The 2019 Point-to-Point Champion Sire Getaway continued to deliver for the owners and handlers of his off-spring in the point-to-point fields this season, as he continues his rise to the top of the National Hunt stallion ranks.
Given the sizeable impact that the two-time Group 1 winner has made with his early progeny in the national hunt ranks, it is easy to forget just how quickly he has become one of the sport’s leading stallions, with his first crop of four-year-old’s only making their competitive debuts in 2016.
When Agamemmon, his first four-year-old runner between the flags, won on his debut in a British point-to-point at the Wilton Hunt fixture, little did those who had supported his early crops realise just what a shrewd move they had made.
Within three years he was the leading point-to-point sire, when his progeny won 33 races, including no fewer than eight four-year-old maiden winners.
Among them was the €360,000 seller The Big Breakaway, who featured among the top priced pointers in the sales ring that year, and this season, he was been responsible for the number one point-to-pointer at the sales with Gallyhill.
Bred by Sean Gorman out of the Xaar mare Tanit, who was placed on the flat, Gallyhill made his debut for rookie handler Jamie Sloan at Kirkistown when lining up in a four-year-old maiden in November.
The 5/1 shot travelled powerfully throughout for Noel McParlan to pull clear of the vastly more experienced Gallyhill, who was also sporting the colours of owner Wilson Dennison.
Once coming under the hammer at the Tattersalls Cheltenham December Sale, he proved to be in big demand, with Henrietta Knight coming out on top in the bidding war to secure him, when forced to a final bid of £450,000.
It has since been revealed that he will now run for owner Mike Grech.
Garter Lane was a further big-priced four-year-old winner for Getaway, this time for the female line of his off-spring, as Philip Fenton’s mare, Garter Lane, who also made a winning debut, getting off the mark at Lisronagh in November, was sold for £100,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham November Sale to Bloodstock Agent Gerry Hogan.
That success in the sales ring went some way to securing a standout six-figure average sales price for the pointing off-spring of Getaway during the season, which stood at over £107,000.
In all, 65 individual horses by Getaway were seen in action this season, of which 13 of these were successful on at least one occasion, with a further 14 individual horses also making the placings, and it is notable just how strongly his off-spring had started the month of March prior to the Covid-19 instigated premature end of the season.
What proved to be the penultimate weekend of the campaign saw an across the card four-timer between the flags, kicked off by another four-year-old maiden success for one of his newcomers, this time it was for the Ellmarie Holden yard and Docpickedme at Ballycahane.
That same afternoon also saw Salt Wind win at Bandon for Michael Kennedy, with Cailin Dearg and My Mind Reader also returning successful at the Co. Cork course, to complete a Bandon treble, and the day’s four-timer.
By the season’s premature end, Getaway, who stands at Grange Stud for a 2020 fee of €9,000, was just behind this season’s Champion Sire, Flemensfirth, with his winners coming courtesy of these horses:
BALLYMORRIS ROSE (IRE)
Handler: Colin Bowe
BAREBACK JACK (IRE)
Handler: Colin Bowe
CAILIN DEARG (IRE)
Handler: Padraig Butler
DOCPICKEDME (IRE)
Handler: Ellmarie Holden
DRUMLEE GETAWAY (IRE)
Handler: Sean McParlan
GALLYHILL (IRE)
Handler: Jamie Sloan
GARTER LANE (IRE)
Handler: Philip Fenton
GETAWAYTONEWBAY (IRE)
Handler: Vincent Devereux
MIDNIGHT LEGACY (IRE)
Handler: Denis Murphy
MY MIND READER (IRE)
Handler: Damian Murphy
REALITY CHEQUE (IRE)
Handler: Pat Doyle
RYANS FANCY (IRE)
Handler: Denis Murphy
SALT WIND (IRE)
Handler: Michael Kennedy
