Arise State Man!

The son of Doctor Dino takes himself to a new level with victory over Honeysuckle in the Grade 1 Irish Champion Hurdle on Dublin Festival weekend, writes Amy Bennett

THAT FRENCH-BREDS are a dominant force in NH racing is scarcely any more revelatory than the fact that Willie Mullins can train a bit. However, the two-day Dublin Racing Festival, hosted by Leopardstown at the start of February, underlined those two facts in bold black lines.

Of the eight Grade 1 races staged over the blockbuster weekend, French-breds landed every single one, with French-based sires accounting for six of the octet and the remaining two both conceived before their sires – Blue Bresil and Jukebox Jury –relocated to Ireland.

As for that man Mullins, the master of Closutton trained six of the eight top-level winners at Leopardstown, including the showpiece on Day 1, the Irish Gold Cup (G1), which went the way of the multiple top-level scorer Galopin Des Champs (Timos).

Gordon Elliot recorded a cross-Irish Sea Grade 1 double over the weekend, winning the Scilly Isles Novices Chase (G1) at Sandown with another French-bred in Gerri Colombe (Saddler Maker), before following up a day later at Leopardstown with Mighty Potter in the Ladbrokes Novice Chase (G1).

There were many talking points both before and after the weekend’s action, not least with the Cheltenham Festival looming large.

For all the young pretenders with their sights on Cheltenham, it was an older stager who had all eyes on her on Sunday.

Now nine, Honeysuckle is at an age where her Flat counterparts have usually delivered three or four foals, but the daughter of Sulamani instead bid for her fourth consecutive victory in the Irish Champion Hurdle (G1).

The mighty mare came up short for only the second time in her career, going down by just under 5l, and it has since been confirmed that she will not contest a third Champion Hurdle (G1) in March, instead returning to the scene of her 2020 triumph in the Mares’ Hurdle (G1).

Her conqueror, three years her junior, was State Man, who made all to clock up his fourth consecutive top-level triumph, and is now unbeaten in all six of his completed starts over hurdles in Ireland and Britain.

Those victories included the County Hurdle (G3) at last year’s Cheltenham Festival, and with two decades having elapsed since Rooster Booster became the last horse to do the County HurdleChampion Hurdle double, history weighs heavy on State Man.

State Man’s sire Doctor Dino stood for a career high of €20,000 last year and will repeat the feat this season at Haras du Mesnil, an impressive rise on the €3,000 he commanded just eight years ago.

Bred by Vincent Barrett’s M L Bloodstock, State Man is out of the Listed-winning hurdler Arret Station (Johann Quatz).

She banked €260,530 during an impressively active career for a mare – 42 starts over the course of four years – but did not attract much attention when she passed through the Osarus sale ring at MaisonsLaffitte in June 2011, two years after her Listed success.

Purchased privately for €13,000 by Barrett, she won once more for him in a 37000m chase at Auteuil the following April before departing for the paddocks.

Barrett hit the jackpot with the mare’s second foal, the 2021 Royal Bond Novice Hurdle (G1) winner Statuaire (Muhtathir), and she has also produced the Listed-placed Stop Line (Martaline).

Another top level winner by Blue Bresil: Good Land ridden by Michael O’Sullivan

The 17-year-old produced a filly by It’s Gino last year, following on from daughters of Born To Sea and Pastorius in the previous two seasons.

Honeysuckle may have come up short in the Irish Champion Hurdle, but owner Kenny Alexander celebrated a top-level success with another filly in the Spring Juvenile Hurdle (G1) on the opening day of the meeting when Gala Matceau overturned her better-fancied stablemate Lossiemouth to lead home a 1-2-3 for Mullins.

A Listed winner at Auteuil on her final start last April in her native France, the four-year-old daughter of Galiway was beaten seven and half lengths by Lossiemouth in a Grade 2 juvenile hurdle over course and distance on St Stephen’s Day.

The tables were turned in emphatic fashion in February however, although with Lossiemouth having hit plenty of trouble in running the winner still lags her stablemate in the Triumph Hurdle betting.

French-based stallions may have dominated, but it was heartening to see Burgage Stud’s Jukebox Jury gain a new Grade 1 winner, albeit conceived during the stallion’s last season at Gestüt Etzean.

Il Etait Temps stayed on strongly for an easy victory in the Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle (G1), a first Graded victory for the five-year-old, runner-up to Facile Vega in the Future Champions Novice Chase (G1) over course and distance on December 27. With that rival, and stablemate, failing to fire in February, it was left to Il Etait Temps to land the spoils.

He is a third winner at the highest level over obstacles for his sire, who relocated from Germany to Burgage for the 2018 season, the same year Il Etait Temps was foaled.

The Prix du Cadran (G1) heroine Princess Zoe remains his biggest success to date on the Flat, and it was interesting to see that mare make her hurdling debut at the end of January, hanging on for a dead-heat with Ladybank (Balko) in a maiden hurdle over an extended 2m4f at Punchestown for Anthony and Danny Mullins.

Interestingly, the Burgage Stud stallions scored a trans-Atlantic stakes double on the day with Jukebox Jury’s studmate Fascinating Rock responsible for the Thunder Road Stakes (G3) winner Earls Rock at Santa Anita.

Trained by Andrew Slattery before his move Stateside, it was a first Graded victory relocating to Burgage Stud for the 2022 season.

With Constitution Hill dominating talk ahead of the Cheltenham Festival, his sire Blue Bresil, resident at Glenview Stud, looks to have not so much another talking horse on his hands as a shouting one.

Having hacked up in a Wexford bumper in at Leopardstown over Christmas. Pitched straight in at the highest level in the opening race on the Dublin Festival card, a Grade 1 novice hurdle over 2m6f, he sluiced home by a length and a half to beat the Grade 2-placed Absolute Notions (Milan).

The Grade 2 mares' bumper winner Fun Fun Fun

Gentleman De Mee: wins his first Grade 1 outside of novice company

A day later, Good Land’s paternal halfbrother Blue Lord (Blue Bresil) was widely touted to follow up on his success in last year’s Irish Arkle Novice Chase (G1) at the same meeting with success in the Dublin Chase (G1).

However, victory went to his stablemate Gentleman De Mee, with the son of Saint Des Saints registering his second top-level triumph after last year’s Maghull Novices’ Chase (G1) at the expense of his heavily odds-on stablemate Blue Lord.

The winner, bred by the Pommerai family and Gwenaelle Barre out of the Video Rock mare Koeur De Mee, was clearly no slouch as a novice, even if he had struggled to hit his stride this season prior to February. He is now as short as 10/1 for the Queen Mother Champion Chase (G1).

The loss of Martaline, who died in November 2019, is still keenly felt, underlined by a Graded double on Day 2 at Leopardstown.

Mighty Potter was an impressive winner of the Ladbrokes Novice Chase (G1) for Gordon Elliott, recording his fourth Grade 1 success in total and second over fences.

Pulled up in last year’s Supreme Novices’ Hurdle (G1), the six-year-old has the Turners Novices’ Chase (G1), registered as the Golden Miller, in his sights at this year’s meeting.

His victory at Leopardstown was also notable for providing Davy Russell with his first Group 1 success since his improbable return from retirement.

Martaline also provided the final winner of the meeting when Fun Fun Fun hacked up in the Grade 2 mares’ bumper giving Willie Mullins his eighth victory of the two-day meeting.

It was also a second winner of the meeting for Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, who also saw their green colours carried to success by the Irish Arkle Novice Chase (G1) victor El Fabiolo, a son of Spanish Moon, who was recording his first Graded victory.

The Grade 2 bumper that closed the Day 1 card went the way of A Dream To Share, providing a fairytale result for Brian and Claire Gleeson, who not only bred the five-year-old son of Muhaarar, but also the winning jockey, son John.

By a champion sprinter out of a Galileo mare, the winner could feasibly have had his sights on shorter pursuits than bumpers, but he made a winning debut in that discipline in May, sluicing up at Tipperary, before following up at Roscommon a month later.

After a break of 235 days, A Dream to Share returned to triumph at Leopardstown by almost 3l and will now head to Prestbury Park.

Also boasting a pedigree for the Flat was Final Orders, who landed the 2m1f Grade B chase on the opening day at Leopardstown.

Gavin Cromwell’s charge is a son of Camelot, out of a Pivotal mare, and was placed as a three-year-old for Simon Crisford before switching disciplines after being purchased for 14,000gns at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale in 2019.

He is now unbeaten in his last five starts over fences and could line up in the Arkle at Cheltenham.

A day later at Musselburgh, Camelot was also represented by another eye-catching jumper in Afadil, who stayed on strongly to land the Listed Scottish Triumph Hurdle for Paul Nicholls.

A graduate of the Aga Khan’s nursery and a winner in France for Francis Graffard, he is a €255,000 graduate of last year’s Summer Sale at Arqana, where he was snapped up by Tom Malone.

A Dream To Share (Muhaarar), ridden by John Gleeson and bred by his family out of the Galileo mare Hikari, wins the Grade 2 Future Stars bumper