Intense Raffles a homebred hero for Munir and Souede at Fairyhouse

Six-year-old Intense Raffles provided owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede with one of the biggest successes of their breeding operation when winning the BoyleSports Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse on Monday.

The grey son of Martaline was bred by his owners out of Munir's Grade 3 Fred Winter Handicap Hurdle winner Une Artiste. An AQPS mare by the Group 1 Criterium de Saint Cloud winner Alberto Giacometti, a son of Sadler's Wells, Une Artiste was trained by Nicky Henderson.

In addition to her Cheltenham Grade 3 victory, Une Artiste won three Listed races over hurdles and the final success of her racing career came at the 2014 Irish Grand National meeting, where she won the Grade 3 John & Chich Fowler Memorial EBF Mares Chase.

She was returned to her native France for her breeding career and she is the dam of three winners from four runners. Intense Raffles is her second foal and he won three times in France, including twice over hurdles at Auteuil. He was switched to the yard of 2012 Irish Grand National-winning trainer Tom Gibney and he is now three from three since moving to Ireland, with all of his wins coming at Fairyhouse.

Une Artiste's first foal is the dual hurdles winner Great Raffles, by Kapgarde, while her third, Jermyn Raffles, is a winning full-brother to Intense Raffles.

She has a four-year-old gelding by Saint Des Saints named King Raffles and he made his debut in January for Patrice Quinton. His year-younger Doctor Dino half-sister Lady Raffles is registered in training with Quinton, while Une Artiste has a yearling son by Doctor Dino and returned to Haras du Mesnil to be covered by him again last spring.

Significant weekend for Walk In The Park's title bid

Walk In The Park hit the headlines over the weekend with the birth of Honeysuckle's first foal, a daughter of the Grange Stud sire, on Saturday but of more immediate significance was the success of Spillane's Tower in the Grade 1 WillowWarm Gold Cup at Fairyhouse.

JP and Noreen McManus's homebred gelding is the seventh individual Grade 1 winner sired by Walk In The Park, who was runner-up to Motivator in the 2005 Derby. The victory also extended his lead over the late Fame And Glory, another son of Montjeu, in the race to be crowned champion National Hunt sire of Britain and Ireland.

With the Aintree and Punchestown festivals still to come this month, in addition to major meetings at Ayr and Sandown, the 22-year-old leads Fame And Glory by £709,426/€829,072.

Spillane's Tower is the seventh Grade 1 winner for his sire Walk In The ParkCredit: Getty Images

He is in pole position to claim a first title which has been powered by quality as well as quantity. Of the top ten stallions only Getaway has sired more runners, but Walk In The Park has a strike-rate of 37 per cent as opposed to Getaway's 27 per cent. Walk In The Park's winners to runners ratio is one point better than his nearest pursuer Fame And Glory, while that of Saint Des Saints comes in at 35 per cent, albeit from a much smaller sample size.

Spillane's Tower is one of 16 black-type winners for Walk In The Park this season, and he is the only sire who can boast that level of success. 

The next best is the late Shantou, who has nine individual black-type winners, with Fame And Glory on eight. Walk In The Park's strike-rate is a healthy 22 per cent in black-type contests, the third best percentage of stallions in the top ten, with Flemensfirth's 27 per cent the bench mark. Saint Des Saints, who rounds out the top ten, has a 26 per cent winning rate in black-type races.

Doctor Dino lies just outside the top ten in the table but has the same black-type winners to runners percentage as Flemensfirth, and Haras du Mesnil's leading sire recorded his ninth Grade 1 winner at Fairyhouse through Jade De Grugy in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Honeysuckle Mares' Novice Hurdle.

JP and Noreen McManus have also been instrumental in Walk In The Park's success this year, breeding three major winners. In addition to the Jimmy Mangan-trained Spillane's Tower, who was already the winner of a Grade 3 Punchestown novice chase in January, their homebred Walk In The Park winners this season include the Cheltenham Festival winners and full-siblings Inothewayurthinkin and Limerick Lace.

Walk In The Park leads the race to be crowned champion National Hunt sireCredit: Coolmore

Inothewayurthinkin was successful in the Kim Muir, while the year older Limerick Lace won the Grade 2 mares' chase, both trained by Gavin Cromwell. Limerick Lace makes the cut for the Grand National, for which she is a best-priced 25-1, and is the only offspring of Walk In The Park in the frame for the Aintree extravaganza.

Another of Walk In The Park's Grade 1 winners, Jonbon, also carries the green and gold McManus silks.

A first sires' championship is likely to only fuel the demand for the progeny of Walk In The Park during the store sales season, which gets under way next month, and there are 158 members of his three-year-old crop, although not all of them will be available for sale.

Usually there is a frenzy of bidding for the choicest specimens and most regally bred lots by the Coolmore sire and, while a store average of €60,983 in 2023 is a figure the vast majority of National Hunt stallion masters would highlight in advertising, it actually represented a decline of 13 per cent on his 2022 average of €70,481.

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