WHAT an achievement it was for Willie Mullins to send out the first three home in the 15-runner Tattersalls Ireland George Mernagh Memorial Sales Bumper last Sunday, all making their racecourse debuts.

A fact that may have passed unnoticed is that the three were all bought at the sales by a vital axis in the Mullins success story, bloodstock agent Harold Kirk.

The runner-up Lecky Watson was a €60,000 three-year-old and the third-placed Dr Eggman cost €72,000 at the same age. However, the winner, Icare Desbois, was the least expensive of the trio, realising €28,000 at last year’s August Sale across the road from Fairyhouse at Tattersalls Ireland.

The three Bleahen brothers operate from Lakefield Farm, Liss House and Clifton Farm; John, Niall and Hugh respectively. In the case of last weekend’s bumper winner, he was sold from Niall’s Liss House to Kirk and Mullins, having been found in France. He is a credit to the Bleahen’s ability to source quality racehorses, in spite of this winner having a pedigree that might at first appear not to have appeal outside France.

Icare Desbois is from the first crop of Triple Threat (Monsun), a Group and Grade 2 winner. Very typical of his sire, Triple Threat was a smart three-year-old in France, winning the Group 2 Prix Eugene Adam and the Group 3 Prix La Force, before adding a new Grade 2 in the United States, the Monmouth Stakes, as a five-year-old.

He returned to France in 2017 to begin his stallion career at Haras du Mont Goubert, and moved in 2022 to stand at Haras de Toury in Nièvre with Bertrand de Soultrait, where his fee is just €2,200. Triple Threat’s first season at stud was his busiest, and he had nearly 40 produce in that first crop. They include two-year-old winners, as well as the Grade 3 winning hurdler Sans Bruit.

Early successes

However, declining support since has likely forced his move, but these early successes will surely turn the tide of support for him. Last year Triple Threat covered just 16 mares.

On his dam side, Icare Desbois is a half-brother to the dam of the brilliant miler and multiple Group 1 winner Canford Cliffs (Tagula). He is the second winner for his dam Sologne, a winner at three in France who won over hurdles at four, She is by April Night (Kaldoun), and a half-sister to the only animal with blacktype in the first three generations on the dam side of the pedigree, Umadachar (Turgeon). The latter came within a neck of capturing a listed mares’ bumper at Sandown, and was twice successful over hurdles.