THE Dublin Racing Festival showed one thing – provide top-class racing at an affordable cost, and the crowds will come in droves.

The packed enclosures followed on from a bumper turnout at Gowran Park on Goffs Thyestes Day, and the Co Kilkenny venue is set to host another full house next weekend for the Connolly’s Red Mills Raceday on Saturday. Be warned.

Thanks to the Gowran-based company’s generosity, this will be an all-ticket event, and you must get your admission pass in advance.

No tickets will be on sale at the gate, and you can get your ticket free by going to the racecourse website. Some final Cheltenham pointers are no doubt set to be revealed.

Today, Ireland face France in the Six Nations rugby centrepiece, and the team will be buoyed by a magnificent victory over the Welsh in Cardiff. If we can rejoice in that success, we can gain no consolation when it comes to the breeding stakes last weekend, with all eight Grade 1 races at Leopardstown, as well as the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown, being won by horses bred in France.

This is not a rarity today, nor has it been for some years now. The growing reliance by bloodstock owners and trainers on sourcing material in France has led to an increasing success rate, while store sale vendors are also on the hunt, and it seems to be only at Cheltenham that the French have failed to head the Irish-breds in recent years. That could be in real danger of changing next month.

Major winners

Where does one start when looking at the major winners of the weekend? It’s hard not to do so with the Grade 1 Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle, arguably the race of the weekend in terms of anticipation. Could Honeysuckle regain her winning ways, or would State Man cement his growing reputation and capture a fourth straight Grade 1 win in just eight career starts?

The answer was an emphatic confirmation of State Man’s position as Ireland’s leading hope for glory in the Champion Hurdle at Prestbury Park, shown by his almost five-length win over the gallant mare who gave her all but had to settle for second-best on the line. What a welcome both received on their return to the parade ring, and it was an emotional occasion.

State Man is just one of many racing stars for his sire, Doctor Dino (Muhtathir). This 21-year-old is about to embark on another season at Haras du Mesnil at an advertised fee of €20,000, and you could count on the fingers of one hand the number of National Hunt stallions who can command so much.

Purchased privately for Joe and Marie Donnelly after he was runner-up at Auteuil for Daniela Mele, State Man fell on his Irish hurdling debut.

Long forgotten

That inauspicious start is long forgotten now, thanks to reeling off six wins in succession. His first notable scalp was claimed at Cheltenham last year when he won the Grade 3 County Hurdle, raced in honour of AP McCoy, son-in-law of Michael Burke whose company sponsored last Sunday’s feature.

State Man is on his way to possibly becoming the best offspring of his sire, also responsible for six-time Grade 1 winner Sharjah, Royal Margaux, Sceau Royal, Master Dino, Docteur De Ballon, La Bague Au Roi and more.

A solid runner in France where he won at Group 2 level and placed at the higher grade, Doctor Dino made his travels pay, and he twice won the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase at Sha Tin, and beat a quality field to land the Grade 1 Man O’War Stakes at Belmont. No wonder he went to stud, at the age of eight, with winnings of more than €2.75 million.

At the weekend State Man added the Grade 1 Irish Champion to previous Grade 1 successes in the Matheson December Hurdle, also at Leopardstown, and a pair of Grade 1 races at Punchestown, the Morgiana Hurdle last November and the Grade 1 Champion Novice Hurdle at last year’s Festival meeting.

Can Willie Mullins produce the six-year-old State Man in the form of his life, and bring the Champion Hurdle back to Ireland? Now successful on six of his eight lifetime runs, State Man is the second Grade 1 winner out of Arret Station, a daughter of Johann Quatz (Sadler’s Wells). The other is his own-sister, another Willie Mullins inmate, Statuaire (Muhtathir), and she was victorious in the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse.

ML Bloodstock

State Man and Statuaire were both bred by Vincent Barrett’s M L Bloodstock (he raced the latter), who purchased their dam for €13,000 in a private transaction at the Osarus June Horses-In-Training Sale in 2011.

Arret Station had won a listed hurdle race at Auteuil, one of her three wins, and she is the dam of a third winner in Stop Line (Martaline), and she was placed in a listed hurdle race at Auteuil.

The immediate family has improved since Barrett purchased Arret Station. The mare’s younger own-brother, Pull Marine (Johann Quatz), has since become a three-time winner over jumps, while their unraced half-sister, Danseur Sur La Lune (Dano-Mast), purchased for just €2,000 as a three-year-old, has made an encouraging start at stud, her three winners headed by the seven-time scorer, Le Meteque (Early March).

Their dam Alicesprings (Pelder) won five races on the flat and was one of five winners for her own winning dam, Cyrning (Saint Cyrien). After that you need to go back to State Man’s fourth dam Sonning (Moulin) to find the next piece of blacktype, as she bred 10 winners, the best of which was a listed hurdle winner in Worldson (Lost World), and the listed-placed hurdler Taking (Take Risks).

Last month Auctav held a sale of some 19 lots for M L Bloodstock, and this part dispersal came about as Vincent Barrett’s children have no interest in horseracing. Perhaps State Man’s success could persuade them to continue with his Grade 1-winning full-sister.