Mala Beach joined by sister Bonny Kate on Troytown podium

Mala Beach - who gave Gordon Elliott a fourth consecutive win in the Troytown Handicap Chase at Navan on Sunday - was followed home in third by his sister Bonny Kate in a satisfying case of sibling success.

The Beneficial pair were bred by Robert Guiry out of the unraced Old Vic mare Peppardstown, named after the Fethard breeder's stud in County Tipperary where the mare and her talented offspring were born and reared.

"I'm delighted," said Guiry. "It's terrific for a smaller breeder. Peppardstown's first foal was Mala Beach, so she kicked things off on the right foot.

"Bonny Kate should improve as that was her first run of the season. You could see she weakened from the last fence but she is a real tough mare."

Bonny Kate also finished third in last year's renewal of the Troytown, won by subsequent Irish Gold Cup runner-up Empire Of Dirt, while both she and Mala Beach pulled up on their last mutual start in the 2016 Irish Grand National.

Family history

Remarkably, Guiry bought the pair's fourth dam, Slanestown, as a two-year-old at the old Goffs sales in Ballsbridge in 1959.

Nine-year-old gelding Mala Beach and seven-year-old mare Bonny Kate share their great-granddam Floating Dollar with the 2013 Welsh Grand National hero Monbeg Dude - a race in which both are entered this year.

Guiry sold Mala Beach for €10,000 as a foal at the 2008 Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale, while Bonny Kate realised €45,000 at the 2013 Derby Sale.

Their eight-year-old brother Midnight Thunder sold as a four-year-old for £215,000 at Brightwells in 2013 having won a maiden at Horse and Jockey in Tipperary.

Peppardstown has also produced an unraced four-year-old brother to the pair named Call A Cab, a three-year-old Yeats gelding, a yearling filly by Leading Light and a Fame And Glory filly foal. She was covered by Soldier Of Fortune this year.

Guiry suggested he will retain the Leading Light filly on the back of Sunday's success, while the Fame And Glory filly foal was bought by Nick Skelton for €30,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale.

The Yeats gelding, meanwhile, looks set to run in the silks of winning Troytown owner Chris Jones.

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