Motherway magic continues with €100,000 Walk In The Park colt

There is a glorious alchemy at work when mares from the Motherway family's Yellowford Farm go in foal to Walk In The Park. In addition to the multiplication of cells and the replication of DNA, a wondrous miracle that is rendered commonplace by its everyday happening, something intangible and magical also occurs.

Since Coolmore brought the Derby runner-up Walk In The Park to Grange Stud for the 2016 breeding season, the son of Montjeu has been strongly patronised by the Motherways' broodmare band and from the start, the union has been a happy one.

That first crop yielded a €70,000 foal at the 2017 Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale, a half-brother to the Motherway-bred and nurtured Grade 1 winner Bellshill who was bought by Aiden Murphy, and in the intervening years there have been two foals to sell for €100,000 apiece and a Walk In The Park three-year-old half-brother to Hurricane Fly who made €200,000 at the Derby Sale last year.

So it was apt that the spell remained unbroken on Tuesday with the third Walk In The Park foal bred and sold by Yellowford Farm at a November National Hunt Sale to reach that remarkable six-figure sum. The colt is a great-grandson of Fairy Native, who began this tale with Bellshill and that first blockbuster foal sale.

Fireworks of the New Year's Eve variety and not the damp squib type were anticipated ahead of the foal's appearance in a sales ring, which came alive with atmosphere as darkness fell and the crowds filled the gangway. So it was as the handsome bay with a light step and easy movement took his place in the amphitheatre and the price rocketed ever upwards.

Flash Conroy (centre) and Aiden Murphy (right) engaged in bidding for the top lotCredit: Tattersalls Ireland/Healy Racing

When Aiden Murphy, standing in his customary position at the head of the staircase which leads up to the balcony, assented to the auctioneer's request for €100,000, the battle for the colt was over and Murphy emerged from the fray with the session's most coveted horse.

"He looked like the best foal of the day. He is out of a Presenting mare, which is very good and he is for Flash Conroy [of Glenvale Stud] and will be for resale," Murphy said. "We have found it hard to buy anything today and we thought he was the one. You don't get a cheap one by Walk The Park!"

That was an understatement as the sire of Facile Vega was responsible for ten of the 18 foals to reach at least €50,000 at Fairyhouse on Tuesday, where his average price hit €53,643 and the median was an even more impressive €57,000.

The wedding gift that keeps giving

The first foal to make €100,000 at this year's November National Hunt Sale was bred by Frank Motherway and his son and daughter-in-law Paul and Michelle, who own his dam, the unraced Presenting mare La Bella Roma in a partnership that began as a form of wedding gift when she was a foal five years ago.

"She was kind of a wedding present, although some money did change hands," smiled Michelle.

The colt is the third generation of his family to have been born and bred on the Cork farm since Frank bought the Be My Native mare Fairy Native who had a briefly unsuccessful racing career in his green and yellow silks but she has more than compensated as a broodmare.

Members of the Yellowford team: Conor Cashman; Frank Motherway and Deirdre CashmanCredit: Www.healyracing.ie

Her granddaughter La Bella Roma is a Presenting half-sister to the Listed bumper winner Vegas Blue and is the dam of two foals by Walk In The Park. La Bella Roma's yearling sold to Dick Frisby at this venue last year but for a little under half the price of her second foal.

"Right from the start he has been a real, strong bodied, good-moving and easy-to-do horse," commented Paul Motherway. "He has been a pleasure to deal with and every time he came out of the stable since he got here, he was better and better, he thrived on showing."

Michelle laughed: "There was a rush to the stable in the morning to see who was going to walk him, and it was always me! He just wanted to go out and do his work every morning, and when he walked into the ring this evening, he commanded it. Temperament-wise he is so straightforward."

In addition to that star-wattage, the colt has a strong National Hunt family with the likes of Presenting, Milan and Be My Native as the sires of his dam, granddam and great-granddam. The family's heritage includes the brilliant One Man, Persian Wanderer - who along with Arkle was one of numerous winners of the Fairyhouse race that used to be known as the Powers Gold Cup trained by the Dreaper family - and Welsh Grand National winner Secret Reprieve.

It has been a year to remember for Paul Motherway who, along with his sister Deirdre, her husband and father-in-law Conor and several others bred Sakheer, the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes winning son of Zoffany. The partnership known as Drumlin Bloodstock also bred his older half-sister Lemista, winner of the Group 2 Kilboy Estate Stakes and Grade 3 Matchmaker Stakes and third in the Grade 1 Beverley D Stakes.

Their half-sister by Sea The Stars is one of eight foals that Yellowford will consign later this month at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale.

Future-proof breeding for new names

The rule is that what happens on a stag party stays on a stag party and for the most part, that was adhered to by Will Kinsey and David Greenway when they met Ross Alberto on such an outing, but the trio discovered a mutual love of National Hunt racing and breeding and from that initial meeting a breeding operation has grown.

"We owned a racehorse together and we syndicated it; it was okay and it was fun, but I think both Ross and David will say the fun they have had following Allaho and Monkfish [Future Bloodstock own half-sisters to the Grade 1 winners as well as the Grade 1 winner Stromy Ireland] from a breeders' perspective has been much more and has made the racing so much engaging," said Kinsey.

His Peel Hall Stables offered the first foals bred by Future Bloodstock, the banner under which Alberto and Greenway trade, at this week's November National Hunt Sale and it has been a phenomenal success.

"It is a first experience of breeding and selling for Ross and David. We bought the first mare Limini here three years ago and this is the first time we have sold anything. We have been good at spending money... and now, thank god, we have not been too bad at receiving it! I have to say though that this group of foals has been the easiest foals I have ever consigned," said a relieved and delighted Kinsey.

If they thought that Monday's sale of Limini's Nathaniel colt foal for €75,000 to Altenbach Bloodstock was nerve-wracking and exciting, then they were in for another spin through the emotional wringer on Tuesday as they offered three more foals, including the No Risk At All three-parts sister to Allaho, whose eight career victories to date include back-to-back renewals of the Ryanair Chase.

That pretty chestnut filly was knocked down to Paul Murphy for €82,000 and she was followed immediately into the ring by another Nathaniel colt, this time out of a Presenting half-sister to the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle winner Verdana Blue. Rathbarry Stud's Paul Cashman went to €78,000 to secure that half-brother to Letterston Lady.

The three-parts sister to Allaho takes her turn in the sales ringCredit: Tattersalls Ireland/Healy Racing

Kinsey recounted how the trio came to own Shanning, the Spanish Moon half-sister to Allaho who was talented racemare in her own right, finishing in the places in three Graded handicap hurdles for Willie Mullins.

"We had already bought Shanning's younger full-sister Shaving and we knew Shanning was there so we did a private deal and sent her straight to France to be covered, for obvious reasons. Allaho hadn't won the Ryanair so spectacularly at that stage but we believed that he was going to be a star."

His three-parts sister already has that X-factor and was in her element performing for viewers and potential purchasers.

"Shanning is pure quality and her daughter has been great, an absolute star. She was posing for photos this morning, and I mean she was really posing," smiled Kinsey.

Paul Murphy signed for the filly on behalf of his brother-in-law, the noted French agent Guy Petit.

"She has been bought for a client of Guy Petit," said Murphy. "Guy was here yesterday and saw the filly, but had to leave before she sold today. She is a sweet filly and will go to France where she will be raced and then retained as a breeding prospect."

Classic sire strikes again for Future

Kinsey and Future Bloodstock have placed enormous store in Nathaniel's abilities as a sire, particularly his potential to produce top-class National Hunt prospects and their high-class mares have come up trumps with outstanding foals by the King George winner who stands at Newsells Park Stud and is the sire of six individual Group 1 winners on the Flat headed by the Derby hero Desert Crown and the excellent Enable.

They offered two Nathaniel colts as part of their draft at Tattersalls Ireland this week and both sold for in excess of €70,000.

Paul Cashman bought Tuesday's Nathaniel offering and in common with the session-topping Walk In The Park colt, he boasts the brilliant Presenting as a his broodmare sire, a fact that was never going to escape a member of the Rathbarry Stud family.

Peel Hall Bloodstock's Nathaniel colt who made €78,000 to Paul CashmanCredit: Tattersalls Ireland/Healy Racing

"He is by Nathaniel and there will never be many by him that come to sale. Nathaniel is a great sire under both codes. This colt is out of a Presenting mare, he is a lovely horse with size and scope, he has it all," said Cashman. "Hopefully, he will come back to the Derby Sale and do the same again.

There could well be additional black type on the page by the time the 2025 Derby Sale rolls around.

His four-year-old Getaway half-sister has won three on the bounce for Peter Bowen this season, with her most recent win a successful debut over hurdles and their three-year-old half-sister by Kayf Tara will be trained by Nicky Henderson.

Kinsey was on hand to provide insight into how they came by Whenskiesareblue, dam of the trio.

Allaho and Paul Townend power up the Cheltenham hillCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

"I bought her here as a three-year-old store (from breeder Ballyhampshire Stud). We ran her once and she got injured, she was talented and then Verdana Blue came out and did her thing, too. She is not in-foal and she will be covered early next year," Kinsey added.

Shanning is in foal to Nathaniel and Stormy Ireland is carrying her first foal to Blue Bresil.

Peel Hall Stables and Future Bloodstock offered six foals at the sale and they generated turnover of €301,000 with an average price of €50,167 which makes them the leading consignors based on average over the course of the four days of trading so far.

Facts and Figures

The fourth day of trading at the November National Hunt Sale generated an impressive €4,205,400 of turnover from the sale of 169 horses.

That translates as an average price of €24,884 which is the highest for a single day's trade in the history of this sale, beating the previous record of €24,371 which was set in 2020, from a larger catalogue and greater number of foals sold.

Tuesday's median came in at €20,000, matching the previous record. The clearance rate was perhaps the only cloud on the horizon; at 72 per cent it was below three-quarters with just 169 of the 235 foals on offer finding new homes.

The sale continues on Wednesday at 10am with a fourth session of foals.

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