Fergal O'Brien continues on the rise for £250,000 Oak Grove

Fergal O'Brien, whose Gloucestershire stable has already reached yet another personal best on winners and prize-money as the National Hunt season nears its end, was able to match his ambition in the ring as he snapped up the top lot from the Tattersalls Cheltenham April Sale.

Oak Grove was one of the members of Thursday's post-race auction who was expected to figure most prominently in the estimate of buyers and so it proved, with bidding opening at £60,000 and offers raining down from various points in the busy amphitheatre, the price swiftly surpassing £100,000 in pursuit of Rob James's offering.

With auctioneer Richard Botterill about to bring the hammer down at £230,000 a very late intervention raised forced it up further but O'Brien was not to be thwarted in his efforts to secure the four-year-old gelding, countering with an offer of £250,000. Botterill made a final scan of the ring, his gavel hovering, but there was to be no last second hitch and he knocked Oak Grove down to the locally-based trainer.

Oak Grove was consigned by crack amateur rider James, who has had a memorable 12 months or so, having claimed the Scottish National aboard Win My Wings last April and begun to train some of his own point-to-pointers for tangible commercial reward. His most notable previous result had been Jingko Blue, bought through Jerry McGrath for £225,000 at the Cheltenham February Sale.

James had selected Oak Grove at last year’s Land Rover Sale for €75,000 and won with the Soldier Of Fortune gelding at the second time of asking, when he put in a determined effort under Finny Maguire at Oldcastle the weekend before last.

Shishkin connections abound at the top

The dark bay, lengthy individual is from a family that was not exactly in need of a boost but got one anyway at Aintree; his dam is not only a King’s Theatre sibling of top hurdler Voler La Vedette and Bet365 Gold Cup winner Hennessy but to Labarynth, the mother of back-to-form Bowl winner Shishkin.

Fergal O'Brien and Sally Randell had been impressed by Oak Grove during their inspectionsCredit: Debbie Burt

“We really liked his point-to-point win, we watched the video a few times, and when we saw him here we just loved him,” O’Brien said. 

“Chris Giles has bought him and we’re very grateful to him for the opportunity. He’s still quite weak so the plan would be to send him over to Jason Maguire’s for some ‘r and r’, a bit of treadmilling, then we’ll see what we’ll do with him.”

These are rare heights for O’Brien to be bidding at, something which he acknowledged, but it is also recognition for how far his stable, currently fifth in the standings, has come.

“We’d usually buy four horses for that, maybe even five!” he joked. “Chris part-owns Crambo, who we’ve had a good season with and when he won [the EBF Final] at Sandown, he said he’d like to buy another horse with us. We had an eye on this one, and have been waiting.”

James added: “He’s a lovely horse and he’s got the pedigree. I’m pleased that Fergal bought him, this is the first one he’s bought off us and I hope he’s lucky for him.”

One of Oak Grove's illustrious relations, the six-time Grade 1 winner Shishkin, was trained by Virginia Considine to win a Lingstown maiden before selling to Anthony Bromley in this ring and Bromley returned to the same source, purchasing Considine's Oldcastle five-year-old maiden winner Grand Albert for £120,000.

The son of Jet Away is the second runner and winner out of Ruthy Lukey, an unraced Oscar half-sister to Suny Bay, the Hennessy and Tommy Whittle Chase winner who was runner-up in successive renewals of the Grand National.

“He’s for a syndicate of owners, who will take him back home and decide on allocating a trainer, probably in Britain,” said Bromley, who added that Jasmin Belleview, Denis Murphy’s promising gelding who had been knocked down to his Highflyer colleague David Minton a little earlier for £110,000, had been bought on spec to go to Nicky Henderson without an owner.

“The sire Jeu St Eloi is starting to be recognised and Minty thought he was too nice not to buy,” he added.

National winners restock

Lucinda Russell etched her name into the Grand National annals again this year with the victory of Corach Rambler and the trainer won the battle for Whistle Stop Tour, whose price tag of £115,000 was multiples of what her Aintree hero had cost after his point-to-point success, albeit as a six-year-old.

Tom Keating’s Whistle Stop Tour is out of the Presenting mare For A While, whose dam is a full-sister to the mighty Gold Cup winner Kicking King.

This Saddex gelding was For A While’s first foal, sourced for €14,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland July Store Sale. He had lasted out a length in front of Primoz, who has run well again subsequently, in an event at Loughrea in late March.

“Paul McIvor advised us on this one but he looked just our type, a nice chaser for the future,” said Russell, who later went to £100,000 for Flemensface, winner of a Cork bumper over Easter for Michael Griffin. The six-year-old son of Flemensfirth is out of a half-sister to the brilliant Master Minded.

They were two of four horses purchased by Russell and Paul McIvor, making them the leading purchasers of more than one lot by both aggregate and average.

Christian Williams, who supplied James with the Scottish National win last year and has Cap Du Nord and Kitty's Light engaged this time around, has another notable date next week. It will involve the new owner of Fortified Fortune, who he signed up for £115,000.

"He's been bought for Chris Tremblath, who has had horses like The Romford Pele in the past," he said. "His first horse with me is Lord Snootie, who goes to Punchestown next week and will be an Eider Chase, National sort of horse for the future."

Williams was congratulated by vendor James Doyle, who had sourced the Soldier Of Fortune gelding for €50,000 at the Derby Sale. "He was second in the same point-to-point at Liscarroll that Denman won in the past," Doyle said. "I couldn't have recommended him highly enough, just a really nice big horse."

After a glorious afternoon of racing in warm spring sunshine, attendees were entitled to feel somewhat somnolent. It was reflected in final figures which, although perfectly respectable, were a little down this time. The aggregate dropped year-on-year to £2,969,000 from £3,506,000 from a similar-sized catalogue, reflected in an average of £60,592 which was down 10 per cent and a median which had fallen by 7 per cent to £50,000 from £53,500. Out of 58 horses offered, 49 per cent sold at a clearance rate of 84 per cent.

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