The kind of mare that might make you a TBA Breeder of the Month contender tend to have either been developed over generations or shrewdly picked up at the sales.

Julian Selby’s route to finding Thebelloftheball, dam of January’s winner Don’t Rightly Know through her victory in the Listed Charlie Nugent Memorial Mares’ Chase at Newbury, was a little different.

“Thebelloftheball was bred by Bill Bromley, Chris Down trained her and I used to drive the lorry for him, although I’m really a farmer,” Selby explains.

“It was just one of those funny things. I saw her run quite a lot of times and had always liked her. When I discovered they were going to sell her, I made them an offer and bred from her. I didn’t pay very much; you lose enough money without spending £30,000 on a mare!”

Selby, who supplies specialised chicken for Marks and Spencer from his farm near Tiverton in Devon, gave up his driving sideline after a few years but has always had a love of horses and racing, both under Rules and point-to-points, raising his young stock from shortly after they have been foaled.

“I had some great friends who were keen to get rid of a mare, so I swopped with them for two Charolais heiffer calves,” Selby recalls of an early experiment in breeding.

“We ran her point-to-pointing. Back in the days of The Sporting Life she was one of their ten to follow for the season but she never quite delivered.

“I did breed from her, I was a total amateur and she ended up being covered by a stallion called Gargoor, who most people will have forgotten.

“Gargoor produced a horse for me called Can’t Be Scrabble, who won point-to-points but his one big claim to fame was he beat [smart chaser] Ollie Magern round Stratford, getting a stone off him. So he wasn’t totally useless!”

Selby has a great admiration for David Futter of Yorton Farm Stud and tends to follow his advice when it comes to matings nowadays. It has certainly worked with Thebelloftheball, a daughter of Classic Cliche who was a half-sister to the 2014 Grand Sefton Chase winner Poole Master.

For Don’t Rightly Know, he struck upon Malinas before the high-class German import was moved off to Ireland.

Just like her mother, whose only victory came at Exeter, Don’t Rightly Know has had a clear affinity for Haldon Hill and bolted up there over hurdles in 2023 before another strike just before Christmas on her chasing debut.

It has been a lengthy process for trainer Polly Gundry to get her there, given the mare is now ten.

“She won a point-to-point, then we ran her at Stratford the following October, she had a leg, waited a year, was second at Uttoxeter in a mares’ novice hurdle, had heat again, we waited another year,” Selby explains.

“After that, it had been a very dry summer and Polly could never find the ground she was happy with. So she’s really had three years off.”

What was Gundry’s biggest success as a trainer was also Selby’s.

Don’t Rightly Know had already earned some black type when runner-up in a Grade 2 novice hurdle at Haydock but her slick jumping and accomplished front-running performance under Harry Cobden to defeat the top-class mare Apple Away in Berkshire was far more memorable.

“She’s only been out the first three once up until now,” says Selby.

“It gives me a hell of a thrill because I want to breed from her. I’m not sure when. I imagine if not this year, then next.”

Selby shares the odd broodmare at the moment, and the signs are promising for him to refresh his portfolio. While Thebelloftheball’s first two foals showed what he describes as “a hint of ability”, her youngest daughter by Blue Bresil called Only Gossip also won a point-to-point for Ed Walker before moving to Gundry’s care.

“She only had four foals, all fillies, and she only bred every other year,” he says.

“Don’t Rightly Know is probably the best but Polly swears blind that the half-sister is bettter, she just hasn’t shown it yet. She’s improving and has been third at Wincanton. You keep hoping, don’t you?”