Arthur crowned king at Tattersalls Ireland on the final day of the store sale season

The quest to find future stars of the National Hunt game can sometimes take on a mythical quality as trainers, owners and agents embark on searches for their own version of the grail, whether that's just a winner or a Gold Cup legend. If ever a horse was bestowed with a name that befits that then the gelding who topped Part Two of the Tattersalls Ireland July Store Sale is that horse.

A bay gelding with a kind, attractive head offered by Niall Bleahen's Liss House Stud, the German-bred is named Arthur, presumably after the king of Camelot unless the protagonist played by Dudley Moore in the 1982 film and source of the Oscar-winning song Arthur's Theme was the inspiration when breeders Stall Kimberley registered the gelding with Deutscher Galopp.

Derek O'Connor has himself earned legendary status as the most successful rider in the history of point-to-points and the noted judge of young horses was the last man standing when the hammer was brought down at €32,000 for the son of Lucky Lion.

"He is for an existing owner with Sean Aherne, who is building up a nice team of young horses," said O'Connor, who was also the winner of the Irish Gold Cup on Edwulf.

"He is very athletic and the mare was a good racehorse so hopefully he can be too. He will probably go down the bumper route to start him off and hopefully he will develop into a nice hurdler."

Martin Brassil (left) and Pat Doyle were among those keeping an eye on Thursday's proceedingsCredit: www.healyracing.ie

His dam Ajesha was successful in three Listed chases in Germany and also placed in the Grade 3 Steeplechase di Primavera in Merano. She is a daughter of the Irish Derby and National Stakes winner Law Society, who began his stallion career at Coolmore before moving to Germany and Gestut Isarland and is the broodmare sire of Scorpion, Love Divine and Manhattan Cafe amongst others. Ajesha is a half-sister to the dual Group 2 winner Apollo Star.

Arthur's sire Lucky Lion is a son of High Chaparral and beat Noble Mission to win the Group 1 Grosser Dalllmayr Bayerisches Zuchtrennen as a three-year-old and was also successful in the Group 2 Mehl-Muhlens Rennen. Trained by Andreas Lowe, he was runner-up to Sea The Moon in the Deutsches Derby of 2012. He retired to Gestut Graditz in 2017 and his oldest crop are five-year-olds.

Later in proceedings, O'Connor joined up with the Chris O'Donovan Racing Syndicate to purchase an Affinisea gelding for €10,000 from Kells Lodge Stud. The third foal of Late Night Deed, a winning hurdler by Midnight Legend, he is a half-brother to Game Socks by Leading Light who has twice been successful over hurdles for Dr Richard Newland.

Where legends are embellished

We will soon know whether the legendary stayer Yeats, the only horse to win four Gold Cups at Ascot, has won a public vote run by the QIPCO British Champions' Series to choose a stayer to be inducted into their Hall of Fame. 

Regardless of the racing public's decision, or at least that section of it active on social media, Coolmore's son of Sadler's Wells has already carved out a space for himself in the pantheon of great racehorses and in winning his second successive National Hunt sires' title this year joined an illustrious group of predecessors at Coolmore that includes Deep Run, Supreme Leader, Be My Native and Flemensfirth who all were champion sire on more than one occasion.

The sire of Grand National hero Noble Yeats, who was sold at the Tattersalls Ireland August National Hunt Sale which this particular sale replaced in the calendar, and ten individual Grade 1 winners including Flooring Porter, Shattered Love and Chantry House who were all successful at the Cheltenham Festival, Yeats had just the solitary male representative in the catalogue.

Marie Harding, who consigned Noble Yeats here in 2018 where he was picked up by Donal Hassett for just €6,500, also consigned this striking grey gelding through her Glen Stables operation. A three-parts brother to Valentina Lady, a winner over hurdles for Paul Nolan and who was third to subsequent Grade 1 winner Colreevy in a maiden hurdle, he was purchased by Darren O'Dwyer for €27,000.

Robbie Power (left) and Christy Roche share a joke at Thursday's July Store Sale sessionCredit: www.healyracing.ie

The former jockey is developing his bloodstock business and among the horses he has been involved in purchasing is Laura Morgan's Notlongtillmay, who was runner-up to Stage Star in the Grade 1 Turners Novice Chase at Cheltenham in March. Thursday's buy was on behalf of trainer Eoin Doyle.

"He is a nice horse with a good pedigree and he stands out in a sale like this," O'Dwyer said. "He will go to Eoin's yard in Mooncoin to be broken in and they will assess him, see where they go with him."

That pedigree is strong under his second and third dams while his own dam, the Take Risks mare Dahara, was successful three times in her native France. She is a half-sister to the Grade 1 Prix Maurice Gillois winner Top Of The Sky and a full-sister to Solana Beach, who is the dam of Gordon Elliott's Thyestes Chase winner Coko Beach and the Listed Prix Wild Monarch Hurdle winner Coastal Beach. Chic Et Zen, a winning half-sister to Dahara and Solana Beach, is the dam of Torn And Frayed who was last seen winning a Grade 3 handicap chase for Nigel Twiston-Davies at Cheltenham in January.

Third dam Acclaimed is the granddam of Kruguyrova, who won the Kingmaker Novice Chase and was second to Tidal Bay in the Arkle, and of Don't Be Shy whose Grade 2  victories took in the Game Spirit Chase and the Prix Amadou. Halley is the second Grade 1 Prix Maurice Gillois winner in the family.

O'Dwyer later bought Graiguebeg Stud's Libertarian gelding out of the Grade 3 T A Morris Memorial Mares Chase third Here Comes Sally for €11,000 on behalf of Jimmy Fyffe, for whom he sourced last season's Skybet Handicap Chase winner and Scottish Grand National runner-up Cooper's Cross, trained by Stuart Coltherd.

Patience a virtue for Crawfords

Larne's Crawford brothers were the busiest buyers during Part One of the July Store Sale, purchasing six stores headed by the €50,000 wildcard Shirocco gelding from Galbertstown Stables and they were the most active purchasers in Part Two, with five more horses joining the team although Stuart commented after buying a Getaway gelding near the end of the catalogue that "maybe I should have gone home yesterday!".

Mountain View Stud consigned the late May-born gelding on behalf of Discovery Bloodstock, purchasers of the bay as a foal in this ring at the November National Hunt Sale from Lough na Sollis Stud who consigned him on behalf of breeder Richard Tanner. He is the second foal out of Misty Rose, an unraced Presenting full-sister to Ballycasey and he defeated the future Gold Cup hero Don Cossack when victorious in the Grade 1 Dr PJ Moriarty Novice Chase at Leopardstown for Willie Mullins and Rich Ricci. Tanner bred both Ballycasey and Misty Rose.

Further back on the page is Royal Athlete, the second Grand National winner trained by Jenny Pitman, and also victorious in the Long Walk Hurdle, Mildmay Novices' Chase and Reynoldstown Novices' Chase.

Stuart and Steven Crawford inspecting potential recruits at Tattersalls IrelandCredit: www.healyracing.ie

"We saw him yesterday and we liked him," Crawford explained. "We have enjoyed luck with horses by Getaway in the past and hopefully this will be another one to do well for us. Hopefully he is a horse that can go in whatever direction you want with him. We will get him home and see what he shows us before deciding what to do."

That bit of luck with Getaway horses includes Cool Getaway, a debut winner of a four-year-old maiden at Tattersalls in which he defeated Lostintranslation before being sold for £305,000 by the brothers to Margaret O'Toole at the Tattersalls Cheltenham December Sale of 2016.

Signing as Crawford Brothers/Largy Bloodstock they earlier bought a Youmzain gelding from Lough na Sollis Stud, the O'Connor family's farm and consignors of the Getaway gelding as a foal. Getaway features in this horse's pedigree as the sire of his unraced dam Iffett. She in turn is a daughter of Eurowinner, a Bob Back half-sister to the Coopers' Melling Chase winner Opera Hat and the dam of Woodland Opera, successful in the Grade 1 novice handicap chase at the Punchestown festival and the Grade 2 Champion Chase at Gowran for her owner-breeders.

Sales stats

Part Two of the July Store Sale was inaugurated last year and the initial edition came up with five horses who sold for at least €20,000 but Thursday's sale came up one short.

Cian Hughes of C H Thoroughbreds purchased the fourth of those - a Mahler full-brother to Transfer Friendly, the winner of a Ffos Las maiden hurdle for Harry Whittington - for exactly €20,000 from Great Downs Farm, who consigned him on behalf of his breeder Tom Birmingham.

The gelding's four-year-old full-brother Ballynaheer was placed in a maiden for Tom Weston who bought him from the same consignor as a foal for just €8,000 in November 2019.

They are out of the unraced Accordion mare Ballynagall and her dam Portnashangan is a half-sister to Dysart Dancer, also by Accordion, and she is the dam of Dysart Dynamo who was runner-up to his stablemate El Fabiolo in the Grade 1 Colliers' Novice Chase at this year's Punchestown festival for Willie Mullins and owner-breeder Eleanor Manning. Dysart Dynamo is also a half-brother to Manning's Listed Grabel Mares' Hurdle winner Dysart Diamond.

At the conclusion of Part Two of the July Store Sale, 125 of the 224 lots offered were sold for turnover of €752,500 at a clearance rate of 56 per cent, down from 65 per cent last year. The aggregate fell by 30 per cent year-on-year but there was a smaller drop in the average price, which at €6,020 showed a decline of nine per cent from 2022. Thursday's median of €5,000 was unchanged from last year.

Summing up the season, Simon Kerins, the CEO of Tattersalls Ireland said: "The journey began with the May Store Sale, where we welcomed an impressive turnout of buyers who eagerly sought out quality individuals. The early timing of this sale has always been readily anticipated by point-to-point handlers, and this year was no exception, with plenty of demand for the choice lots throughout the day.

"We proudly presented the market-leading Derby Sale, which lived up to its reputation as the pinnacle of store sales. Witnessing, yet again, the highest-priced National Hunt store sold anywhere this year at €265,000 was phenomenal, along with 33 horses achieving €100,000 or more, and five horses fetching €200,000 or above – both records for any store sale this year.

"And now, as we conclude the July Store Sale, we reflect on a strong trade which produced a record clearance rate and figures which dropped marginally behind last year’s record-breaking sale. Despite the rain there was a real buzz around the complex and great competition in the ring between bidders from the UK, Ireland and further afield. Again, we saw the select nature of the market, particularly on the second day when those horses not meeting the exacting demands of the market did find it a struggle.

"Throughout the summer, one thing remained constant, the unwavering support of our vendors. We are grateful for their commitment to supplying top-class stock, which has been the backbone of our success. Likewise, we extend our thanks to all the purchasers who actively participated, whether they were returning clients or first-time visitors. As we bid farewell to the 2023 store sale season, we eagerly anticipate the promising careers of our new graduates and the future successes that await them.”

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