A Bloodline With Its Own Set Of Rules

Top Open Race Dams - 2025

Dave Firmager’s  Fabulous Mila is the most prolific open race dam this year with 27 winners spread across three different litters. 

The first, by Romeo Recruit featured Produce Stakes runner-up Romeo Hanzo and the beaten odds-on favourite in the £10K British Bred Puppy Final, Romeo Atomic. The Irish runners included two finalists in the National Puppy Stake at Shelbourne, Romeo Kodi and Romeo Turbo. 

Her second litter, by Newinn Taylor wouldn’t be familiar to UK racegoers but were successful in Ireland with Romeo Taylor winning an €8,000 Unraced Stake at Clonmel before reaching the finals of the Irish Produce Stakes and Laurels. The second fastest hound over the Shelbourne 360 yards last year, he reached the finals of the Islandbridge and Supersprint Finals. A litter sister reached the British Bred Leger Final at Doncaster. 

Romeos Ability and Alliance will both be hoping to contest their third Category One final if they get through the semi finals of the Puppy Classic at Nottingham on Monday. 

Ballymac Merkle is interesting as she was disqualified for deliberate in her last race a top class 750 at Shelbourne Park. She had the race at her mercy despite being in a field that included Mean Beauty, Southfield Code and Ela Juliet. 

The fact that her pups, headed by Garfiney Blaze are so genuine, suggests that breeder Liam Dowling viewed Merkle’s indiscretion as immaturity. 

She is from an amazing litter that includes Leger winner Smallmead and stud dogs Ballymac Inspeed and Malachi. Their dam also threw Ballymac Cashout and Bockos Melody in her following litter. 

The majority of the wins have come from the Ballymac Anton litter with others by Ballymac Cooper and yes, Ballymac Cashout, meaning Ballymacs Kobe, Lucia and Florie have Balllymac Razl as both their maternal and paternal grand dam. 

We previously covered the exploits of Droopys Sweet, making reference to the dam’s three visits to the same sire, Droopys Sydney, which resulted, among other things in an English Derby winner. 

We will be writing about Droopys Sweet in greater detail next week in a piece looking at the merits of repeat matings. 

She is the most prolific of the five ‘Droopys’ dams on the table. 

The pedigree of Mongys Wild 

Bred by Ned Murphy from Limerick, Mongys Wild is the sort of dog that would have breeding students burning their stud books and banging their their heads against their computer screens. 

Basically, Wild is from a particularly productive segment of a dam line that had seemingly gone dormant (to the point of extinction) to become one of the most successful current bloodlines on either side of the Irish Sea. 

Trace the bottom line of the pedigree back half a dozen generations and we are into Lizzie Maher’s brilliant ‘Minnies’ dam line through her decent producing daughter. Pony Nikita (Droopys Fintan-Minnies Luck). 

Pony’s most successful son was Irish Derby winner Cool Performance (by Mustang Jack) though there were other decent hounds including Cambridgeshire winner Dog Almighty and Jupp/Irish Grand National winner Mustang Hero (by Smooth Rumble) plus Lee Strand winner Mustang Okee (by Roanokee). 

The best of Pony Nikita’s Kiowa Sweet Joe litter was Rose Of Tralee runner-up Mustang Mccauley.  

Mccauley’s sister Toledo Nikita was unraced and produced two litters of graders, though to be fair, the sires of both litters were moderate enough sires, Droopys Agassi and Droopys Maldini. 

One of the bitches from the Maldini litter, again unraced, was Coologue Queen. She too produced two unremarkable litters, one by Last Bid, the other by Seventh Jet. 

The pick of the entire bunch was probably Ben McBride’s minor open racer/A1 Swindon winner, Coologue Smokey. 

The ‘pick’ of the Last Bid litter was a Harlow/Henlow A4 grader, Marmaduke. 

Except, in that litter was a bitch called Trout Or Salmon. She raced twice and finished down the field at Clonmel and Limerick (beaten 23 lengths ‘outpaced’). 

Given what had gone before, the decision to breed with her was somewhere between madness, optimistic and genius. 

It turned out to be the latter. 

Her first litter by Swords Prince was an upgrade on what had gone before, though that was a fairly low bar.  

It included a Lifford top heat runner, Mongys Flyer, who broke down on his A2 debut at Doncaster, and a decent staying bitch called Mongys Rach (more of her later). 

Salmon’s Razldazl George litter contained a couple of very minor open racers but it was from her mating to George’s brother Razldazl Jayfkay, that Ned Murphy hit the jackpot or all jackpots 

The star of the litter was Clonbrien Hero, winner of the 2017 Irish Produce Stakes, Laurels and St.Leger. He also won the Race of Champions and reached an Irish Derby Final. 

Although there was a smattering of minor open racers, the next four litters produced zilch of note. 

Maybe the amazing Clonbrien Hero would be a brief but spectacular peculiarity? 

However, going back to that very first litter by Swords Prince, and Mongys Rach. 

She was an open winner over 600 (six spots off the fastest of year) and 750 yards at Limerick despite limited long distance opportunities. 

Her first litter were whelped in July ’16 and following the path of their ‘uncle’ Clonbrien Hero, Clonbrien Price and Clonbrien Swift joined Graham Holland. 

Prince ran-up in an Easter Cup, reached English Derby and Irish St. Leger finals and clocked 32.17 when winning a €4,000 stake over 600 yards at Shelbourne. 

Brother Swift had a shortened race career due to injury but broke the Clonmel 550 yard track record. 

There were a couple of ‘usable’ dogs but very little of note in Mongys Rach’s next five litters. 

While some of the progeny were moderate, Clonbrien Millie, from Rach’s Sparta Maestro litter, clearly had some potential having clocked 29.08 in her second race at Limerick. However she was retired one race later. 

You’ve heard of her now though, as the dam of the brilliant Clonbrien Treaty. A winner of almost €175K including a Kirby, an Easter Cup and two Irish St. Legers 

The star of Clonbrien Rach’s Skywalker Puma litter might have been Mongys Diamond. Although a low grader at Sunderland, but her career stretched to 157 races. 

However, in the same litter was Banter Breeze (previously Mongys Magic). She had one win (29.79 525 Shel Pk) from six races. 

For her first litter she went to Roxholme Olaf, a dog with six wins from seven races on his card prior to injury. 

Hayley Keightley’s 29 kilo black had gone within half a length of the Henlow 460m track record when winning the Maiden Derby and had raced just once more, clocking a calculated 28.25 (480) at Perry Barr. 

His mating to Banter Breeze was his first.  

What could possibly go wrong? 

The star, clearly is the virtually unbeatable stayer Mongys Wild though there is a very decent stayer Callaway Hybrid, who, as Banter Boost was an impressive winner of a €7K stayers competition over 730 yards at Waterford. 

The fact that two of the litter are running A7 at Harlow and A6 at Newcastle can hardly come as a surprise. 

This is a bloodline with its own set of rules.