One-time Derby favourite and a National winner's sister among Boxing Day draws

It won't be easy to catch every interesting prospect who appears through the busy Christmas period - there are seven bumpers across Britain and Ireland on Boxing Day alone and a host of other races for newcomers and youngsters over the next few days.

One, at least, has a large enough profile and should not be hard to miss in the very first race at Leopardstown's big meeting.

Not many well-known Flat horses head go jumping these days with the amount of overseas options open to them, and the microscope will certainly be on High Definition (12.00) as he makes his bow in the four-year-old maiden hurdle.

The 2020 Beresford Stakes winner was an ante-post Derby favourite as well as market leader for last year’s Dante Stakes, finishing third to the future dual Classic winner Hurricane Lane.

He would spend the latest campaign threatening to win something - notably being beaten a neck by Alenquer in the Tattersalls Gold Cup and then third to Hukum in the Coronation - but, at the same time, becoming increasingly frustrating.

It looked as if Coolmore had drawn stumps with him and he was offered and then sold for 350,000gns at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses-in-Training Sale, but there has been only a minor change of ownership as he will be carrying the Magnier silks at Leopardstown.

A switch between Aidan and Joseph O’Brien sees him still registered as a colt, with the son of Galileo facing a different and fascinating new challenge here.

There will have been excitement from some of those who follow the Irish point-to-point scene at the entries for Leopardstown's first-day bumper (3.30), a race won by the latest National Hunt sensation Facile Vega 12 months ago.

It is somewhat disappointing that Barry The Butcher has not fulfilled that engagement, with his wide-margin victory at Lingstown in March looking better and better. He beat subsequent winner and £400,000 Goffs Aintree sale-topper Croke Park by ten lengths, with the distant third, Ballybeg Boss, already making a promising start in bumper company for Donald McCain.

Barry The Butcher is now owned by Sean and Bernadine Mulryan and we will hope to see him make his debut for Henry de Bromhead in due course. It might just also be an auspicious sign that the same owners have a different son of Walk In The Park, the Willie Mullins-trained Did I Ask You That, running instead.

The four-year-old could have gone down the point-to-point route instead as he was knocked down to Pat Doyle, former trainer of such smart horses as Did I Ask You That's stablemate Appreciate It, for €32,000 at the Land Rover Sale but has found his way straight into the Mullins yard.

Among others who could be seen later in the week from that stable is It's For Me (Leopardstown, Wednesday). A son of Jeu St Eloi, a relative of Balko, the €40,000 Land Rover purchase went straight into Simon Munir and Isaac Souede's operation and ran in a point at Loughanmore in mid-April for the Crawford team.

The chestnut's performance was fairly striking as he made an enormous amount of progress in the closing stages of the race and won pulling away. Interestingly, the third and fourth that day have both also won races and the runner-up, He's Ultimate, joined Gordon Elliott for £105,000 and is due to start off over hurdles for the yard at Limerick (12.58) on Monday.

The Skelton family's Alne Park Stud has mushroomed with the arrival of two more stallions and it seems clear that breeding horses as well as training them will become an ever bigger part of their empire.

Lollobrigida (3.10 Newcastle, Monday) was purchased as a store for £32,000 from Goffs UK last year, and getting wins under her belt will bolster what is already an attractive page.

The four-year-old is an It's Gino sister to Grade 1 novice hurdler and very smart chaser Lalor, who was last seen winning a nice prize at Newbury in April.

Lollobrigida is a sister of the top chaser LalorCredit: Mark Cranham

More recently, their brother Lallygag has been out and about for David Staddon and Paul Nicholls, bolting up at Taunton on Wednesday in what was his third win of the campaign.

Lining up against her is a filly of enormous importance to Lucinda Russell in the shape of her Grand National winner One For Arthur's three-parts sister Fox's Fancy.

The trainer signed for the daughter of Kayf Tara in tandem with Mags O'Toole for €60,000 at the Land Rover. The family produced by Ballyreddin Stud tend to be chasers - another sibling Forza Milan is also quite a useful one - but she can hopefully show a bit of initial promise for connections.

It won't be too tricky to guess the lineage of West Warhorse (3.25 Market Rasen, Monday) with more clues on offer than a BBC Christmas whodunnit.

Somehow it's already nearly nine years ago since Western Warhorse struck at 33-1 in the Arkle, sadly the penultimate time we ever saw him on the track, carrying the pale blue colours of Roger Brookhouse.

The owner-breeder's son Ben has started out as a trainer in Newmarket and West Warhorse is his full-brother by Westerner, who went through the ring twice at very similar prices and was signed for at €45,000 at the Land Rover.

Western Warhorse and Tom Scudamore sprang a 33-1 surprise in the 2014 ArkleCredit: Patrick McCann

This was a lot less than the £130,000 Western Warhorse cost at one of the old Brightwells sales, but he was already an Irish point-to-point winner. Two other siblings by different sires did not show a great deal under rules, but using Castlehyde's mighty stayer again might prove the right recipe.

While plenty of these were bred for the job, the story of Artistic Choice (entered at Kempton and Chepstow on Tuesday) is a reminder of how some horses end up doing something a fairly long way from what they would have been intended for.

Michael Bell's gelding is the only son of red-hot sprinter Caravaggio to have gone jumping so far and has speed all over his page, coming from the family of Cheveley Park Stakes winner Serious Attitude and other quick fillies Seraphina and Hareem Queen.

Artistic Choice never ran over shorter than a mile for Donnacha O'Brien and ended up at twice that trip before moving into Bell's stable for 50,000gns at the end of August.

He found his way through the fog to win at Catterick and deserves his chance at something better here.

The all-weather action continues at Wolverhampton and an entry of note on Tuesday comes in the shape of Razoni, a well-bred son of Lope De Vega.

Produced by Kildaragh Stud, the juvenile has remained in the hands of the Kavanagh family as he was bought back from Book 1 and then pulled out of Arqana's breeze-up auction.

There is quality in his pedigree as Razoni is a half-brother to the lightly raced filly Daban, who won the Nell Gwyn and was third to Winter in the 1,000 Guineas of 2017, while Jersey Stakes runner-up and Group 3 scorer Thikriyaat is among a hatful of other winning siblings.

One would imagine that connections would rather he had moved on to new owners than to have kept him but, in George Boughey, they are placing their faith in a trainer who is already the surest of hands in getting horses off to a swift start.

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