THERE is a strong possibility, an odds-on chance indeed, that by the time you will read this the statistics I quote will be outdated. What statistics you may ask? The number of winning progeny from the first crop of Rathasker Stud’s Bungle Inthejungle who has been available to breeders this year at €5,000, the same fee at which he retired to stud.

His first starters have come out of the stalls running fast and his winners to runners ratio of more than 42% is highly impressive. His 2017 yearlings averaged almost three times his stud fee, again a fair performance given that 55 of them traded during last year.