Lightning strikes again at Goffs for Galbertstown Stables and Orchardstown Stud

Lightning, apparently, never strikes twice but that old adage was disproved at Goffs yesterday where the third session of the company's December National Hunt Sale bore witness to the occurrence of that particular natural phenomenon.

A year ago, the third session of the sale was topped by a colt foal consigned by Pa Doyle's Galbertstown Stables on behalf of breeder Sean Ronan of Orchardstown Stud. A year on from that six-figure sale, lightning struck bigger and harder in the sales ring at Kildare Paddocks.

The 2022 bolt was a son of Walk In The Park out of the Grade 2 winner Duhallow Gesture who made €100,0000, whereas the 2023 iteration was a son of No Risk At All out of Hidden Harmony. The price of €120,000 was the highest for a National Hunt foal at auction this year.

An opening bid of €50,000 indicated that six-figures would be in reach and as the bids crept up first in €5,000 increments, the packed sales ring watched as it pinged left and right across the auditorium. 

Charles Shanahan has been a prominent member of the Coolmore buying team at recent sales but this time he was flying solo and representing Ciaran Conroy's Glenvale Stud, for whom he struck the winning bid of €120,000.

"He was the highlight of the day and stood out from the moment he got here," remarked Shanahan.

Charles Shanahan: "I'm very happy we were able to get him"Credit: Goffs

"Flash loved him and all the right people were on him, so I'm very happy we were able to get him. He will be offered for resale as a store."

Hidden Harmony doesn't have the race record of Duhallow Gesture, with the daughter of Kayf Tara's best effort coming in her first run when she was third in a Ballinrobe bumper for Timmy Hyde ridden by grandson Harry Swan. 

That lack of racing ability was compensated for by her pedigree, which goes a long way to explaining her €65,000 price tag when acquired by Sean Ronan two years ago.

By Kayf Tara, Hidden Harmony is out of Shirley Casper who won the Grade 2 Future Champions' Bumper at Navan and was third in the Grade 1 Champion Bumper at the Punchestown festival. A Grade 3 winner over hurdles at the Fairyhouse Easter festival, she was also Grade 3-placed behind Voler La Vedette.

Dessie Hughes trained Shirley Casper for that Fairyhouse success and his daughter Sandra held the licence when Shirley Casper's full-brother Thunder And Roses won the Irish Grand National with Katie Walsh in the saddle.

Another half-brother, Wrath Of Titans, won the Kerry National while her Listed-winning half-sister Oligarch Society is the dam of Pat Taaffe Handicap Chase winner Brahma Bull, while two more half-sisters - Lesley Dawn and Lonesome Dove - have earned lower-case black type.

A delighted Pa Doyle was effusive in his praise for the colt, who is the first foal out of Hidden Harmony.

“This is one of the nicest foals I have ever prepped," he said. "When I came up here the other day, I knew we had a very, very nice horse. Everyone is well aware what the sire is capable of and he’s out of a Kayf Tara mare, from a family we’ve known for a long time."

Doyle is also adamant his first step in public is only the beginning of a successful career for the March-born bay.

Pa Doyle is interviewed by Bernard Condren after selling the session-topping No Risk At All coltCredit: Sophie Webber Photography

"He’s a very smart horse and has gone to a very good home. I’m firmly of the opinion there’s another big day in this horse, whether that be in a sales ring or on the track, but he’s definitely a racehorse. He did everything right for us here," he added.

"The breeder Sean Ronan has been a big supporter of ours and we actually sold a Walk In The Park colt for €100,000 on his behalf at this sale last year. He deserves all of the success he is getting, as he’s putting it in, so it’s great to see him being rewarded.”

Earlier in the day, Doyle consigned the Blue Bresil filly out of Duhallow Gesture, who is bred on the same cross as Constitution Hill, having King's Theatre as her broodmare sire. Duhallow Gesture's dam Rare Gesture is a half-sister to Rhinestone Cowboy and Beechview Stables paid €30,000 for the June foal.

Doyle remarked on the importance of sire power to maximise the opportunities in the marketplace.

"The way the market is going now, you need the pedigree and you need the sires. If you have the pedigree and sire, everybody is on the horse and, when they all line up for the same horse, they stand out a bit."

The four foals offered by Galbertstown at Goffs during the third session certainly fit that category with offspring by Order Of St George and Crystal Ocean also consigned by the Tipperary nursery.

Kieran Shields went to €52,000 for Galbertstown's Crystal Ocean colt out of Gold Moon, a Flemensfirth full-sister to Leopardstown's Paddy Power Handicap Chase winner Noble Endeavor from a family that traces back to the Parkhill family of Mole Board and Deep Dawn.

Galbertstown Stables' colt by Crystal Ocean sells to Kieran Shields for €52,000 at GoffsCredit: Goffs

The standout colt was the only foal by No Risk At All to come under the hammer at the December National Hunt Sale. Now the sire of five individual Grade 1 winners No Risk At All, will stand for €20,000 at Haras de Montaigu next season, the highest fee the almost 17-year-old half-brother to Nickname has commanded.

Following on from their excellent results at the Goffs November Foal Sale, Galbertstown Stables are enjoying a fantastic National Hunt equivalent. From just eight foals offered through the first three days, Doyle's operation is currently second in the consignors standings with total sales of €293,500.

The Tipperary farm has gone from strength to strength over the last few years but Doyle was quick to attribute the success to the efforts of their clients and sprinkling of good fortune.

"I’m putting that down to luck," was Doyle's modest response when asked about the growth of the business.

"The breeders have changed their route too and they all now know what’s needed to succeed here. I really have to thank our clients as, over the last eight to ten years, they’ve backed me with some very nice stock to sell on their behalf. That’s at both Flat and National Hunt sales, but it’s brilliant for them to be rewarded for their support." 

Friends combine for poignant sale

The bonds of friendship can help support people through their most difficult times and the relationship Sally Aston and her late husband Richard had with the Motherway family is one such tie, as is that the couple had with Martin Lightbody.

The three came together to sell a Walk In The Park colt, who prompted Tony O'Callaghan to make the trip to Goffs on Wednesday especially to buy him. The Tally-Ho Stud supremo has  increased his interests in pinhooking National Hunt foals over the last few years and the hobby has become rather successful. 

He was determined not to leave without the half-brother to three winners from the family of Best Mate.

O'Callaghan remarked: "He's a very nice horse, a really good model and I liked him. He will come back to Tally-Ho for the next couple of years and be offered for resale as a store. He has a good pedigree and the stallion is doing well."

Cian Drennan gets the Walk In The Park colt consigned by Yellowford and Drumlin ready for the ringCredit: Sophie Webber Photography

For Sally Aston it was a sale tinged with bittersweet emotions.

"Martin [Lightbody] is a long-standing owner with us and he and Richard were such good friends. He has been with us since the very beginning so this is very poignant."

The colt has resided at Conor Cashman and Deirdre Motherway's Cork farm along with his dam, who remains there ahead of a return to Walk In The Park next spring, as Sally Aston explained.

"Martin keeps the fillies to race and sells some of the colts. The mare has been living at Conor's - just after she foaled Richard became ill so we left her there and they have looked after her and the foal so well."

"I'm delighted with that, it's beyond our expectations he would make such a good price. It's unbelievable really."

Expensive price tags are nothing unusual in this colt's family. His dam. Forever Present, is by Presenting and out of Sidalcea who is an Oscar half-sister to the triple Gold Cup winner and to the Grade 1 Challow Novices' Hurdle winner Cornish Rebel. She is also a half-sister to China Sky, dam of Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle, Sefton Novices' Hurdle and RSA Chase victor Champ, named in honour of Sir Anthony McCoy by JP McManus.

Forever Present was sold as a foal by Sunnyhill Stud to Martin Lightbody's Netherfield Stud back in 2007 for €210,000 which is a record price for a National Hunt filly foal. She went on to win a bumper for Nicky Henderson as a five-year-old.

Frank Motherway, Deirdre Motherway, Cian Drennan, Joe Motherway, Frank Motherway jr and Conor Cashman with the Walk In The Park coltCredit: Sophie Webber Photography

Conor Cashman reflected on the poignant nature of the circumstances surrounding their involvement in the sale for such good friends.

"We are delighted to help Sally out whenever we can and it is great that this has gone so well. This really means a lot to us."

The Yellowford and Drumlin consignment of mares on Thursday also includes Moonamacaroona (875), a Flemensfirth daughter of Forever Present. Twice successful in bumpers, she is offered in foal to Crystal Ocean.

Another walk in the park for Ballintry

Joe Rogers' Ballintry Stud offered the Walk In The Park colt who is the first foal of the Listed Tourist Attraction Mares Hurdle winner Getaway Gorgeous, also bred by Rogers.

A Getaway three-parts sister to the smart Rock The Kasbah, she is from the family of the Top Novices' Hurdle and Elite Hurdle winner Royal Shakespeare and the Grade 1 Golden Cygnet Novices' Hurdle winner Tower Bridge.

Her first offspring was purchased for €82,000 by shrewd pinhooker Jimmy Murphy of Redpender Stud whose National Hunt successes include the Grade 1 Betfair Bowl, Neptune Investment Novices Hurdle and Future Champions' Novice Hurdle winner First Lieutenant.

Ballintry Stud's Walk In The Park colt out of Listed-winning hurdler Getaway Gorgeous sells to Redpender Stud for €82,000 at GoffsCredit: Goffs

Murphy said of the latest acquisition: "He’s a good foal and the plan will be to offer him for resale as a store. The sire just keeps producing the goods on the track, so he’s the one that everybody wants.

"This lad is the first foal out of a black-type winner. She was a good mare and is a half-sister to a good horse, from a good family, so he makes sense."

Shishkin's sister a runner

As the Blue Bresil filly out of Labarynth made her way calmly into the sales ring, one observer was overheard remarking, "Well, she's done better than Shishkin there and not refused to start!"

The May foal definitely had one over on her older half-brother who could not be cajoled into jumping off by Nico de Boinville in the 1965 Chase at Ascot last month and has yet to make his seasonal debut with abortive attempts at running in the Rehearsal Chase and Fighting Fifth since that Ascot fiasco.

However the Blue Bresil filly consigned by Clonmult Farm, and the first offspring of Labarynth to come on the market since the six-time Grade 1 winner, had no shortage of admirers. It was the bold bidding policy of Abbie Fitzgibbon from Cregane Stables that secured the filly, whose pedigree is no one-horse wonder.

Ftizgibbon's only bid was the €62,000 one that landed the dark bay.

The Blue Bresil half-sister to Shishkin takes in her surroundings at Goffs Credit: Goffs

"She's been bought for a partnership and we will keep her to race," she explained. "Her pedigree speaks for itself and she's a great mover with a great way of going about her. Hopefully she can be a good racemare before going on to be a good broodmare afterwards. We have a few horses in pre-training and a young team of horses so we're delighted to be able to get her to add to her string."

Her pedigree contains plenty of that residual value as not only is she a half-sister to a multiple Grade 1 winner, but so too is her dam. Labarynth won three point-to-points for Clive Bennett, who bred this foal with his son Will and bred Shishkin with his late wife Eileen. The 20-year-old mare is an Exit To Nowhere half-sister to Hatton's Grace, Boyne Hurdle and Christmas Hurdle heroine Voler La Vedette, who was also second to Big Buck's in the World Hurdle and filled the same position behind Quevega in the Stayers' Hurdle at Punchestown.

Another sibling is Hennessy, who won Sandown's Bet 365 Gold Cup Handicap Chase while Princess Gaia, a King's Theatre half-sister to Labarynth and full-sister to Voler La Vedette, is the dam of Rowland Meyrick Chase winner Good Boy Bobby who is unbeaten in two starts this season for Nigel Twiston Davies and of Enniskerry. That son of Jeremy won the Grade 3 Kilbegnet Novice Chase last year for Barry Connell and was seventh in the Galway Plate this summer.

Donal White, who boards mares for the Bennetts including Labarynth at his Foxwood Farm, was on hand to oversee proceedings.

"I'm delighted for father and son team Clive and Will Bennett, who are great point-to-point people and bred this filly. Now that Will has come into the business with Clive they are expanding it. They haven't sold a foal out of the mare since Shishkin as they retain a lot of the foals to go pointing so I'm delighted for them that she sold so well."

Abbie Fitzgibbon signs for the Blue Bresil half-sister to ShishkinCredit: Sophie Webber Photography

The filly has a four-year-old unraced Karpino half-sister named Luna Maze and a three-year-old half-brother by Shirocco who is called Much Miracle. Labarynth foaled a full-sister to this foal last year, and she too has been kept.

White added: "Pointing is their thing and the Foxhunters is their Gold Cup and they have Marcle Ridge, a Presenting half-brother to Shishkin, going for it in March hopefully. 

Labarynth won't have far to travel to visit a stallion in the spring.

"She isn't in foal this year but she will be going to Night Wish [son of Sholokhov who stands at Foxwood Farm] next year to get a variation of the cross that produced Shishkin. They also have a Presenting half-sister to Shishkin that they are breeding from and her first foal, a filly by Blue Bresil, made €50,000 last month to Jerry McGrath," White informed reporters.

Trade continued to be sticky for all but the most sought-after foals and that was reflected in a clearance rate of 58 per cent, which matched that of Tuesday. A total of 121 foals from the 208 offered were sold which generated €2,139,600 in total sales. The day's average was €17,683 with the median coming in at €12,000.

The fourth and final day of the December National Hunt Sale gets under way at 10am on Thursday with a session of foals preceding that of mares.

Read more from Goffs

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