Mums Tipple raises a glass to Footstepsinthesand after striking victory

Although there is always a temptation to chalk down as arresting a performance as that of Mums Tipple in the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Stakes as a one-off, there is some encouragement in his profile to suggest he is no fly-by-night success.

Quotes of around 12-1 were coming in for the Commonwealth Cup and Qipco 2,000 Guineas after Richard Hannon’s representative flew an astonishing 11 lengths clear in a time only 0.42s slower than the six-furlong juvenile track record belonging to former Hannon inmate Tiggy Wiggy, who was carrying 5lb less in the 2014 Lowther.

Mums Tipple was bought for what now looks an incredible-value £45,000 by Peter and Ross Doyle essentially because his dam Colomone Cross, unplaced in a handful of starts for Frances Crowley, had produced nothing of consequence from three previous foals to have run.

A half-sister by Strategic Prince, named Agnes Seice, was second over a mile in the Czech Republic and in sprints in France. As a flashy chestnut with four white socks, he is not one for equine aesthetes either.

There is some stamina present with Colomone Cross being from the immediate family of Chester Vase scorer Twist And Turn, while her half-sister Gwaihir was a Listed winner and Group 3-placed over a mile.

Mums Tipple's sire, Footstepsinthesand, is not the most fashionable, but neither was the breeding of other Hannon stars such as Canford Cliffs particularly illustrious.

Coolmore’s stallion, a Guineas winner himself and from the Giant’s Causeway-Storm Cat line, has had a hatful of winners from a decade’s service and has shuttled to Argentina and Australia. His best-known performers have been more mature types winning at up to a mile, such as Matron Stakes heroine Chachamaidee and Italian Group 1 winner Shamalgan.

It would appear that a mile will be Mums Tipple’s limit, if not necessarily beyond his compass. Should he prove that Wednesday’s fireworks were no fluke and others do not catch up with this powerful individual, the Guineas will surely be hard to resist with the option of reverting to sprinting still on the table.

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