Noble Yeats puts his sire on course for first championship

Noble Yeats provided jockey Sam Waley-Cohen with a fairytale ending to his incredible riding career but his Randox Grand National victory also went a long way to securing a first sires' championship for Yeats.

Coolmore's Gold Cup legend has been engaged in a tooth and nail battle with another winner of Ascot's showpiece in Fame And Glory throughout the season, with momentum swinging first one way then another.

However the massive £500,000 earned by Noble Yeats for his emotional triumph gives his sire a decided advantage in the race for the title.

The seven-year-old winner was bred by Kristene Hunter out of the Flemensfirth mare That's Moyne, who was a winner over hurdles and has produced two winners by Yeats.

He was sold by Glen Stables to Donal Hassett for just €6,500 at the 2018 Tattersalls Ireland August National Hunt Sale. Following a debut second for Hassett in a Dromahane maiden, he fetched £75,000 at the 2019 Tattersalls December Sale.

Following a bumper win for Emmet Mullins and Paul Byrne, he was entered as a wildcard in Tattersalls' online sale in February 2021 but was unsold at 290,000gns. He was later privately purchased by Robert Waley-Cohen.

In a slightly bitter twist of irony, his five-year-old Dylan Thomas half-brother Deputy Thomas made his debut in a Fairyhouse maiden hurdle last Sunday for trainer Ted Walsh, who was denied a second Grand National victory by Noble Yeats with his runner-up Any Second Now.

Three Stripe Life a bright light for sire

Three Stripe Life has been the brightest spark from the first crop of his sire, the Gold Cup winner Leading Light, and the six-year-old fittingly became the first Grade 1 winner for the stallion.

The Betway Mersey Novices' Hurdle winner had three successive Grade 1 seconds prior to his Aintree victory, with the last two of them coming behind Sir Gerhard at Leopardstown and Cheltenham. He had also been fourth to that horse in last year's Champion Bumper so had demonstrated top-class form throughout his career.

Leading Light is now a Grade 1 sire

Trained by Gordon Elliott for Kieran and Laura Haughey and Kieran Byrne, the only time Three Stripe Life has finished out of the first two in his career was at Cheltenham last season.

He was bred by Pat O'Reilly out of the Doyoun mare Hirayna, who won a Perth bumper for Mark Brisbourne when ridden by the Racing Post's Irish Editor Richie Forristal.

Hirayna is a half-sister to Hirapour, who was third in the Listed Saval Beg Stakes at Leopardstown before his sale to North America, where he went on to win the best jumps racing prizes on the other side of the Atlantic.

Three Stripe Life was sold for €16,000 by Old Mill Farm to Thorn Farm as a foal at Tattersalls Ireland and returned to the Fairyhouse ring for the Derby Sale. Consigned by Rahinston Stud, he made €40,000 to Mags O'Toole.

He is a half-brother to Ballyshannon Rose by Doyen who won a Grade 2 mares' chase at Thurles in January for Peter Fahey. Dam Hirayna has a four-year-old Champs Elysees gelding named He's Ultimate who was purchased by Patrick Turley at last year's Derby Sale and a two-year-old brother to Ballyshannon Rose. She returned to Leading Light last season.

The Aintree victory is bound to prove a boon for the son of Montjeu, who also won the St Leger for Aidan O'Brien, as he settles into life in his new home of Dunraven Stud in South Wales.

He retired to Coolmore's Grange Stud in 2015 and spent the first seven seasons of his stallion career there before his sale to David Brace's Bridgend farm last autumn, where he stands for £2,500.

By Montjeu and out of the Gone West mare Dance Parade, who won the Queen Mary, Leading Light was bred by Lynch Bages and sold for 520,000gns by Flash Conroy's Glenvale Stud to Demi O'Byrne at Tattersalls Book 1.

Dance Parade is a half-sister to the dam of Group 1 winner Toylsome and second dam of last season's Flying Five Stakes winner Romantic Proposal.

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