Full-brother to Airlie Beach set for track debut at Kelso for Middleham Park

Ain't No Sunshine, a full-brother to the ill-fated Grade 1-winning hurdler Airlie Beach, will make his racecourse debut in the bumper at Kelso on Friday.

Trained by Keith Dalgleish and owned by Middleham Park Racing, the son of Shantou was picked up by Kevin Ross for €75,000 at the 2019 Goffs Land Rover Sale before being part of the Straightline Bloodstock dispersal at the Goffs UK December Sale last year. There he made £35,000 to Middleham Park.

The gelding is the seventh foal out of the Shernazar mare Screaming Witness, and is therefore a full- or half-brother to five winners including Airlie Beach and Screaming Rose, both of whom were trained by Willie Mullins.

Airlie Beach was a high-class performer in both disciplines, with wins in the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle and European Breeders Fund Lough Construction Ltd Mares Novice Hurdle among her jumping highlights. She bowed out when winning a Listed contest on the Flat at Galway in 2017.

Airlie Beach, who was bred by Mullins' wife Jackie, was also famous for having been accidentally covered as a two-year-old, with her produce named Accidental.

Having sadly died in June 2019, within days of her son's fatal injury in a maiden hurdle, she left behind a foal by Walk In The Park. Her four-year-old Mount Nelson gelding was offered at Goffs last June but did not sell.

Ain't No Sunshine is also a half-sibling to Screaming Rose, a daughter of Darsi who won five times under rules and was also black type-placed twice over hurdles for Ireland's champion trainer, as well as triple bumper scorer Valerian Bridge, dual-winning hurdler Irish Lass and the useful Dr Machini.

The pair are also related to the unraced Daydream Beach, whose Crystal Ocean colt topped last November's Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale when selling to Kevin Ross Bloodstock and Ben Case for €120,000.

The six-year-old will face a maximum ten rivals in the bumper (4.10), including Grady Gaston, a Dawn Approach half-brother to Group winner and Grade 1-winning sire Coulsty, the once-raced Hard Iron, a Milan close relation to the Grade 3-winning and Grade 1-placed chaser Royal Rendezvous, and Midnight Fiddler, a son of Midnight Legend who is from the family of Aintree Hurdle scorer and Champion Hurdle runner-up Celtic Chief.

There is another very well-related sort in the earlier novice hurdle (1.30) at Kelso, with Cliffs Of Dooneen, a full-brother to Irish Derby hero Sovereign, set to make his hurdles debut after a 570-day absence.

The son of Galileo and the beautifully bred Danehill Dancer mare Devoted To You won twice on the Flat for Aidan O'Brien before moving to Ralph Beckett and then Rose Dobbin.

Bred by Barronstown Stud, the seven-year-old is the fourth foal out of his dam, who was a Group-placed juvenile for O'Brien and is out of an unraced half-sister to the great Balanchine.

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