Beat Hollow

Whichever way you slice it, the green, white and orange of the Irish tricolour ran right through the middle of last year's Cheltenham Festival results. Some 28 races were run during the four biggest days in the jumps racing calendar, and the Irish raiding party won an unprecedented 23 of them. This haul included the four championship prizes, as Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}) won the Champion Hurdle, Put The Kettle On (Ire) (Stowaway {GB}) claimed the Champion Chase, Flooring Porter (Ire) (Yeats {Ire}) took the Stayers' Hurdle and Minella Indo...

The second instalment of Emma Berry's winter series on the crossover between the Flat and National Hunt scenes Ballylinch Stud may be best known as a high-class Flat operation but it has regularly stood a stallion with great appeal to the National Hunt market, most notably the five-time champion jumps sire King's Theatre (Ire). Following his death in 2011, King's Theatre was succeeded in his role by another son of Sadler's Wells, Beat Hollow (GB), winner of the Grand Prix de Paris and Arlington Million among four top-flight wins during...

4th-Saratoga, $90,000, Msw, 8-4, 2yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 1:41.17, fm. SKETCHES OF SPAIN (IRE) (f, 2, Lope de Vega {Ire}--Janicellaine {Ire} {GSP, $130,051}, by Beat Hollow {GB}), trained by Chad Brown, was one of two well-meant firsters for the trainer, the other being the 9-5 favorite Situation Room (Summer Front). Both the Brown runners settled behind the early pace as Sawanage (English Channel) and Osaka Girl (First Samurai) slugged it out early through initial fractions of :23.16 and :47.99. While the favorite appeared to idle a bit approaching the quarter...