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.
#5 - BE MY NATIVE
Sire of two runners-up (Inca, 2000; Rhinestone Cowboy, 2002) and two thirds (Be My Royal, 2000; Widemouth Bay, 2003)
Be My Native was trained by the late Robert Armstrong and ridden by Lester Piggott to land the Coronation Cup in 1983. He later became one of the most popular National Hunt stallions of the 1990s.
The son of Our Native covered huge books at Grange Stud in County Cork, hitting an eye-watering high of 375 mares in 1994, and his progeny regularly sold like hot cakes at auction.
Although Be My Native never sired a Weatherbys Champion Bumper winner, those large crops yielded two runners-up in the race — Inca and Rhinestone Cowboy — and two third-place finishers in Be My Royal and Widemouth Bay.
Rhinestone Cowboy, who famously failed by only a neck to reel in the Jamie Spencer-ridden Pizarro, went on to win the Aintree Hurdle and Punchestown Champion Stayers Hurdle, while Be My Royal was Grade 1-placed over hurdles and scored in the Hennessy Gold Cup, though was later disqualified.