Jump To It

Emma Berry's National Hunt Round-up

Most breeders would be glued to the television if they had a runner in a Grade 1 but both Simon Sweeting and Jono Mills had plenty to keep them occupied on Nov.30 as they concentrated on the final day of the Tattersalls December Foal Sale.

Sweeting's Overbury Stud offered its biggest ever consignment at the sale and posted some decent results, selling foals by Wootton Bassett (GB) and his son Almanzor (Fr) for 130,000gns and 125,000gns, but it was a member of the 2014 draft which made the day extra special.

Cornerstone Lad (GB), a son of the late Overbury sire Delegator (GB), lined up for his first Grade 1 contest in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle and, with dual Champion Hurdle winner Buveur d'Air (Fr) (Crillon {Fr}) among the entries, the Micky Hammond-trained runner was ranked only fourth of the five runners in the betting behind the odds-on favourite. However, the 5-year-old came into the race in terrific form on the back of two recent wins and, jumping off in front, he soon opened up an impressive lead on the select field. Though Buveur d'Air started to close in menacingly down the straight, a mistake at the second last blunted his finishing kick and Cornerstone Lad held on gamely to land the biggest win of his career.

“I must admit I didn't even know he had won until Simon sent me a message,” said Mills, bloodstock manager to the Rabbah team. The former pupil assistant to leading jumps trainer Nicky Henderson also confessed that he rarely follows the National Hunt scene these days.

“Cornerstone Lad was a lovely foal, very correct, but sadly he was the mare's last foal as she died the year he was born,” he recalled. “I saw him again later at the breeze-up sales and he didn't breeze that well but it's wonderful to see him go on to have such success.”

Cornerstone Lad is out of the unraced Alhaarth (Ire) mare Chapel Corner (Ire), a half-sister to G3 Concorde S. winner Sheppard's Watch (GB) (Night Shift). Sold as a foal for 30,000gns, his price dropped to 7,000gns as a yearling and then his trainer Micky Hammond bought him for £9,000 at the Goffs UK Breeze-up Sale. It's an unusual route to big-time success for a jumper but Cornerstone Lad has proved to be a proper dual-purpose horse, with two wins on the Flat, including as recently as Oct. 29, and another six over hurdles.

He is the second high-profile jumper of the season to have graduated from Overbury Stud as Sweeting is also the breeder of the dual Grade 2 winner Thyme Hill (GB), who is being aimed at the G1 Challow Novices' Hurdle over Christmas.

“It's only taken me 20 years to breed horses like this,” he said with a smile. “Cornerstone Lad was really bred for the Flat but we're very happy to have inadvertently bred a Grade 1-winning hurdler.”

Thyme Hill's success is made all the sweeter by the fact that he is a son of Overbury's veteran stallion Kayf Tara (GB), who has led the British National Hunt sire ranks for the last eight seasons.

“Kayf Tara is the horse who put us on the map. We've been so lucky to have him and we are all really proud of the contribution he has made to National Hunt breeding in Britain. He's 25 now and we don't overface him with mares but thankfully he was still very fertile last season.”

The dual-purpose roster at Overbury has a new stallion for 2020, Le Brivido (Fr), the first son of Siyouni (Fr) to retire to stud in Britain.

As One Gets Away…
We've become accustomed to seeing Michael Tabor's famous blue and orange silks borne to victory by range of top Flat horses but the owner has also raced the odd jumper, and he added a classy recruit to his string from the Tattersalls December Sale when buying Verdana Blue (Ire) (Getaway {Ger}) from Crimbourne Bloodstock for 370,000gns.

The 7-year-old mare, who has also won and been listed-placed on the Flat, was another to dethrone Buveur d'Air, beating her stablemate by a short-head in last year's G1 Christmas Hurdle at Kempton.

Despite spending a few days at Newmarket while being inspected for the sales, she had galloped on the Saturday before she travelled and is on course for another crack at the race this Boxing Day now that she has been returned to the care of Nicky Henderson.

She won't be the first top-class jumping mare to race for Tabor as he also owned the 13-time winner Refinement (Ire) (Oscar {Ire}), whose record includes two Grade 1 victories at the Punchestown festival. She has produced two winners to date, Meticulous (Ire) (Fame And Glory {GB}) and West Coast Time (Ire) (Westerner {GB}), both bred by Tabor and trained by Joseph O'Brien.

While Verdana Blue has now left the fold, the team at Crimbourne Stud, headed by Charlie Parker, looks to have another exciting mare to race in Vegas Blue (Ire). The Frank Motherway-bred 4-year-old is another daughter of Grange Stud's Getaway and was pinhooked as a foal for €10,000 by Harry Fowler and Ben Halsall, who later sold her through Fowler's Rahinston Farm & Stud for €30,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale.

Trained alongside Verdana Blue at Henderson's Seven Barrows, Vegas Blue has won her two starts to date, most recently romping to a four-length victory in the listed Fitzdares Henrietta Knight Bumper at Huntingdon. She's smartly bred, too: her dam Bella Venezia (Ire) (Milan {GB}) is a half-sister to the GI Irish Gold Cup winner Bellshill (Ire) (King's Theatre {Ire}) and she has made a good start to her broodmare career with three winners from three runners.

Scottish Stud Accruing Smart Prospects
Until recent seasons, finding a mare in training in many of the big National Hunt stables was no easy feat. Willie Mullins and Nicky Henderson have always had a clutch of good mares among their strings and many others are now following suit thanks to enhanced racing programmes for mares in Britain and Ireland, along with a number of TBA/ITBA-led initiatives.

Mares-only races continue to have their detractors but their rise in prominence is important in order for National Hunt breeding to thrive—not just in boosting previously woeful prices for fillies at National Hunt foal and store sales but in encouraging owners and trainers to test them on the track. Only from a decent vat will the cream rise to the top and be able to go on to compete in open company.

Such an example is the Henry de Bromhead-trained Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {GB}), who races for Kenny Alexander, one of the sport's greatest supporters of jumps mares, which are selected for him by Peter Molony.

Alexander is now the co-owner of New Hall Stud in Ayrshire, the former base of Gordon Thom and birthplace of Group 1 winner Donna Blini (GB) (Bertolini), the dam of Gentildonna (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}). In Honeysuckle, Alexander has an elite future broodmare for his fledgling breeding operation. The 5-year-old mare is unbeaten in six starts under rules, her two victories this season both being against males and including her recent nine-length triumph in the G1 Hatton's Grace Hurdle.

Honeysuckle was bred at Doug and Lucy Procter's The Glanvilles Stud by Geoffrey Guy, and though her dam First Royal (Ger) (Lando {Ger}) died in 2015, the Dorset farm is still home to Honeysuckle's half-sister Roc Royal (GB) (Shirocco {Ger}), who is currently in foal to Motivator (GB). Meanwhile her year-younger full-brother Last Royal (GB) is in training with Keiran Burke.

Classic Class Of 2001
Galileo (Ire) and Milan (GB) were born three weeks apart, went on to win the Derby and St Leger of 2001, and now the 21-year-old sons of Sadler's Wells are leading their respective sires' tables for the Flat and National Hunt.

In the case of Galileo, this is hardly news, but Milan has been threatening to land the National Hunt title for some time, though with a feast of top-class Christmas action just around the corner, the standings may well be shaken up in the weeks to come. Currently snapping at his heels is another son of Sadler's Wells, the four-time Gold Cup winner Yeats (Ire), now 18. At the time of writing, Yeats was the only other stallion to have passed £1 million in progeny earnings and he has been creeping up the National Hunt rankings with each passing year. His highest-profile representative this season is De Rasher Counter (Ire), winner of the G3 Ladbrokes Trophy Chase—the race still better known as 'The Hennessy'—while another favourite among his offspring is the classy mare, 10-time winner Shattered Love (Ire), who landed last season's G1 JLT Novices' Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.