Cheltenham Festival possible Maskada tops ThoroughBid sale at £80,000

Black type-winning chaser Maskada topped the ThoroughBid March Sale on Sunday night when making £80,000 to Kieran Mariga of Coolmara Stud, who said the mare could still take up her Grand Annual entry at Cheltenham next week.

The daughter of Masked Marvel has been the leading performer on Racing Post Ratings for Buckinghamshire-based Stuart Edmunds this season, with three wins over hurdles and a fourth to Allmankind in the Finale Juvenile Hurdle among her back catalogue before going chasing this term.

She won a Listed mares' chase at Leicester in January, and has placed in two further Listed events behind The Glancing Queen and Pink Legend.

Immediate plans are fluid for the French-bred six-year-old, but a more definite intention is to move her to Ireland, where she will be trained by Henry de Bromhead.

Cork-based Mariga, who has bought the likes of the classy Petit Parisienne as broodmare prospects for the farm in the past, said: “We had our eye on Maskada from the outset and we’re very happy with the final price we managed to get her for. She’s a lovely individual, has some high-class form in the book and is by a good sire in Masked Marvel.

"She holds an entry in the Grand Annual, so that’s still an option if she gets in. If not, she’ll be coming home to Ireland, where she’ll go into training with Henry de Bromhead. Hopefully she’ll settle in well and maybe slot into a good race at the Punchestown festival."

Maskada, left, in Listed-winning action at LeicesterCredit: Edward Whitaker

He added: "ThoroughBid came on to our radar when we saw the sale of Belfast Banter in November, and we’ve been keeping a keen eye on the sales ever since."

Consignor Michael Kehoe added: "We were delighted with the final bid of £80,000 for Maskada. We’ve got a couple of up-and-coming Masked Marvel offspring we need to make space for, so for Maskada to go to her new connections for a nice price was a good result."

Dan Skelton went to £20,000 to secure winning point-to-pointer Victory Club, a son of Soldier Of Fortune who was offered by Harriet Dickin after scoring at Badbury Rings.

All Risk For Love, in foal to Jet Away and a half-sister to Champion Hurdle contender Teahupoo, sold for £50,000 to buyers signing as Three Wise Men, while Crystal Etoile, dam of Saturday's Flemington Listed winner Crystal Pegasus, was picked up by the Crystal Etoile Syndicate for £25,000.

James Richardson, the CEO of ThoroughBid, said: "It was great to see both old and new connections of Maskada delighted with her final price on Sunday evening.

"It’s a very exciting prospect that we will hopefully see her at the Cheltenham Festival just over a week after going under our online hammer.

"It’s great to have some more Point2Rules Bonus hopefuls vying to claim back some of their purchase price for connections too. Dan Skelton knows how to turn out these young horses from the point-to-point field into rules winners and we wish them all the best in their efforts to claim the bonus."

The next ThoroughBid sale will take place on Sunday, March 27.

Full results

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