Family face-off! Full-siblings Gorgeous General and Gorgeous Gobolina do battle

Owner-breeders Shaun and Leanne Humphries will have a dilemma as to who to cheer on when homebred full-siblings Gorgeous General and Gorgeous Gobolina battle it out at Newcastle on Friday evening.

The husband and wife team, who will be watching the 5f apprentice handicap away from the track, bred the pair from the winning Lujain mare Gorgeous Goblin, with both a result from matings with Captain Gerrard, sire of the recently retired Nunthorpe winner Alpha Delphini.

While half-siblings taking each other on is uncommon, full-sibling head-to-heads are extremely rare - and these two even have the same official rating, 58.

Five-year-old Gorgeous General is trained by Lawrence Mullaney, and year-younger sister Gorgeous Gobolina by Susan Corbett.

Shaun Humphries said: "I want the trainers to have winners, they both want to win, but the pair are really well.

"It's funny because they're the only two horses we have in training outright and they're running in the same race. I think Gorgeous General will win, but my wife is supporting Gorgeous Gobolina!"

Humphries said of Gorgeous Goblin, a four-time winner who sadly passed away after a recurring hip injury: "She retired from racing with a hip injury but we gave her time with the intention of breeding from her.

"We managed to get one foal out of her and then Richard Kent [of Mickley Stud] offered us a really good deal to re-cover her; she took straight away.

Gorgeous General: the first foal out of Gorgeous Goblin for Shaun and Leanne HumphriesCredit: Grossick Photography

"We breed for pleasure, so we thought we've got two foals back-to-back from her now and gave her a year off. We sent her back to stud the following year, but she didn't take and we found a few issues, so we treated her and then tried again the following year. Unfortunately she sustained an injury to the same hip."

Consolation can be found in her daughter, Gorgeous Gobolina, who has winning form and has improved with time and age.

Humphries said of her future prospects: "She has won a race now and she seems to be well in herself, so we'll hopefully breed from her in the future.

"The family have all needed time, she's only really coming into herself as a four-year-old."

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