WERE you to read that Tahmuras won a Group 1 race on the flat, it would come as no surprise when you look closely at his pedigree.

However, the six-year-old French-bred is a Grade 1 winner over hurdles, and at the weekend he captured the Tolworth Novices’ Hurdle at Sandown Park, the race won last year by the sensational Constitution Hill. This contest has produced more class acts than possibly any other novice hurdle, and the future career of the 2023 victor will be eagerly anticipated.

A couple of errors and a tendency to hang took some of the shine off the win for Tahmuras, but that will not bother Chris and Rachel Dawson at Nunstainton Stud on Co Durham, home for the coming season to the gelding’s sire, Falco (Pivotal). It is incredible to think that a stallion who is capable of siring the French Group 1 winner Odeliz, the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle winner Peace And Co, and now the rising star that is Tahmuras, could be standing for a fee of only £2,000.

The Wertheimer-owned and bred Falco beat 18 opponents on his way to landing the 2008 Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas. He has done well with the support he got at stud, and over jumps he is sire of the Grade 3 winner Mallorca, a couple of listed hurdle and chase winners, and Hitman who was runner-up in three Grade 1 chases, including the Melling Chase and the Tingle Creek Chase.

Bargain

Bought for a bargain €10,000 as a three-year-old at the Derby Sale from Rathurtin Stud, the Donnchadh Doyle-trained Tahmuras won on his debut at Ballingarry from three opponents, and was resold from Monbeg Stables for £68,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham May Premier Sale in 2021 to Hagg Hill Farm, Noel Fehily’s farm in Wiltshire. Tahmuras has almost won his purchase price back, and there is surely more to come.

The first foal from the unraced Alinga’s Lass (Whipper), Tahmuras has a sole sibling, the unraced four-year-old gelding Ace Of Spades (Dink). Their dam was purchased as a yearling by Henry Cleary for €1,500, and she is one of 10 foals out of the US stakes winner Alinga (King’s Theatre). Eight of the 10 were colts, but just two of the mare’s progeny won, one of them in Switzerland at the age of five.

Alinga was actually the best runner out of a useful racemare called Cheyenne Spirit (Indian Ridge), a listed winner and group-placed in England. She has a number of winning full-siblings, but one stands head and shoulders above the rest. Hoh Express (Indian Ridge) won twice and her eight winners are led by the Grade 2 winner and successful broodmare Hoh Buzzard (Alhaarth), and the Group 3 winner and Group 1 July Cup runner-up Ashdown Express (Ashkalani).

Mullins’ Fancy Girl is one to watch

CORK bumper winner Fancy Girl joined Willie Mullins after he and Harold Kirk spent £200,000 to acquire her at the Goffs UK Aintree Sale last year. That may yet prove to be a bargain, but it is not why she is in this column today.

The five-year-old daughter of Champs Elysees (Danehill) was bred by Patrick Fallon and he sold her as a newly-turned yearling for just €2,500 to Woodford Stables at Tattersalls Ireland. When she was resold, at the same company’s Derby Sale, to Monbeg Stables, she appreciated in value to €48,000. Cormac Doyle sent her out to win a nine-runner mares’ maiden point-to-point at Ballyragget by two lengths, and he profited when she sold to Kirk and Mullins.

Fancy Girl is from a family that keeps on getting better. Her half-sister Gotthenod (Famous Name) is now a five-time hurdle winner, while another sibling, Lavinia Fontana (Milan) won a point-to-point in 2022. The trio are among the first five foals of their dam, one of which was not named.

Their dam’s sixth foal is a four-year-old filly by Westerner (Danehill) who sold to Highflyer Bloodstock at the 2022 Derby Sale for €37,000.

They are all out of Chase The Favorite (Hubbly Bubbly), and she was another who can claim to have been a bargain. Patrick Fallon paid just €3,200 for her as a foal, and she went on to win twice over hurdles, once over fences and also be placed in a bumper. Last year, and now owned by Kevin Purfield, Chase The Favorite visited Boardsmill Stud’s Sumbal (Danehill Dancer).

Not only has Fancy Girl emerged as a talent, but her dam’s half-brother Hiddenvalley Lake (Sholokhov) has also. Carried out on his sole start in a point-to-point, he sold for £200,000 and joined Henry de Bromhead to race in the colours of Robcour. He won both his starts over hurdles last year, the second coming in the Grade 3 Cork Stayers Novice Hurdle in mid-December.

Hiddenvalley Lake is the sixth racecourse winner for Coming Home (Exit To Nowhere), herself a three-time winner on the flat in France. Two of her other winners showed above average ability, Louis’ Vac Pouch (Oscar) winning six times and running second in a Grade 2 novices’ chase at Ayr, and Kilkishen (Oscar) being successful five times and Grade 3-placed over hurdles in Ireland.

Blacktype beckons for Juddmonte homebred

ANDREW Balding’s runners are in the form of their life, and one of his many recent successes was gained with Floating Spirit who made a winning debut over seven furlongs on the Kempton all-weather. The three-year-old had two previous winners in her wake.

Floating Spirit is the third winner, and the second sired by Charm Spirit (Invincible Spirit), for the French listed winner Zero Gravity (Dansili). She was culled from the Juddmonte broodmare band in 2021 for 35,000gns, carrying a now yearling colt by Study Of Man (Deep Impact).

Zero Gravity is one of eight winners, three of them stakes winners, out of Imbabala (Zafonic). The best of these was Zero Gravity’s full-brother, the Group 1 Juddmonte Grand Prix de Paris winner Zambezi Sun (Dansili). The third stakes winner was Kalabar (Kahyasi), a Group 2 winner. Another sibling worth mentioning is also a full-sister to Zero Gravity.

Shared Account (Dansili) was placed a few times in listed races in France and in 2021 she bred the Grade 3 US winner Pocket Square (Night Of Thunder), and the Listed Chester Stakes winner Yesyes (Camelot) who was placed in the Group 2 Park Hill Stakes.

Imbabala is a daughter of the classic-placed Group 2 winner Interval (Habitat), and one of seven winners out of that high-class racemare. Another daughter of Interval was Krisia (Kris), and she bred the Group 1 July Cup winner Continent (Lake Coniston).