News Weatherbys Champion Bumper Leading Sires #1

Weatherbys Champion Bumper Leading Sires #1

weatherbys, breeding

To mark the 25th Anniversary of our sponsorship of the Weatherbys Champion Bumper and the launch of nhstallions.co.uk – a site dedicated to promoting National Hunt stallions - Martin Stevens has compiled a top five of Weatherbys Champion Bumper sires.

#1 - Flemensfirth

Sire of two winners (Total Enjoyment, 2004; Relegate, 2018) and two thirds (Kicks For Free, 2006; Tornado Flyer, 2018)

Beeches Stud stalwart Flemensfirth is the only stallion to have delivered two winners of the Weatherbys Champion Bumper and, in an illustration of how long and distinguished his career has been, they came 14 years apart.

Total Enjoyment, a filly from his first crop foaled in 1999, was a ready winner over Refinement in 2004. Tom Cooper’s charge went on to land a Grade 3 mares’ novice hurdle at Down Royal but sadly she died in her second season of racing. 

Flemensfirth’s second Weatherbys Champion Bumper winner was a memorable one, as the Willie Mullins-trained Relegate finished like a train under Katie Walsh to score narrowly in 2018. She has not won since, but ran a creditable fifth in the Pertemps Final at the Festival last year.

Flemensfirth also has a couple of third-place finishers to his name. Kicks For Free, who finished behind Hairy Molly and Pressgang in 2006, was a nose second in the Coral Cup at Cheltenham two years later, and Tornado Flyer, placed behind Relegate, scored in the Punchestown Champion Bumper and has been running with credit in top chases this season.

Flemensfirth, a John Gosden-trained dual Group 1 winner by Alleged, was retired from covering duty last year at the age of 28. His roll of honour includes Cheltenham Grade 1 winners Imperial Commander and Tidal Bay, and with 113 mares covered in 2018 and 80 in 2019 that should continue growing for a long time in the future.