WHEN Royal Kahala cleared away from her rivals to win her mares’ maiden hurdle at Fairyhouse last month, she secured her owners, the Winning Ways Syndicate, a second €5,000 Weatherbys ITBA NH Fillies Bonus in the space of just 10 days.

Not only that but she was winning over hurdles impressively at the first time of asking, just as Honeysuckle did in that exact same race two years ago. Naturally, the phone started the ring. Syndicate manager Oran Crean knew that would be the case but he also knew what sort of response he’d get when he performed his duty of care to inform syndicate members of the enquiries.