Festival hope Mister Malarky kindles memories of granddam Dubacilla

It is a question that has no doubt been posed at racing quizzes on numerous occasions: which gelding and mare out of the same dam achieved top-four finishes in the Grand National in consecutive years during the 1990s?

The answer, as any jumps breeding aficionado will know, is the half-siblings Just So and Dubacilla. Just So, blessed with bottomless staying power, stuck on doggedly to finish a close second to Miinnehoma in 1994 – despite being 22lb out of the handicap and jockey Simon Burrough putting up another three overweight – while the redoubtable mare Dubacilla, fresh from her fine second to Master Oats in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, grabbed fourth place behind Royal Athlete in 1995.

Both horses were bred, owned and trained by Somerset dairy farmer Henry Cole, although Dubacilla was sent to David Nicholson for her final season, which contained those Gold Cup and Grand National exploits.

Jumps fans of a certain age might have felt a pang of nostalgia for that much missed age, when hobbyists still managed to compete at the highest level, as Mister Malarky, bred by Cole out of a daughter of Dubacilla, showed some of his famous forebears' class and fortitude to win the Grade 2 Reynoldstown Novices' Chase at Ascot last Saturday.

The Colin Tizzard-trained six-year-old is priced around 12-1 to triumph in the National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival next month, the four-mile trip looking likely to play to the strengths of his stamina-packed pedigree.

The rise of Mister Malarky has also given Cole, now 78 and still a popular figure on the West Country racing circuit in retirement from farming and training, cause to reminisce on his turn in the spotlight a quarter of a century ago.

“They were fantastic times, being invited to the Grand National weights dinner, taking the horses to the big race and then driving home and partying for two days afterwards,” he says. “Particular favourite memories were winning the mares' final at Uttoxeter with Dubacilla and being invited to the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association awards in London and being given the Dudgeon Cup for broodmare of the year. Horses can take you anywhere.”

The mare who earned Cole the Dudgeon Cup was Just Camilla, a daughter of the Hail To Reason stallion Ascertain out of Princess Camilla, a useful jumper who competed in the first two of Red Rum's three Grand Nationals. She was bought for 1,200gns as a yearling at Newmarket in 1979 and Just So, a son of the March Past stallion Sousa, was her first foal, with Dubacilla, by Sea-Bird's American Derby-winning son Dubassoff, her second.

“Just Camilla was an outstanding filly, really fantastic,” Cole remembers. “I rode her myself – never rode another as good as her – and put her in training with Richard Holder. She didn't win, though, and only ran a few times, as I wanted to breed from her, really.”

Although Just So went much closer to winning the most famous chase in the world, Dubacilla was undoubtedly the star turn of the mare's offspring, taking the scalps of the likes of Docklands Express, Rough Quest and Young Hustler in her nine career victories.

“Dubacilla didn't look very big until you stood into her, and then you realised she was ever so big,” says Cole. “I always loved her right from the start; she moved like a dream out in the field. You'd die for one like that.

“I took her hunting when she was quite small, and she passed the lot of them. She was going like hell so I knew I had something. She wasn't anything in bumpers and over hurdles but when she went novice chasing she came into herself.

“She just stayed, you see. That's what her ability was. Not necessarily the fastest, like Mister Malarky, but they keep on at the end of the race when it matters.”

Henry Cole (in red jacket) with (l-r) Malcolm and Kathy Yeo, and Richard FarrantCredit: Somerset County Gazette

Cole retired Dubacilla after her Grand National placing and the mare did sterling service in the paddocks, producing four winners including Mister Quasimodo, a son of Busy Flight who notched eight successes and five placings in black-type events for Tizzard.

The daughter continuing the great mare's legacy for Cole is Priscilla (by Teenoso), a non-winner but placed five times. She is the dam of Desert Queen (Desert King), a dual Listed-winning chaser, and Hameldown Tor (Kayf Tara), a ten-time scorer between the flags, as well as her best yet, Mister Malarky, who is by Glenview Stud resident Malinas and was sold as a store at Doncaster on behalf of Cole by Selwood Bloodstock for £20,000.

Priscilla died in 2015, four years after Dubacilla. Her final foal, the Jamie Snowden-trained Librettist five-year-old Lyrical King, has been declared to make his debut carrying Cole's navy blue silks and pink cap in a bumper at Fontwell on Sunday.

Cole is maintaining the line through Priscilla's daughters Chilla Cilla (a 16-year-old by Glacial Storm) and Drucilla (a ten-year-old by Scorpion).

Chilla Cilla is dam of Midnight Chill, who has won a brace of handicap chases for Snowden this term, and that Midnight Legend gelding's full-sister Legende De Minuit, who is in training with Harry Fry. She has a Kayf Tara two-year-old colt, a yearling Telescope filly and is in foal to Black Sam Bellamy.

The bumper-placed Drucilla, meanwhile, has a Clovis Du Berlais yearling filly.

Cole's runners these days are joining large strings in slickly run professional stables, which leads to a pause to reflect on the bygone era of Corinthians such as him and fellow dairy farmer Sirrell Griffiths of Norton's Coin fame pulling off David-like triumphs against the Goliaths of jump racing.

“It's getting harder all the time,” he says. “Look at Just So. He wouldn't get in the National at all now, he wouldn't be rated near anywhere high enough, and he was a cracking horse as well. I think we came along at the right time really, permit holders like us. You don't see it now, do you?

“I was just a dairy farmer, but my line is still coming through with Mister Malarky going to Cheltenham. It's all very fulfilling.”