Why Good Morning Bloodstockbet won't be laying big wagers on NH sires' crown

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Here he focuses on the close and exciting National Hunt sires' championship battle between Yeats and Fame And Glory - subscribers can get more great insight from Martin every Monday to Friday.

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The race to become champion National Hunt sire in Britain and Ireland this season is poised to be the closest in years, with Fame And Glory and Yeats having exchanged the number one and two spots several times in recent weeks.

Fame And Glory had taken a slender lead just before Cheltenham, which prompted me to write in this space that his supremacy might be only temporary as Yeats seemingly held a stronger hand of festival entries.

I was correct, but only by the skin of my teeth, as Fame And Glory’s results at the meeting were better than anticipated, thanks to the 50-1 and 18-1 winners Commander Of Fleet and The Nice Guy, while Yeats’ showing was a little more muted than expected, with the likes of Chantry House, Party Central and Mount Ida disappointing and Conflated hitting the deck.

Yeats’ festival was, however, saved by Flooring Porter’s repeat victory in the Stayers’ Hurdle, and he did indeed leapfrog Fame And Glory at the head of the sires’ table after four days of top-class competition at Prestbury Park.

The four-time Gold Cup hero maintained a narrow lead throughout the rest of March, but a spectacular run of results for Fame And Glory this weekend has seen the late multiple Group 1 winner return to the top.

Fame And Glory notched a notable double on the Scottish Grand National card at Ayr on Saturday, thanks to Do Your Job running out an impressive five-length winner of the Future Champion Novices’ Chase and Autumn Return scoring a determined head success in the bumper.

Do Your Job was, remarkably, the third big winner out of County Down breeder Caroline Berry’s late Epervier Bleu mare Full Of Birds in the space of three weeks, after Highland Charge won the Kingsfurze Novice Hurdle at Naas on the Sunday before Cheltenham and Hunters Yarn took a bumper in incredibly impressive fashion later on the same card. Both siblings are also by Fame And Glory.

Full Of Birds, a relation to Long Run who also produced the Listed-winning hurdler Down Ace and the useful pair Ballytober and Draytonian, pays tribute to the recently deceased bloodstock agent David Powell, who sourced the mare from France on behalf of Berry.

It just so happens that the promising Autumn Return, bred by the Kennedy family’s Mountain View Stud in County Tipperary, is also out of a mare in rare form.

His dam Fedaia, an unraced daughter of Anabaa bought as a breeding prospect from Fairyhouse for just €2,100, has also produced Magical Zoe, an easy winner of a Cork bumper on debut 12 days ago; Minella Hub, who took a pair of Plumpton handicap chases by wide margins earlier this year; and Ferrobin, who scored at Ludlow in the autumn.

Fame And Glory delivered another significant double at Fairyhouse on Sunday, with Flame Bearer bravely challenging between horses to gain a last-gasp victory in the Grade 2 novice hurdle and Dorans Weir striking in the Listed mares’ bumper in good style.

Flame Bearer: also part of a good weekend for sire Fame And GloryCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Flame Bearer was bred by Jim Halligan out of Banba, a dual winner on the Flat by Docksider, while Dorans Weir was bred by Dorans Pride’s owner Tom Doran, and carries the same colours as the popular chaser.

With only around £40,000 in progeny earnings between Fame And Glory and Yeats, the pair could well swap positions several more times between now and the end of the National Hunt season.

Cheltenham highlighted that it’s dangerous making predictions based on ante-post betting, but it is worth pointing out that while Yeats still has four in Saturday’s Grand National – worth a handsome £500,000 to the winner – Fame And Glory has none.

Yeats might just be favourite to prevail in the sires’ championship in my book, then, but Fame And Glory does seem to have an uncanny knack of getting black-type winners of late, so Good Morning Bloodstockbet wouldn't be laying any lumpy wagers in what appears to be a two-horse race.

What do you think?

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Must-read story

“The precocity and pace required to win this early in the season would not be immediately apparent looking at Ser Sed's pedigree,” writes Aisling Crowe as she reports on a first winner for freshman sire Saxon Warrior.

Pedigree pick

My heart leaps for joy every time I find the magic word ‘inédits’ next to the name of a maiden race at a major track on the France Galop website, as it means the contest is for unraced horses, and a good few of them are bound to be beautifully bred.

There are two such races for three-year-olds over a mile at Saint-Cloud on Tuesday, the Prix Pas de Deux (2.25 local time, 1.25 BST) for colts and geldings and the Prix Parade d’Amour (3.35 local time, 2.35 BST) for fillies.

Two pedigrees stand head and shoulders above the rest in the males’ race: Nikova, a son of Kingman and the Listed-winning Arch mare Rostova trained by Andre Fabre for Juddmonte, and Carini, a Siyouni colt out of dual Group 2 winner and Prix Vermeille runner-up Candarliya (by Dalakhani) trained by Francis-Henri Graffard for the Aga Khan.

The fillies’ division features two Godolphin-owned daughters of Dubawi in Cantilena, a homebred sister to Group 3 winner Laugh Aloud and half-sister to Arlington Million victor Debussy trained by Henri-Alex Pantall, and Mascaret, a Fabre-trained filly out of Group 3 scorer Daytona Bay bred by Gestüt Ittlingen and bought as a yearling at Arqana by Sheikh Mohammed’s operation for €620,000.

Look out also for Queenmania, a Frankel half-sister to Prix Saint-Alary winner Queen’s Jewel trained by Fabre for the Wertheimer brothers, and Gemma, a Siyouni filly out of Signe, a Sea The Stars half-sister to Group 1 winners Forever Together, Together Forever and Lord Shanakill in the care of Fabrice Chappet for Fiona Carmichael.

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