Given the sheer amount of investment they’ve already put in, it may have taken longer than expected, but up-and-coming owners Noel and Valerie Moran now have a Grade 1 winner on their team courtesy of Ginto.

The Gordon Elliott-trained €470,000 purchase led from start to finish in the Lawlor’s Of Naas Novice Hurdle on Sunday and maintained a comfortable advantage all the way to the line under Jack Kennedy.

In the process, he earned himself a top billing for two of the Grade 1 novices hurdles at Cheltenham and he may well now bid to become the third Lawlor’s winner to go on and win the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle following Envoi Allen and Bob Olinger.

However, it’s likely that next year, over fences, Ginto will be seen at his best and he is very much an illustration of the burgeoning empire his Meath-based owners are aspiring to develop. The Morans, who operate under the banner of their stud farm Bective Stud, sold their prepaid card business in 2020 for €200m.

They have invested heavily into the 50-acre Bective Stud, both on facilites and bloodstock, as the site now houses a substantial branch of broodmares – most notably the multiple Grade one winner Apple’s Jade. Their vision is to breed their own National Hunt stock but they have also spent big on Irish point-to-point graduates like Ginto, who won his maiden at Tattersalls Farm by 12 lengths.

All the Moran’s horses in Ireland are in training with Gordon Elliott (they also have horses with Olly Murphy in Britain) and so the Grade 1 win will be important to that trainer, who had a good Christmas/new year period with other top-level wins at Leopardstown for Galvin in the Savills Chase, Fury Road in the Neville Hotels Novice Chase and Mighty Potter who led home a stable one-two in the Future Champions Novice Hurdle.

Rebranded

Mighty Potter is owned by another relatively young owner couple in the Stoke-based Andrew and Gemma Brown, who operate under the Caldwell Construction banner.

Elliott has rebranded the last six months as a rebuilding phase at Cullentra House and so far he is delivering for the owners who have backed him after the controversial photo of him was widely circulated last March. The Meath trainer was visually emotional after Galvin and Davy Russell returned to the winners’ enclosure after their Savills Chase win.

He does, however, have a significant amount of ground to make up on Willie Mullins who had another brilliant Christmas period, sending out 23 winners since St Stephen’s Day.

There was the King George VI Chase win for Tornado Flyer among that number which also included Grade 1 wins for Ferny Hollow, Klassical Dream and a record-equalling fourth win in the Matheson Hurdle for Sharjah who joined hurdling legends Istabraq and Hurricane Fly with that feat.

Most recently, Mullins sent out Al Boum Photo to win his fourth Savills New Year’s Day Chase at Tramore. The champion trainer had hoped to run the dual Gold Cup winner more than usual this season but the mild weather hasn’t helped with regard to ground conditions and Mullins admitted he has few options for Joe and Marie Donnelly’s chaser between now and Cheltenham. Most notably, the trainer was much against running at the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown, citing the usual good ground conditions there as a real issue for any chaser.

That two-day meeting is the next significant port of call for Irish jumps racing, taking place on 5-6 February.