WHEN Elle Perfecta more or less lived up to her name in the manner of her chasing debut win at Kilbeggan, it was no real surprise to her connections, trainer Colm Murphy and the Murphy’s Law Syndicate.

The seven-year-old mare jumped accurately which in turn allowed her to travel strongly and from a quite a distance out, there was no other horse you wanted to be on.

She won by three and a half lengths, but she was value for a multiple of that margin, on what was her third career win, and also her second ITBA Weatherbys NH Fillies bonus worth €5,000.

“She grew up with Impervious,” revealed syndicate head Paul McKeon. “The two of them are the same age and would have been schooling together and both of them trained to go point-to-pointing and for different reasons neither of them ended up going that route but they had the schooling done and I think that probably helped.

“I think Colm would have been disappointed if she didn’t do something like that at Kilbeggan, and she seems to have improved going from hurdles to fences.”

Just like her mate Impervious, and while she has a fair way to go get to that level of quality, it’s very encouraging that she has the scope to be a much better chaser.

McKeon and Murphy go back a long way. The Wexford trainer rode a winner for McKeon when he was an amateur still working in Ballydoyle, and from there a strong link of friendship developed and a business plan developed.

That plan has twisted and turned over the years, most notably when Murphy relinquished his licence in 2016 and then returned to training in 2019, but the central objective has always been to gather a of band of National Hunt broodmares and allow them to develop and add quality to their pedigrees.

They hit gold with Relegate, who was trained by Willie Mullins to win the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham in 2018 and with the brilliant Impervious, both sourced by Murphy for relatively modest fees at store sales.

“Colm and myself go back a long way and we’re very comfortable with each other,” McKeon explains.

“Most of the horses in the yard are for sale. That is why I started the Murphy’s Law syndicate with the lads - there’s around eight of us in it - so it’s good that a syndicate can get involved like that.

“We lease a lot of the fillies and hold on to them if they do something on the track. It’s a very much a breeding operation as much as a training operation now. We have about 15 or 16 broodmares. We’ve probably evolved the plan over the years but when Colm stopped training, we looked to buy mares with a bit of pedigree with the aim of trying to improve it on the track.

“We sent three mares to Willie - Relegate, Botani and Queen’s Boulevard - and they all won.

“Relegate is a great example of when it goes right. She had a nice pedigree but she improved it significantly by winning the Grade 2 at Leopardstown and then Grade 1 at Cheltenham. We are breeding from her now, she has a colt and a filly, both by Crystal Ocean, and she will be covered again soon.”

Given his involvement with fillies and mares, McKeon is no stranger to the fillies bonus.

He won the bonus under his own name, with the Murphy’s Law Syndicate, and with Fitzwilliam Racing, another syndicate business he heads up that is largely based on the flat, with horses trained by Johnny Murtagh.

Fitzwilliam struck the jackpot in 2020 with Champers Elysees, who won the Group 1 Matron Stakes before being sold on to Teruya Yoshida to continue her career in Japan.

“A lot of the lads involved with Fitzwilliam are involved with Murphy’s Law so maybe they are lucky!” McKeon explains.

“We have three horses now in Murphy’s Law. Rhaenyra is another nice mare we acquired this year. She ran a huge race in the Grade 3 mares’ bumper at Punchestown on just her second start.”

Some year

It’s already been quite some year for McKeon, who sold Impervious on to J.P. McManus after her impressive win in a Grade 2 contest at Cork.

It can be a bittersweet feeling to have seen her go on to do what she has done at Cheltenham and Punchestown but the connection is always there.

“If you’re in the business of selling horses, you always have to leave something for the next person,” he says. “We had a great run with her, she won five races for us and the big thing was that J.P. left her in the yard.

“I don’t think I would have sold her if she wasn’t kept in the yard, there would be a lot of loyalty to Colm there and JP is great that way. It was great to see Brian Hayes keep the ride as well.”

Still there is lots to look forward to on the track. Rhaenyra looks a prime fillies bonus candidate and might go for a bumper before she goes on her holidays but Elle Perfecta is more of summer mare, and all roads could lead back to Ballybrit.

“We’ll pick out a race for her in June. You’d like to think there is a race for her in Galway.

“There might not be a lot for her but there is a Grade 3 novice chase on the Thursday and it would be lovely to think she is up to that.

“The handicapper has given her a mark of 128 so she will have to improve but the way she jumps, I think she can improve.”