Coventry contender Bradsell out to become banner name for consignor Mark Grant

Plenty might be now rueing not snapping up Bradsell, but for consignor Mark Grant the outstanding juvenile prospect was a chance bit of business.

Bound for the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot on Tuesday, the Archie Watson-trained colt jumped forward in the pleasing start made by his first-season sire Tasleet when clearing nine lengths away from his rivals in a maiden at York in mid-May and recording a Racing Post Rating of 100.

Bradsell swiftly changed ownership to the red silks of Bahrain entity Victorious Racing for what it can be imagined was an upgrade on the 12,000gns that trainer Harry Dunlop and Highflyer Bloodstock paid for him as a yearling at Tattersalls last September.

"He was bought at the Somerville Sale and he came straight to me to break him," Grant explained. "As soon as I got him in the ring the first day I thought, 'This looks fast, he’ll definitely do my job'.

"I rang Harry and asked what he was doing with the horse, did he have an owner for him, and when he said no, I said, 'Can I buy him off you?'

"He said, 'Let me think about it'. Then he said I could have half and I told him that I was keen to breeze him. Thankfully it all worked out."

Mark Grant took the chance to buy half of Bradsell after being immediately impressedCredit: Tattersalls Ireland

British-bred by Deborah O’Brien through the Listed Radley Stakes winner Russian Punch, Bradsell came through his education with A-plusses from his tutor.

"If I was a trainer, I’d have run him the first day of Doncaster, he was that early and seemed really fast," recalled Grant.

"He just impressed us all the way through. He was hardy to break in, then as soon as we started to do a bit in late January, early February, it just all came naturally to him. All the way through, we knew we had something nice."

Although the £47,000 that Blandford Bloodstock bought the colt for at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale will not make or break Grant’s fortunes, he hopes it can be part of the bigger picture as he fully adjusts after ending his career as a jump jockey last year.

"That was our third season doing it, we’ve not been in it that long and are just trying to build our name, hopefully this fellow can help us," he said.

"He’s the best one we’ve had so far. We had a Mayson colt this year, who was bought by Ontoawinner at Doncaster [for £70,000], that I thought was just as good. He’s gone to Adrian Keatley and hasn’t run yet but hopefully he can come out and do something similar as I thought he was really smart too."

Grant is spending some of June back in his native Ireland, scouting for the odd store horse to try in a point-to-point, and was able to reflect on the breeze-up year.

"Jumping is what I was brought up doing, I still have a bit of it in my blood and enjoy doing one or two but the breeze-up game is my main thing," he said.

"Overall it was good. Dubai wasn’t great for us, we learned you just need to bring an American dirt horse out there, but the Craven, Donny and France were all good, we sold everything after that, and fingers crossed we’ll be back buying yearlings in September and October again."

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