Kenirons is adamantly dancing to his own chosen rhythm - Goffs February Sale preview

Farming life dances to its own rhythms and spring's beat is a lively but syncopated one. The uplifting music of new life is the overarching theme for the season and, for Martin Kenirons, it was the cattle on his Tipperary farm who were driving the rhythm this week.

Hours after Adamantly Chosen earned his second Grade 1 silver of the season behind the mightily impressive Mighty Potter at the Dublin Racing Festival, his breeder was closely monitoring a cow whose labour was advancing towards delivery.

Alongside his cattle, Kenirons keeps a dozen broodmares and the retired Sher's Adamant, the €7,000 purchase who became the dam of Adamantly Chosen and Kylecrue.

The final foal out of the now 24-year-old mare is stabled in Barn P at Kildare Paddocks, where the Berkshire colt will be sold on Wednesday, the first day of the Goffs February Sale.

He will be following in the hoofprints of his older half-brother, whose turns in the sales ring both came at Goffs. The son of Well Chosen, who the late Berkshire stood alongside at Kedrah House Stud, was sold by Kenirons to Peter Molony's Rathmore Stud as a foal. It was at the Goffs Land Rover (now Arkle) Sale where he was picked out of the Rathmore draft by Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins for €24,000.

"This game can bring you down to earth very quickly so days like Sunday are great," says Kenirons.

As was the victory of Adamantly Chosen on his debut in the Goffs Land Rover Bumper at the Punchestown festival two years ago.

Last Sunday, the six-year-old was one of a quintet of Mullins horses mustered up to test the mettle of Mighty Potter. Despite winning the Grade 3 Buck House Novice Chase at Punchestown earlier this season, and being runner-up in the Grade 1 Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick over Christmas to Gerri Colombe, who franked the form with Grade 1 success at Sandown on Saturday, Adamantly Chosen was the outsider of the bunch.

He belied his odds of 40-1 to finish best of the rest behind the impressive winner and enhance his record, which reads four wins and four second places from just 12 starts.

Ronnie O'Neill with stallion Affinisea at Whytemount StudCredit: Patrick McCann

His older half-brother Kylecrue was a reliably consistent chaser for John Ryan, winning 12 of his 81 starts and finishing in the money in some of Ireland's premier Graded handicap chases. The Gold Well gelding was third in the Munster National and the Troytown Chase and placed twice in the Carrickmines Handicap Chase, which became the feature handicap chase at the Dublin Racing Festival.

They are the only two runners so far produced by Sher's Adamant, who also has a five-year-old brother to Adamantly Chosen. He was bought by Kirk and Mullins as a store, and the Goffs inspection team has a trip to Tipperary marked off on their calendars to view her Affinisea three-year-old ahead of the Arkle Sale.

"The Affinisea is a lovely horse and I hope he will go to the Land Rover," says Kenirons. "With Adamantly Chosen getting those good results and Affinisea's point-to-pointers going well, hopefully it will all work out."

The story of how he bought the unraced daughter of Shernazar has a familiarly off-beat rhythm.

"I'm so privileged to have bred those horses and to have this family out of a €7,000 mare," says Kenirons.. "I bought her 20 years ago and it was only because I had got €69,000 for a Presenting mare that I was in the market for a mare. It's easy to go shopping when you have some money in your pocket!"

It was the pedigree which caught Kenirons' attention. Her dam Lunar Approach was a Mandalus sister to Adamant Approach, who won the Pierse Hurdle for Mullins and was third in the Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown. They were out of Crash Approach, an unraced half-sister to Hennessy Gold Cup winner and Cheltenham Gold Cup third Approaching. Another half-sister, Farm Approach, bred the Irish Grand National winner Feathered Gale

Kenirons says: "She had a hell of a pedigree. Every line has bred a big-print winner."

Kylecrue and Conor Brassil bravely land a handicap hurdle at GalwayCredit: Patrick McCann

The bold type on the page has multiplied since that fateful day two decades ago, mainly through Sher's Adamant herself but also through Lunar Approach's half-sisters Timely Approach and Creative Approach.

Ballyadam Approach, by Bob Back and out of the Good Thyne mare Timely Approach, won the Grade A handicap chase at the Punchestown festival and was third to Rogue Angel in the Irish Grand National.

Creative Approach is a Toulon half-sister to Timely Approach and Lunar Approach, and her offspring include the Persian War Novices' Hurdle runner-up Some Day Soon and multiple winner Swingbridge.

Kenirons has retained sisters to Adamant Approach and is breeding from them. Adamantly Good is an unraced sister to the Grade 1 performer and her second foal, a filly by Affinisea, made €25,000 to Glenmore Farm at the Goffs December National Hunt Sale.

She is in foal to Manatee, the Monsun half-brother to Dartmouth who stands alongside Affinisea at the O'Neill family's Whytemount Stud. Kenirons has a four-year-old Affinisea half-sister to Adamantly Chose and Kylecrue who is also in foal to Manatee.

He is particularly enthused about the Affinisea filly who will not be straying across the border to Kilkenny this year.

He says: "If we are all alive - me, the filly and Well Chosen - she will be going to him to be covered this spring!"

The breeder has strong belief in Sadler's Wells sons as National Hunt sires, which is one of the main reasons behind sending Sher's Adamant to Well Chosen, who is also the sire of recent Thyestes Chase winner Carefully Selected, again trained in Closutton.

"I think Sadler's Wells is the best sire of National Hunt stallions there has been," says Kenirons.

It's an opinion difficult to argue against given the record of the outstanding stallion's sons in the sphere. Although this colt, Lot 112 from Beechwood Stud, has no Sadler's Wells in his pedigree, his close relations do.

Beechwood Stud also consigns the Berkshire colt out of his half-sister Chosen Approach, who, as her name would suggest, is by Well Chosen. Lot 216 was bred by Anne McGarry and is the first foal of Chosen Approach, a sister to Sunday's Grade 1 runner-up.

The cattle will have to play second fiddle on Wednesday as the horses take the lead in the everchanging symphony that is farming life.

Selling begins at 10am on both Wednesday and Thursday. 

Lots to watch at Goffs

Fun Fun Fun, ridden by Patrick Mullins, wins the Coolmore NH Sires Santiago Irish EBF Mares INH Flat Race at the Dublin Racing Festival Credit: CAROLINE NORRIS

286 

Crystal Ocean - Hear The Thunder (Presenting)

Even before last weekend, Limekiln Stud's daughter of Crystal Ocean had plenty of things in her favour. Her young sire is hugely sought after, her broodmare sire is none other than Presenting and her dam is a sister to Yorkhill, the multiple Grade 1 winner who won twice at the Cheltenham Festival. In addition, her second dam is a half-sister to five Graded chase winners headed by The Listener, whose four Grade 1 victories included the Irish Gold Cup.

There's an awful lot to like, and then came the Grade 2 mares' bumper at the Dublin Racing Festival. The winner, Fun Fun Fun, is out of a sister to her dam Hear The Thunder and the type face on the page got that bit bolder.

367

Washington Blue

Rip Van Winkle - Powder Blue (Daylami)

Opportunities to purchase a young, proven mare with an eyecatching covering are hard to resist and, in Washington Blue, many may find her impossible to ignore.

The nine-year-old granddaughter of Cheveley Park Stakes winner Blue Duster has a pedigree replete with black type and has two winners from three runners. Her second foal, the four-year-old Mastercraftsman filly Romagna Mia, won last season's Group 2 Premio Lydia Tesio before making €500,000 in December. 

With a two-year-old by Postponed and yearling son of Expert Eye still to come, Washington Blue is sold in foal to 2,000 Guineas and Vertem Futurity winner Magna Grecia, the Invincible Spirit older half-brother to champion St Mark's Basilica who is a leading contender for first-season sire honours this year.

Lot 449

Mzyoon

Galileo - High Society (Key Of Luck)

A Galileo half-sister to a Group 1 winner - pedigrees don't get much better than that.

Ten-year-old Mzyoon is a half-sister to Golden Jubilee and July Cup winner Society Rock, whose bittersweetly brief stallion career yielded Unfortunately and A'Ali. Mzyoon, dam of two winners from three runners and whose three-year-old son by Exceed And Excel is in training with Jessica Harrington. is out of the Listed-winning sprinter High Society, by Key Of Luck, who shone brightly for Tara Stud, siring the Aga Khan's Irish Derby and King George hero Alamshar.

There are black-type winners under each of her first four dams and Tara Stud offers Mzyoon in foal to Middle Park Stakes winner Supremacy, the first Group 1 winner by Mehmas and his first son to retire to stud.

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