'Silver Birch taught her well!' – how a Grand National great played his part in the education of a recent black-type winner

Click here to add us to your Google preferred sources or find out more here

Good Morning Bloodstock is an exclusive daily email sent by the Racing Post bloodstock team and published here as a free sample.

On this occasion, Martin Stevens speaks to Cormac McEvoy about the part his National winner played in the education of a recent Listed winner – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

All you need do is click on the link above, sign up and then read at your leisure each weekday morning from 7am.

Whether it is the magnificent spectacle, the storied history or the enduring popular appeal – or all of those things combined – there is something uniquely magical about the Grand National.

In another illustration of that point, delivered in remarkably timely fashion, a little Grand National stardust rubbed off on a notable winner at the Fairyhouse Easter Festival a week before this year’s renewal of the Aintree spectacular.

Belladaball, who broke her maiden in the Listed mares’ bumper at the Meath track on Saturday, was supervised in her youth by none other than the retired 2007 Grand National hero Silver Birch at their mutual owner Brian Walsh’s stud in County Kildare. 

The Gavin Cromwell-trained five-year-old became the first horse to carry Silver Birch’s black silks with light blue star and light blue sleeves with black stars to victory in more than a decade. She was bred by Walsh and is campaigned by him in partnership with Derrinstown Stud stallion man Cormac McEvoy, along with their respective families.

“It’s been a long time between drinks,” says Walsh with a wry smile. “Cormac and I ran a little syndicate a while back and we had a good High Chaparral mare called Saratoga Baby who managed to win on the different surfaces at Dundalk, the Curragh and Laytown in the same season, but that’s 13 years ago now. 

“I’ve had a few other horses in training in more recent years and they would show a little bit of talent, but never quite enough to go ahead with them, so it was nice to win that Listed race. 

“God knows I could never complain, though. I had an awful lot of luck many years ago. It's just that it came all in one go.”

Indeed, the youthful nature of the Silver Birch team was the story of the 2007 Grand National. Walsh himself was just 26 when he lifted the trophy and trainer Gordon Elliott was only three years older, and hadn’t saddled a winner at home in Ireland by that point, while jockey Robbie Power made it a hat-trick of under-30s involved with the son of Clearly Bust.

Recalling the events of April 14, 2007, Walsh says: “Oh God, it was all a blur to be honest. Everything happened so fast. I thought Silver Birch would run well, and maybe even finish in the places, as he was in good form, but if you’d asked me if I thought he’d win, I’d have told you definitely not.

“Myself and Mick Donohoe had bought the horse in Doncaster less than a year before. Gordon had mentioned him to me, so I rang him and asked if he had anyone to buy him. He didn’t, so I took the opportunity to get him, thinking he would be an ideal type for cross-country chases, as I had an interest in that type of race. I had the La Touche Cup at Punchestown in the back of my mind for him more than the Grand National.

“But by the time the Grand National came around that spring, he was rated highly enough to get into it, he’d been fancied for the race before, having won the Becher Chase for Paul Nicholls, and he’d recently finished second in the cross-country chase at Cheltenham, so we had to go for it.”

Silver Birch wasn’t even the twentysomething Walsh’s first National winner of sorts, thanks to a fruitful relationship he had struck up with Lambourn trainer Charlie Mann not long before.

Silver Birch comes home in front in the 2007 Grand National

“I got lucky when I was in my early 20s by selling a bit of development land for good money, and as I’d always had a strong interest in horses I started buying a few broodmares not long after,” says the owner and breeder, who is only 45 and still sounds enthusiastic, which makes hearing him become nostalgic about leading in big-race winners two decades ago rather jarring. 

“The racehorses were part and parcel of that, and I was just incredibly lucky in the first few years. I’d always followed Charlie, as plenty of his horses ran up sequences and he always seemed to produce good stats. So when he advertised for sale a quarter-share in Good Shuil, who was going for the Grand National in 2004, I bought it, and that’s how it started.

“We had Rheindross win the Summer National at Uttoxeter in 2005 and Air Force One win the Champion Novice Chase at Punchestown and finish second in the Hennessy at Newbury in 2008. They were great days.

“I must admit, I was fooled into thinking that racehorse ownership was pretty easy back then. But after those few years in the mid noughties my luck started to run out, and we had plenty of yokes who weren’t anything like as good.”

Walsh might not have owned as many stars in recent years, but he has bred plenty under both codes at his farm near Maynooth, which was initially named in honour of Rheindross. They included the high-class hurdling and chasing siblings Dressedtothenines and Pay The Piper, Californian black-type winner Force and the aforementioned versatile performer Saratoga Baby.

In fact, Walsh has gone close to achieving what must be the rare feat of both owning and breeding a Grand National winner with different horses, as his homebred Meetingofthewaters bore JP McManus’s silks to finish seventh at Aintree in 2024 and fifth last year, not beaten all that far on either occasion.

“We took Silver Birch over to Aintree for the parade of champions two years ago and when the Grand National came around we got very excited at the last, as Meetingofthewaters was there with a chance of winning, but he blew up soon after,” says Walsh. “It looked like he might go on and win at the same point last year, but sadly he appeared to get injured on the run-in.”

Meetingofthewaters (by Court Cave) is the four-years-older half-brother to mare of the moment Belladaball (by Elusive Pimpernel), the siblings being out of Maisy Daisy, a Luso half-sister to smart hurdler and chaser Boneyarrow. Maisy Daisy was trained by Paul Nolan to win a Limerick bumper for Walsh in his ownership pomp.

“After Meetingofthwaters won the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown during Christmas of 2023 Cormac, a good friend of mine, asked me if I’d be interested in selling half of the Luso filly to him and his family,” says Walsh. “I did, and I’m glad I did, as we’ve had great enjoyment following her together. We’ve got a few Whatsapp groups going and there’s always plenty on it.

“Sonny Carey broke her in and pre-trained her, and did a fantastic job of it, and when it came to deciding a trainer we had a big board meeting and decided Gavin Cromwell would be the man for the job. I rang Gavin in December to see how she was getting on and he said he was pretty impressed with her, she looked quick. 

“After hearing that I came home a bit disappointed when she ran fourth at Down Royal last month, as I thought she should have been there or thereabouts. We only really put her in the Listed bumper at Fairyhouse on Saturday because there was little else for her in the calendar between now and the end of May. 

“We weren’t going there with any expectation of winning. If she’d finished anywhere in the money we would have been happy, so when she won we were absolutely over the moon. Cormac had all his family there and I had mine too. It was a great day we'll remember for a long time.”

Zoey Walsh pictured with the now 29-year-old Silver Birch last weekCredit: Supplied

Meetingofthewaters and Belladaball are only the third and fourth named foals out of the 24-year-old Maisy Daisy, who endured some hard luck throughout her breeding career.

“Maisy Daisy had a frustrating time of it, but through no fault of her own really,” says Walsh. “Her first foal was Cloudy Day, who placed over fences and won a few point-to-points but didn’t do a whole lot on the track. Funnily enough, a filly out of Cloudy Day, by Meetingofthewaters’ sire Court Cave, came up for sale in November so we picked her up and hope to have some fun with her.

“Maisy Daisy also had a Beneficial gelding, who was quite highly thought of by connections but got injured and never raced, and an earlier full-brother to Meetingofthewaters, who would be alright, I was told, but then managed to break his shoulder. Another foal she had was born blind and she slipped her last foal, so she’s finished now and enjoying a happy retirement here with us.”

The farm has been known as Silver Birch Stud in honour of its most famous equine inhabitant since the main house on the site was sold a decade or so ago. 

“It’s still the same tract of land, we’re just in a house nearer the yard now,” explains Walsh. “We changed the name on the gate to see if it would bring us a change of luck, and judging by Belladaball, it might have worked.”

He adds that breeding there is more of a hobby than a commercial enterprise these days, and that he has only two broodmares: Likethislikethat, a daughter of Presenting and the classy chasing mare Supreme Touch whose four-year-old son Newbliss is in training with point-to-point handler Ross Crawford, and Posh Spirit, a Raven’s Pass full-sister to Force. Posh Spirit was recently covered for the first time by Awtaad, whose daily life at Derrinstown Stud is overseen by McEvoy, who rightly holds the outstanding value sire in high regard.

Silver Birch is reportedly in fine form at the grand old age of 29, and is earning his bed and board at the stud.

“He’s still on the farm and is in great nick,” says Walsh. “My nine-year-old daughter Zoey is in charge of him and brings him in and out every day. He does plenty of babysitting here, and Belladaball would have spent a lot of time with him. He taught her well, evidently!"

Finally, the crunch question: what does the man who owned a Grand National winner at the age of 26 and nearly bred a Grand National winner before his mid-40s think will win the big race tomorrow?

After a lot of humming and hawing and sucking air between his teeth, he says: “Ah, what do I know? But I have a sneaky feeling I Am Maximus is going to go very well in it for the third year in a row. His runs in Grade 1 company this year have been good.”

Refer a friend!

If you have a friend who would like to receive Good Morning Bloodstock please send the following link where they can sign up.

What do you think?

Share your thoughts with other Good Morning Bloodstock readers by emailing gmb@racingpost.com

Must-read story

“The visual style of breeze would be what forms my list to start with, then I’d check the pedigree to see if it fits with the orders,” says Jake Warren in a Q&A on the breeze-ups.

Pedigree pick

Amrum, a Juddmonte homebred colt who makes his debut for Ger Lyons in the mile maiden for three-year-olds at Dundalk (7.20), gets the vote today. 

He is a Frankel half-brother to the stable’s Phoenix Stakes and Irish 2,000 Guineas hero Siskin out of Bird Flown, a winning Oasis Dream half-sister to Listed scorer Barsanti and to crack broodmare Rising Tornado, the dam of top-class pair Close Hatches and Lockdown, each of whom produced a Breeders’ Cup winner, in Scylla and Idiomatic respectively.

This is one of the best of Juddmonte’s many brilliant families, as it also contains the further Group/Grade 1 winners Circle Of Fire, Cityscape, Logician, Prosperous Voyage, Senure, Unquestionable and Xaar, as well as many other accomplished performers.