Monday

The email bloodstock wakes up to

 

French National Hunt breeders’ custom of attaching the same suffix to their homebred stock can often serve as a useful hallmark of quality.

The Delorme brothers’ ‘Collonges’ clan, Patrick Joubert’s ‘Conti’ kindred, the Boudot family’s ‘Du Seuil’ dynasty and the Lucas family’s ‘Berlais’ brood are among those that have effectively become high-end brands in Britain and Ireland.

Two other French breeders whose runners often carry a familiar trademark were to the fore in this weekend’s big races.

Bruno Vagne, who has already given the world the brilliant talents Envoi Allen and Espoir D’Allen, is also responsible for Saturday’s Denman Chase winner Eldorado Allen and Warwick Castle Handicap Chase scorer Celebre D’Allen.

All four of those horses – plus recent Spring Juvenile Hurdle third Il Etait Temps and this season’s smart novice chaser Gladiateur Allen – are descended from the 1987-foaled Rhapsodien mare Violeta.

The family has been nurtured by the Vagnes for more than half a century, although it is something of a miracle that it has flourished so abundantly, as Violeta’s dam Dalila, a 1969-foaled daughter of Vieux Chateau, was the only foal of the 1962-foaled Verdi mare Scarlett H, purchased by Bruno’s father Andre in 1967.

Other descendants of Dalila bred by the Vagnes include Martin Pipe and David Johnson’s classy chaser Eudipe and this season’s smart handicap chasers Enjoy D’Allen and Galahad Quest.

The other well-known French fashion label that enjoyed success in the last few days was Gilles Trapenard’s house of ‘Sivola’, best known for three-time Long Walk Hurdle hero Reve De Sivola, Cheltenham Festival winner Poker De Sivola and Scottish Grand National runner-up Nine De Sivola.

Trapenard’s latest masterpiece is Funambule Sivola, a convincing winner of the Game Spirit Chase at Newbury on Saturday.

The seven-year-old is from a family not long in Trapenard’s possession, as he is out of Little Memories, a daughter of Montjeu bred by Klaus Hofmann and raced by him in Germany.

He is, however, by a sire the breeder stood himself at Elevage de Sivola in Noroit, a son of Monsun who has also supplied the 130-plus rated Diable De Sivola, Diplomate Sivola, Faire Part Sivola and Interne De Sivola.

It’s less common to see National Hunt operators in Britain and Ireland give horses names that include a readily identifiable signifier of their heritage, probably because most are sold earlier in their lives than in France.

There is one obvious exception, of course, in point-to-point supremo John Nallen, who is keen to spread the word about his family’s Hotel Minella through his runners, and so gives them all names including ‘Minella’ – unless he is thwarted by the raw material he purchases already having been christened, as was the case with Notebook.

It should provide a degree of reassurance to those who buy Nallen’s graduates that the vendor is so happy to stand behind them and let it be known for ever more that they were once in his care. That’s confidence in your own product.

Nallen’s pride has been proved to be well placed; spectacularly so in the last year, as he achieved the extraordinary feat of selling the winners of both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National last season, in Minella Indo (pictured below) and Minella Times, who were named after newspapers lying on the hotel’s front desk when registrations were being made.

 

 

 

Another couple of Minellas – Cocooner and Crooner, named in honour of ‘Crooning for Cocooners’, an outside concert held by the hotel during lockdown in 2020 – finished first and second in this month’s Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown.

Not all Nallen’s naming brainwaves have been as brilliant, it has to be said, and a quick search on the Racing Post database brings up examples ranging from the mundane – Minella Reception, Minella Suite, Minella Voucher etc – to the slightly too advertorial Minella For Beef and Minella For Steak, and others that leave you wanting to know more, such as Minella Mistake.

I think Nallen would see the funny side of some of the names he’s given his charges, as he is one of the nicest people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in an industry full of good eggs.

There is another Irish operation that has stuck to a naming convention with its key family through the decades. It is on a smaller scale, perhaps, but it has been a wonderfully prolific pedigree and it was also in the ribbons on Saturday: Stephanie Hanly’s band of Baloos.

Hanly was working for the late Tote Cherry-Downes when he was managing Lord Dunraven’s Fort Union Stud in County Limerick in the 1970s when the farm was going to move on its Big Game mare Salle Privee at the age of 23. But she took a shine to the ageing mare and decided to take her home and have a crack at breeding herself.

Hanly bred just one foal from Salle Privee, the 1977-foaled Lucky Brief filly Lane Baloo, but has managed to cultivate a fine family of jumpers from her at Grange Hill Stud.

Lane Baloo was the dam of seven winners, including the very smart Lucky Baloo, and four of her daughters produced Graded winners for Hanly. Ash Baloo was the dam of multiple Grade 1 hero Oscar Whisky; Wild Spell was the dam of Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase winner Sporting John; My Baloo was the dam of Grade 2-winning novice hurdler Kahuna; and Supreme Baloo was the dam of Grade 2 bumper scorer Drumbaloo.

Furthermore, Lane Baloo’s daughter Sky Baloo was the dam of Morsky Baloo, who produced for Fiona Evans the really likeable high-class hurdler and chaser Seeyouatmidnight.

It was from Oscar Whisky’s unraced full-sister Annabaloo that Hanly bred Saturday’s exciting Newbury novice hurdle winner Surtitle. This is a family that certainly seems to be blessed with the bear necessities for jumping.

As with ‘Allen’, ‘Sivola’ and ‘Minella’, the presence of ‘Baloo’ on the racecard, whether in the horse’s name or pedigree, has often been a byword for brilliance.