Breakthrough National Hunt triumph for sire Golden Horn

The highly versatile Stag Horn provided another string to the bow of his sire Golden Horn as he earned the Darley stallion a first Graded success in the world of National Hunt racing in the Ballymore Leamington Novices' Hurdle at Warwick.

Such a gruelling assignment was not among the obvious targets for Archie Watson's five-year-old at the outset of his career, which included a third to Derby runner-up and Lacken Stud recruit Khalifa Sat on his second start as a juvenile.

Owned and bred by the Arbib family, Stag Horn won four handicaps from six starts in 2020 and also landed last year's Phil Bull Conditions Stakes at Pontefract.

He was switched to hurdles at Hereford in December and retained his unbeaten record with a game performance under Nick Scholfield.

View result and watch the replay here

Stag Horn is a half-brother to Listed winner and twice Group 2-placed Star Rock and a three-parts brother to winning hurdler Star Rider from a family that have served his breeders well.

Their Galileo dam Starfala, another homebred, was runner-up in the Park Hill Stakes and is a sibling to the very smart Under The Rainbow and Group performer Sweeping Up, dam of Watson's promising three-year-old Sweeping.

Although the sire of plenty of winners, Golden Horn has undoubtedly fallen down the Flat pecking order to a fee of £10,000 this year but promising results from his first two crops eligible to go hurdling will be noted by the industry.

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