‘How good can he be? I don't know is the answer’ - Barton double increasing the chance of Snow

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On this occasion, Tom Peacock talks to Willie Murphy about Barton Snow – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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Barton Snow's coronation as the undisputed champion of the hunter chase world has not come as a total surprise to the man who has known him longer than most.

Willie Murphy used to train the new holder of the Cheltenham and Aintree Foxhunters' titles before he was bought by the MMI Partnership and switched to Joe O'Shea's Cheshire operation towards the end of 2024.

He has retained a close contact with the team, so much so that the superstitious owners asked him to lead up Barton Snow for his festival assisngments. Still in awe at the way he strolled around the Elbow and seven lengths clear without coming off the bridle for Henry Crow last week, Murphy is hopeful it provides a decent advertisement of what his resident sire Snow Sky is capable of.

Murphy trains some point-to-pointers alongside hosting stallions and raising stock at Ballycurragh Stud in County Carlow. He took on Barton Snow from his veteran breeder Thomas Hutton, also a neighbour.

"He's a magical horse," he says. "He came to us in the spring as a three-year-old and didn't leave us until the current connections ended up with him. 

"I'm not a very good rider but I rode him every day for about two years, he was push-button, automatic. If you wanted to go quick, you'd actually lean down on his neck and he'd go quick, and if you wanted to slow him up you'd sit back up off his neck and that's what he was. He was a pleasure to have around the place."

Murphy's experience is a more measured version of O'Shea's post-race Aintree suggestion that Barton Snow would "beat Artemis II to the moon” on evidence from the gallops, although the trainer in the same breath decried his star as a "dodgepot" who stops when he hits the front, hence Crow's unconventionally tender riding in both showpiece races.

Willie Murphy stands Snow Sky at Ballycurragh StudCredit: Tattersalls Ireland/Healy Racing

The Irishman confirms as much, albeit a little more kindly.

"He was just beaten in a bumper over here and we probably lost a couple of races because we were getting to the front too soon with him and he decided to do what he did in Cheltenham but got away with it there," he says. "Once he got to the front he'd alway kind of think he had enough done.

"He's had the little trait all the way though, even at home when he'd go in front, but he was still unbelievable."

Now nine, Barton Snow would appear to have outgrown the amateur sector of the sport. The Cheltenham-Aintree double has been rarely achieved and not with such contemptuous ease within recent memory.

Whether he can now evoke the likes of Teeton Mill and Cool Dawn and ascend from the British point-to-point field to the pinnacle of the sport will be a question only answerable by the enigmatic O'Shea.

"When we had him he was never in the first four over hurdles he finished 18 lengths behind [Tattersalls Gold Cup winner and Galway Hurdle runner-up] Helvic Dream in a maiden hurdle one day and not far off a good horse of Henry de Bromhead's called Waterford Whispers," Murphy recalls.

Snow Sky: won the Hardwicke Stakes in his racing daysCredit: Alan Crowhurst

"So his form was very good all the way along. How good can he be? I don't know is the answer. A race I'd love to see him is a Galway Plate, which he never will be in, but I think he'd love that track and it would suit his style."

Barton Snow is now the highest-rated offspring by Snow Sky, the St Leger-placed and Hardwicke-winning sire who has been with Murphy since 2016 and stands for a private fee. The crops of the stoutly-bred son of Nayef have tended to range between 30 and 40 foals per year.

"I'm not going to tell you the phone is ringing off the wall but we've had a couple more calls as a result. He doesn't have big numbers on the ground and for the numbers he has, I think he's actually doing quite well," Murphy says.

"Gavin Cromwell has a lovely horse by him, Sixandahalf, and another [sister] called Fiveandahalf ran at Limerick a little while ago and looked to have some promise.

"He's a horse that hasn't had a lot of luck with one or two of his nicer horses but we had a point-to-point winner ourselves by him a week ago Sunday [Johnny K]. We've also got a lovely four-year-old and a five-year-old by him that we'll probably run in the autumn."

If O'Shea's words continue to be prophetic, we can expect something pretty special from Barton Snow's stablemate Boley Bob in next month's Heart of All England at Hexham as he was adamant that the six-year-old is an even better horse.

He has followed the same path from Murphy, for whom he won his final two Irish point-to-points last year, to a four-timer for O'Shea and a similar ownership to the MMI Partnership, during 2026. Any further progress will aid Ballycurragh Stud, too, as he's another Snow Sky.

"We didn't breed him but we bred Boley Bob's mother and grandmother," Murphy explains.

Henry Crow celebrates Barton Snow’s Cheltenham winCredit: Andrew Parker (Grossick Photography)

"They've got similar temperament but are different horses. Boley Bob was a lot more chilled out. Barton Snow's temperament is good but if you put him upsides another horse he'll want to race, but Boley Bob is just, 'Sure, we'll just go with the flow here'.

"He's very well bred. My doubt with Barton Snow was whether he'd get three miles and two at Cheltenham, I'd always thought two five, six, was his trip. I think Boley Bob is possibly more of a stayer, but he's not slow either now."

The Murphy family have been running Ballycurragh Stud for almost 60 years now, with Irish Leger winner Flag Of Honour also on the roster and always room for another. 

Nonagenarian Hutton is one of the small breeders with whom the stud has been interlinked for decades and his past successes confirm this part of the world's reputation for producing National Hunt excellence.

"He bred Barton Snow and he also bred [1993 King George winner] Barton Bank in the 90s," Murphy says.

"He was also by our stallion Kambalda, who sired other good horses like Miinnehoma and Space Trucker. They're probably the two best horses by both stallions and the same man bred them both."

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Pedigree pick

The Wood Ditton Maiden Stakes (2.25) is packed full of well-bred three-year-olds, but it is hard to look past Portcullis in terms of pedigree. 

Owned by the King and Queen and trained by John and Thady Gosden, the colt is by supersire Frankel out of French Guineas winner Castle Lady, who also finished second in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. He is the second foal out of the daughter of Shamardal, her first is Crown Estate, a winning son of Dubawi. 

Castle Lady is a half-sister to Top Score, a Listed-winning son of Hard Spun.