weeks after winning a bumper at Fairyhouse on his third start, improving with every run, the Peter Fahey-trained Ambitious Fellow was supplemented to the Goffs UK Doncaster Autumn Sale. Purchased by the trainer for €30,000 as a store at the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale, you might have imagined that there would be plenty of interest in him.

The records show that he was listed as unsold at just £22,000, and he returned to Ireland to be prepared for his hurdling debut. This came in early November in the Connolly’s Red Mills Irish EBF Auction Maiden Hurdle at Clonmel when the rain that fell was likely an inconvenience to him, but he finished a respectable fourth.

Off the track until this week, and allowed to go off at an insulting 40/1 for the Connolly’s Red Mills Irish EBF Auction Hurdle Series Final, with a winners’ purse of €44,250, Ambitious Fellow headed Rebel Ivy on the line, with nine lengths and more back to the third.

The first three home were all sired by the much missed Fame And Glory (Montjeu).

This was Peter Fahey’s second time to win the race – he saddled last year’s winner Surprise Package, and he had the fourth-place finisher this time also. This series is well-received and supported by trainers, and is sponsored by Connolly’s Red Mills and the Irish European Breeders’ Fund.

When Ambitious Fellow made his fruitless trip to Doncaster for the sale he was one of a pair of winners on the racecourse for his dam Native Beauty, a daughter of King’s Theatre (Sadler’s Wells).

The other was his full-sister Theatre Glory (Fame And Glory), and she was the winner of her only start in a bumper for Nicky Henderson.

Theatre Glory

Two days before Ambitious Fellow made his hurdling debut, Theatre Glory made hers, and it was a winning one. Recently she won a listed mares’ hurdle at Cheltenham, her fourth win in five starts over the smaller obstacles, adding further lustre to the pedigree.

She and Ambitious Fellow are siblings to the point-to-point winner Illuminated Beauty (Flemensfirth), and the promising Minella Beauty (Shirocco) who was placed in a bumper, over hurdles and in a point-to-point, but he sadly died at the age of five.

Native Beauty was trained, like her daughter Theatre Glory, by Nicky Henderson and she raced just six times, winning over hurdles and being placed in a bumper too. A full-sister to the winning hurdler and point-to-pointer Carlicue (King’s Theatre), they are out of Woodville Star (Phardante). The latter mare was bred by John Noonan, trained by Liam Burke, and after winning a point-to-point she transferred to the track and won six times, equally divided between hurdle and chase successes.

Woodville Star gained valuable blacktype when beaten less than two lengths by Dun Belle in a Grade 3 chase at Limerick, and then she managed to get in the frame behind Noyen and Bobbyjo in the Grade 1 Heineken Gold Cup at Punchestown 25 years ago, with Papillon among the beaten horses that day.

Woodville Star is the only winner from eight foals produced by the unraced Templenoe Forth (Menelek), though her half-sister Shannon Lough (Deep Run) is grandam of a useful pair in Oscar Rock (Oscar) and Jessber’s Dream (Milan).

Noonan family

This is a female line that the Noonan family has a long and distinguished association with. Templenoe Forth is a half-sister to the listed hurdle winner Glassilaun (Prince Hansel) who was runner-up in both the Grade 1 Supreme Novices Hurdle and Grade 1 Sweeps Hurdle. However, it is her full-sister Hourly Rate (Menelek) and half-sister Hi’ Upham (Deep Run) who have made this female line outstanding.

Hourly Rate won a few times and is dam of Grade 2 Leopardstown Chase and Cheltenham Festival winner Time For A Run (Deep Run) and the Grade 3 winning hurdler Aunt Aggie (Be My Native), while her descendants include the graded winners Adarma (Topanoora) and Any Second Now (Oscar).

Hi’ Upham shades her in the success stakes as she is dam of the outstanding multiple Grade 1 winner Native Upmanship (Be My Native), and she is grandam of the Grade 1 Powers Gold Cup winner Gilgamboa (Westerner). In addition, she is the third dam of this year’s Grade 3 Ultima Chase winner at Cheltenham, Corach Rambler (Jeremy).