Westerner sires Farmacaffley double on Saturday

Westerner sired a double at the weekend bringing his tally of winners this season to five.

His first winner came courtesy of the Warren Ewing-trained Ranieri, who battled it out all the way to the line to score by a neck in the five-year-old geldings’ maiden.

Under the guidance of 18-year-old Conor Rabbitt, who was enjoying his first career success the gelding stepped up notably in this contest, having pulled up on his first three starts between the flags.

Westy Fox provided the stallion with his second success of the weekend when recording a promising victory in the Philip six-year-old and upwards geldings’ maiden when getting the better of Duckphil.

Owned by the Knockalough Syndicate, the son of Westerner provided the syndicate with their first winner as horse owners.

The gelding, who had come to grief at Kirkistown in November ensured he made no mistakes this time around, to come home one-length in front of his rivals and will now stay point-to-pointing for the time being.

The English bred stallion, who stands at Castlehyde Stud in Fermoy, Co. Cork is out of the Group 1 producer Walensee and is by Danehill, who has produced multiple Group 1 winners.
 
The sire was an outstanding stayer, who won four Group 1 races in France and the Gr. 1 Gold Cup in York amassing over one million in prize money during his racing career.

Westerner has been a consistent producer of some noteworthy winners over jumps since his career began back in 2007. Many of those winners have gone onto be successful under rules, with a significant number of those winners graduating from points.

The Willie Mullins-trained Total Recall is one of those successful graduates. Since winning his maiden point-to-point at Rathmorrissey in 2014 for Gerard Neilan, the gelding has won a Munster National, the Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury, and a Grade B at the Dublin Racing Festival and most recently the 11-year-old added the €100,000 Goffs Thyestes chase to his CV.

Dermot McGloughlin is another trainer that has a son of Westerner that has highlighted himself as an exciting sort in Captain CJ, having recently scored in the Grade 2 Ten Up Novice Chase at Navan, where he had been a model of consistency prior to Sunday's success.

The son of Westerner was a three-time point-to-point winner for handler Patrick Magee where he won a six-year-old and upwards geldings' maiden at Oldtown in February 2017, before building on that success a month later taking a winner-of-one contest at Kirkistown before going on to capture a winner-of-two at Loughanmore the following October in a comprehensive fashion.