In Excelsis Scanned In Foal

In Excelsis, a half-sister to the Grade One-winning hurdler Jazz Messenger, has been scanned in foal to Arctic Tack Stud’s Jet Away.

The mare is among the first batch to visit Arctic Tack’s exciting newcomer Jet Away, a global performer who enjoyed Group Three success when trained in Australia by David Hayes.

Jazz Messenger was trained by Ireland’s former champion trainer Noel Meade, who is also responsible for the unraced In Excelsis’s son, the dual-purpose performer Curley Bill.

“Jazz Messenger was a very good horse for us,” Meade recalls. “We got him as a five-year-old from France and he won a Christmas Hurdle for us at Kempton and another Grade One at Punchestown.”

Meade is looking forward to returning to Punchestown next week, when Curley Bill lines up in a two mile handicap hurdle on the opening day of the Punchestown Festival, Ireland’s flagship end-of-season National Hunt meeting.

Mea de said: “Curly Bill is a very decent horse. Like Jazz Messenger, he’s got a good bit of speed and he’s very smart over hurdles.

“He probably would not be big enough to jump a fence but we will see how he runs next week and we will probably find a race for him either over hurdles or back on the flat at the Galway Festival.”

Curly Bill has so far won five of his 12 career starts, with those victories coming over jumps and also on the Flat. Arguably his best display came when winning at the Galway Festival in 2013, when he won on the level over a mile and a half.

Behind Curly Bill that day was the Gordon Elliot-trained subsequent Grade Three hurdle winner Bayan, and the Aisan O’Brien-trained Plinth, who would go on to compete at the highest level over hurdles for owner JP McManus.

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