Bumper dreams fuelling Tattersalls Ireland July Store Sale

It's the last chance to buy a store horse in Ireland this year with the Tattersalls Ireland July Sale offering the final opportunity for both trainers and point-to-point handlers to fill their remaining orders.

While the market for stores has shown a decided inclination for the scopey model that looks a precocious four-year-old maiden winner in the making, there is the not insignificant lure for trainers of the €100,000 George Mernagh Memorial Sales Bumper across the road from the sales complex at Fairyhouse next Easter - a race for which graduates of this sale are eligible.

One of the earliest lots through the ring on Wednesday morning could be an ideal candidate for the race with Ger Hannon offering a gelding from the first Irish-bred crop of Derby winner Wings Of Eagles as lot 9. Out of Perfect Woman, a daughter of Blueprint who won three times over hurdles and was second in the Lombardstown Mares Novice Chase for the irrepressible Mick Winters, he is a half-brother to the Milan who was the third most expensive filly at the 2022 iteration of the sale. That €40,000 sale to Nicky Richards encouraged Hannon to aim Perfect Woman's second offspring at this sale.

"He is a great mover and out of a black type mare," remarks Hannon of the March-born gelding. "His half-sister sold so well here last year so we decided to target this sale for him."

Perfect Woman's third produce is a son of Poet's Word while her fourth foal is a yearling filly by Crystal Ocean.

Harzand set to star

Another of Sea The Stars' top class sons to have embarked on a career as a National Hunt sire is the Aga Khan's dual Derby winner Harzand and, having begun his career alongside his sire at Giltown Stud, the 2016 Classic winner has just completed his first season at Kilbarry Lodge Stud.

There are five horses scheduled to sell by Harzand with the dark bay stallion certainly transmitting his handsome looks to the offspring dotted around the sales ground.

Tommy James of Norrismount Stud offers a homebred Harzand gelding as a wildcard entry (271A) and he has the pedigree to go along with his looks as a son of a full-sister to Voy Por Ustedes, whose five Grade 1 victories over fences for Alan King included the Champion Chase and Arkle Chase. Although the Villez mare failed to win in her racing career, she has produced two black type horses in August Hill, who was second in the Grade 3 Buck House Novice Chase and Gala Ball. That son of Flemensfirth earned his bold type in the Greatwood Gold Cup at Newbury.

"I've had the mare for all of her breeding career. She has produced some very good horses and her best horse is probably Beast Of Burden and he didn't manage to get black type before he was injured. It's a really good family and she has bred four winners from five runners so far. He is a beautiful horse who just needed a little bit of time and we thought he would stand out at this sale," James explains.

"He has been busy and shows himself really well, he has a great temperament and is a really lovely horse," he added of the gelding whose family also includes the Grande Course de Haies d'Auteuil winner Un Temps Pour Tout.

Sorcha North and her husband Mark have just one horse in the catalogue, a son of Harzand, and the accomplished showjumper believes the first foal out of Cockney Wren (142) who was Listed-placed for Harry Fry could be the perfect candidate for the Fairyhouse bumper.

Hidden Brief is a half-sister to the dam of 2016 Epsom hero Harzand, by Sea The Stars

Pat Smullen and Harzand dazzle at EpsomCredit: Mark Cranham

"We are a showjumping yard but we do thoroughbreds as well - sales prep and rehab - but we are hoping this aspect of the business will get bigger as it's quite new. The thoroughbreds are more Mark's business and he has an engineering business as well, Equine Engineering," she says of their farm which is located outside Ballinasloe in East Galway.

Foaled in June, he has been given time to develop and his dam is a full-sister to Cockney Sparrow, who won the Grade 2 Scottish Champion Hurdle and was runner-up in the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth for John Quinn. The female side of the gelding's page also boasts another horse to do the Epsom and Curragh double - Commander In Chief - who is a full-sister to his third dam, the Lancashire Oaks second Totality.

"He is a really nice horse with a nice page and he is a really hardy horse with plenty of growing left in him. We think he would be one for the George Mernagh bumper in the spring, that's the direction I think he's going in. We bought him as a foal online, we didn't see him in the flesh and it was mostly his page that we liked. He's very easy to do, very smart. I showjump full time, this is a side hustle," she smiles.

Bleahen bumper success

Not far from Northmore farm is Niall Bleahen's renowned nursery of Liss House and the shrewd judge who sold the top two lots earlier this summer at the May Store Sale knows a George Mernagh bumper horse when he sees one, having been involved with the most recent two winners of the race. Along with his brother John, he pinhooked this year's winner of the contest Brighterdaysahead, a Kapgarde half-sister to Grade 1 winner Mighty Potter and Grade 3 winners French Dynamite and Indiana Jones. She topped last year's Derby Sale when sold through John's Lakefield farm to Gordon Elliott for €310,000.

Icare Desbois, her immediate predecessor, was sold by Bleahen at the final Tattersalls Ireland August National Hunt Sale and for considerably less. The son of Triple Threat made €28,000 to Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins in 2021 before he made a winning debut in the Fairyhouse contest the following Easter.

Niall Bleahen's Liss House was the leading consignor at the Tattersalls Ireland May Store SaleCredit: Tattersalls Ireland

Bleahen's quintet for this sale includes another Kapgarde filly sourced as a foal in France (8A) and he describes her as "a cracker" but buyers will have to wait until much later in the day for the horse he sees as a potential contender for next year's €100,000 pot on Easter Sunday.

"The Noroit gelding (236) is a sparky horse and as smart as you like with a great action, he's a really good model and goes very nicely on the lunge," he says of the full-brother to Venetia Williams' Funambule Sivola, who won this year's Game Spirit Chase.

Funambule Sivola has shown high-class form over fences, including when chasing home two high-profile Tattersalls Ireland graduates in Grade 1 contests; Energumene in last year's Champion Chase and Shishkin in the Maghull Novices' Chase of 2021.

Ten lots after Kow Boy Sivola comes Bleahen's final offering of the store sale season, a gelding by rising star Jeu St Eloi, the son of Saint Des Saints who made an impression with his runners in Britain and Ireland last season.

"He's a really nice horse, out of a winning mare and by the hottest stallion around," Bleahen remarks of the first foal produced by the Gris De Gris mare Maryborough, a winner on the flat at two and three and over jumps as a four-year-old.

November changes

The success of the store sales has a domino effect on the foal market, and a substantial proportion of the three-year-olds set to go under the hammer over the next couple of days will be making their second appearance in the Tattersalls Ireland amphitheatre having already come through the company's November National Hunt Sale.

On the eve of the final Irish store sale of the summer, thoughts were already turning to winter evenings as the company announced a significant change to the way it orders foals for the flagship November National Hunt Sale. From this year, foals will be catalogued in alphabetical order each day in alignment with all other Tattersalls Ireland auctions.

The move has been taken after extensive consultation with vendors and buyers alike and the company stressed that there will be no alteration to the foal selling days. Each day of the foal sale will be treated as a separate entity with foals catalogued in alphabetical order by dam with the same starting letter applying to each day throughout the foal section.

November won't be long coming round but we are still in late summer and right now there is the important matter of the July Store Sale to occupy minds; the first session of which gets underway at 10am.

Factfile

Where Tattersalls Ireland Sales Complex, Ratoath

When Part One is on Wednesday and Part Two on Thursday, selling starts at 10am on both days

Last year's sale From 270 lots offered in Part One, 190 sold (70 per cent) for turnover of €2,841,100 (up 90 per cent year-on-year), an average of €14,953 (up 43 per cent) and a median of €11,750 (up 47 per cent). 2022 saw the addition of a Part Two section to the sale and from 250 lots offered, 163 sold (65 per cent) for turnover of €1,074,300, an average of €6,591 and a median of €5,000.

Notable graduates The July Sale was introduced in 2021 and replaced the August National Hunt Sale, where graduates included Noble Yeats (sold by Glen Stables, bought by Donal Hassett for €6,500); Chantry House (sold by Mount Brown Farm, bought by Eric A Elliott for €26,000) and Aucunrisque (sold by Peel Hall Stables, bought by Terence Finn for €10,000).