Kingsmill Gin showing a winning family spirit for Jackie du Plessis

They do a nice line in breeding trivia at the Cornish stable of Jackie du Plessis.

Almost three years ago at Exeter it was the turn of Ericas Lad and St Erney, who won on the same afternoon having been born within 45 minutes of each other.

A week ago, Kingsmill Gin managed a feat which might arguably be even more esoteric. With a gutsy six-length victory in the Kevin and Heather Bishop Retirement Handicap Chase at Taunton, the mare was shedding her maiden tag at the ripe old age of eight.

Fifteen years earlier to the day, her dam Kingsmill Lake had broken her duck at precisely the same age, only in a point-to-point at Ideford Arch.

Pointing expert and Racing Post contributor Jeremy Grayson must take credit for highlighting the further layer to this story, discovering that Kingsmill Lake's mother Kingsmill Imp was an equally slow burner who also won her first race aged eight, trained by Du Plessis to score in a maiden point at Great Trethew in 1991.

Watch Kingsmill Gin's win at Taunton here

While pride is registered in the result, there is a measure of frustration for a trainer whose pots have spent rather a long time on the stove.

"We just can't get them to win before eight," she laughs.

"They're very late to mature, physically and mentally, I think. When Kingsmill Gin was a five-year-old she could barely trot around the sand school she was that backward, and then went from one extreme to another and thinking she knew it all, mad keen and everything.

"This season she seems to have taken it all in, learned from her mistakes, and hopefully knows what she's doing now. She certainly seemed to last time anyway."

The family, based outside Saltash on the opposite side of the county boundary-defining Tamar Bridge from Plymouth, are long-established members of the sport's grassroots. Many of this line of their horses carry the Kingsmill prefix, named after a spot nearby, close to where Du Plessis's father was born.

She explains: "My late mother and grandfather bought La Jolie Fille, who was Kingsmill Gin's great granddam, for point-to-points.

"She won a maiden, I think she was also about eight, and then broke a bone in her knee and had to be retired. My father bred from her and bred Kingsmill Imp, she ran for me and won five point-to-points and was a favourite of mine.

"She bred Kingsmill Lake, who won nine, again for me, and she was another favourite of mine. So it's been nice."

Jackie du Plessis is having her best season under rulesCredit: Edward Whitaker

The dynasty has produced plenty of winners including Ericas Lad, out of a sister to Kingsmill Imp, although the breeding side has been cut back somewhat and was dealt what Du Plessis describes as a "pretty devastating" blow when losing Kingsmill Lake after foaling a few years ago.

Her final product Mabel Kingsmill, by Lucarno, seems of a similar mould as she made her racecourse bow aged six a few weeks ago.

They have one sister, whose first foal by Sans Frontieres has just been weaned, and breed from one other broodmare who was bought from Oliver Sherwood, a winning daughter of Midnight Legend named Legend Lady.

"We've got the next generation on the ground, and yet again it's a filly," says Du Plessis with an air of light-hearted resignation. "We seem good at breeding them.

"It's for fun really as much as anything. It gives you a story – it's not all about winning the races, it's more to do with the the ups and downs and the story that goes behind it."

Kingsmill Gin, a daughter of Simonsig's sire Fair Mix, could yet add another chapter or two and her trainer feels there might be another staying prize in her some time.

"If she stays in one piece it would be nice to think we could breed from her one day," says Du Plessis. "Although she's not massively big, she's probably bigger than a lot of the others and she should have the scope to breed from in due course."

Should Kingsmill Gin perpetuate the family trait, Du Plessis is reminded that it might not be until some time in the 2030s that she will be able to toast her progeny winning.

"I don't know whether I'll be riding them at home at that age!" she jokes.

Such stoicism is a necessary virtue for all National Hunt trainers, but particularly for smaller operators such as Du Plessis, who has at least been given due reward this season.

The yard went more than two years without a winner until Valentino popped up at Newton Abbot in September, and Kingsmill Gin was taking them to a joint seasonal best of five.

Du Plessis's focus is now almost entirely on runners under rules, although she has one 'fun' horse for point-to-points for the first time in a few seasons, a grandson of Janita and Mike Scott's winning machine Confused Express, ready to make his debut.

"It's been really good," she says. "We thought because a lot of them are homebreds that last year it would come together, but we've again had to be patient and wait. Hey-ho, at least we got there in the end. Hopefully they stay sound and keep running well."

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