Little Lodge keeping the Jelley family in the theatre of dreams

Owners Graham and Alison Jelley haven’t gone too far wrong with recommendations from Little Lodge Farm, with Robert and Jackie Chugg’s operation keeping them happily in Cheltenham winners for the last four years.

Guard Your Dreams has made rapid strides in the Cotswolds, returning after his novice season to beat the subsequent Racing Post Gold Cup winner Coole Cody in handicap company at the October meeting. He broke the two-and-a-half-mile track record that day despite a burden of 11st 12lb.

An hour or so after Coole Cody bagged a second major Cheltenham prize last Saturday, Guard Your Dreams claimed one of his own for Nigel and Sam Twiston-Davies when depriving last year’s winner Song For Someone in a terrific battle for the Unibet International Hurdle.

He follows hot on the heels of the Jelleys’ course specialist Cogry, a winner of a Grade 3 chase at the December meeting in both 2018 and 2019.

Guard Your Dreams is a son of Fame And Glory bred from the unraced Definite Article mare Native Sunrise.

"I bought the mother as a foal at the Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale," Robert Chugg recalls. "We have had a good success out of that Stormyfairweather [a winner of the old Cathcart at Cheltenham] family over the last 25 years, we knew it well and were quite keen to get back into it.

"She’s also a sister to good horse of Rebecca Curtis’s called The Jigsaw Man but unfortunately she met with an accident in training so she didn’t run."

Chugg assigned Native Sunrise to breeding duties and gained some promising results with her early offspring.

"Her first Kayf Tara filly, Crackle Lyn Rosie, was second to Lust For Glory in her first bumper, we sold her to Evan Williams, and the next one, a Fame And Glory brother to Guard Your Dreams. He made €67,000 at Goffs Ireland as a three-year-old to Jonjo O’Neill and has won a few too," he explains.

"We sold Cogry, who won nine races including four at Cheltenham, to Mr Jelley and he came on to the farm to look at some horses - we actually had three identical Fame And Glorys.

"He rang me back later and said, 'I’m going to buy that Fame And Glory', so I said, 'Which one?' as they all looked the same, but we identified Guard Your Dreams. They were three beautiful horses, they’ve all won, but he made a good choice."

Cabaret Queen: won the Kerry National in 2020 for Willie Mullins and Paul TownendCredit: Patrick McCann

Chugg suggests that the Supreme Leader-sired Marello, a crowd favourite mare who racked up an incredible haul of 11 wins in bumpers and hurdles for Mary Reveley in the late 1990s, would be as good a hurdler to have come through his long-established Worcestershire farm so far.

More recently there have been homebreds such as Newbury mares' final winner Karello Bay, who was bred out of a sister to Marello, and Banjaxed Girl, a dual Listed winner in Twiston-Davies's care and later Graded-placed over fences for Lady Jennifer 'Chich' Fowler. Banjaxed Girl already has two winners from as many runners with Kid Commando also striking at Listed level.

Along with Mill House Stud, Cfromhugg also bred Cabaret Queen, the admirable mare who landed the Kerry and Munster Nationals for Willie Mullins and Syndicates.Racing and retired to become a broodmare after a swansong at Aintree.

Guard Your Dreams is now likely to be aimed at a Champion Hurdle trial at Haydock before what would be the significantly bigger challenge presented by the likes of Honeysuckle in the main event.

Just five, he promises to further embellish a page that will have plenty other of candidates still to come.

Chugg says: "In the pipeline we’ve got a homebred filly by Montmartre, a lovely big grey three-year-old, who we shall retain and she’ll go into training in the spring, and then there's a yearling gelding by Diamond Boy.

"She’s just had the most outstanding Walk In The Park colt-foal this year; we didn’t cover her this year but she’ll hopefully go back to Walk In The Park next year."

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