Fame And Glory gelding tops August National Hunt opener at €80,000

Healthy demand for stores helped the Tattersalls Ireland August National Hunt Sale post increased figures despite a smaller pool of horses catalogued for the opening session on Tuesday.

The auction was expanded to three days this year and 20 per cent fewer horses were scheduled to go through the ring on Tuesday but in spite of that, both the median and average figures increased from last year, while the aggregate was just marginally lower than on this day last year.

Matt Coleman has been busy buying up Fame And Glory’s progeny at this year’s store sales and the bloodstock agent was tracking down more stock of the much lamented Coolmore National Hunt sire at Fairyhouse.

View the sale results from Tattersalls Ireland

Coleman found himself in a bidding war with Aiden Murphy for the half-brother to Grade 3-winning hurdler The Crafty Butcher from Timmy Hillman’s Castledillon Stud. He was forced to go to €80,000, the highest price at this sale for four years, to secure the gelding who is a half-brother to five winners in total.

“He's for Clive Boultbee-Brooks,” Coleman reported. “I’ve bought six Fame And Glorys this year, he’s a sire I really like. Clive already owns an exciting Fame And Glory in Sebastopol, who won his bumper on debut at Ayr on Scottish National Day [a race previously won by Sprinter Sacre]. He's with Tom Lacey and is a horse we really like.

"This gelding was an impressive sort and we’re going after the sire. I bought another couple for Clive at the Derby Sale.

"The dam has already produced a Graded hurdler and there’s Flat speed in the pedigree as she has a horse rated 100 on the Flat and another who ran at Royal Ascot as a two-year-old. So there’s a really nice blend of speed, similar to Sebastopol’s pedigree. The cross of Montjeu over a Danzig line sire is one I like too.”

The session-topping gelding's dam Ivy Queen is a Green Desert half-sister to Prix Morny winner and sire Tagula. She is out of a half-sister to the dam of dual Breeders’ Cup Mile victor Da Hoss.

Familiar pedigree for Elliott

Gordon Elliott picked up some choice lots on the first day of the August Sale, including a half-brother to his 2017 Supreme Novices' Hurdle hero Labaik.

The son of Falco, named Falco Lux, was consigned through Peter Nolan Bloodstock and is also a brother to a three-year-old winning hurdler in France last year.

Their second dam Anthurium was a Listed winner on the Flat in her native Germany and is a half-sister to German Group 2 winner Arcadio, who stands at Arctic Tack Stud.

Elliott, standing with Aidan O’Ryan who owns Labaik, went to €65,000 to secure his half-brother.

Mags O'Toole and Gordon Elliott on the hunt for talentCredit: Tattersalls Ireland

“He's a nice, athletic horse who looks very forward and ready to run,” commented last season’s Grand National-winning trainer. “His half-brother is a very talented horse and is back cantering at home.”

Later in the day Elliott, this time in company with agent Mags O’Toole, bought a son of the brilliant sire Presenting for €70,000.

Consigned by Abbey Stables, the gelding is a son of the winning Accordion mare Lemon Cello and is a half-brother to a winning hurdler.

Malone's 'pick of the sale'

Brown Island Stables’ daughter of leading French sire Saint Des Saints missed her intended appointment with the auctioneer at the Derby Sale in this ring in June, but agent Tom Malone had noted her and was determined to buy her when he got the chance.

That opportunity came on Tuesday afternoon but she wasn’t easy to buy, Malone having to pay the highest price for a filly at this sale in eight years - €60,000 - to secure Diama.

“She's the pick of this sale – filly or gelding – to my mind. I think she is a bit special. She's a real Derby Sale horse,” remarked Malone, who bought Diama on behalf of Paul Nicholls.

The third foal of her Poliglote dam, Diama is a three-parts sister to the Grade 2 Prix Jean Stern Chase winner and Grade Prix Ferdinand Dufaure Chase runner-up Laterno.

Her second dam is a winning half-sister to Free World, a five time winner trained by Nicholls who was placed in the Henry VIII Novice Chase, Lightning and Kingmaker Novice Chases. It is also the family of JP McManus’s Grade 1-winning hurdler Yanworth.

A very-well related gelding from the final crop of the retired Oscar was one of the pedigree picks prior to the sale and he was another on Malone’s shopping list. The former jockey secured the full-brother to dual Grade 1 winner The Tullow Tank and three-parts brother to ill-fated Grand National hero Many Clouds for €55,000 for Richard Gilbert of Straightline Construction Ltd.

Malone explained: “Richard has horses in training with Keith Dalgleish and Donald McCain, and Brian Harding does the breaking and pre-training of all his horses so this fella will be going to Brian first.”

Consigned by Eudora O’Connor’s Lough na Sollis Stud on behalf of his breeder Con Hickey, the bay gelding has a beautiful National Hunt pedigree. His dam is by Bob Back and is a half-sister to the dam of Forge Meadow, who won the Grade 3 Red Mills Trial Hurdle at Gowran in February for Jessica Harrington and jockey Robbie Power.

Milan so fashionable

It was a good day for another of Coolmore’s National Hunt sires in Milan, whose progeny recorded three of the day’s top ten prices, making €40,000 and above.

The most expensive of these was another from the Brown Island Stables draft, a March gelding out of the good producer So Proper by Topanoora. Gerry Griffin – who was busy on Tuesday, signing for two of the most expensive Milan horses – bought the sibling to three winners for €45,000 on behalf of trainer Nicky Richards.

A bay gelding, he is a brother to Motown Girl, who was Listed placed in a mares’ bumper last season for trainer and breeder Mags Mullins.

Their dam, So Proper, is a half-sister to the Grade 2 Ascot Hurdle heroine Chomba Womba and Down In Neworleans, who won a Grade 3 chase for Mullins.

“When this sort of horse comes into the ring, you have to try and buy him. He's a scopey, athletic sort who will jump a fence,” commented Griffin on his new purchase.

Griffin also bought a Milan filly, the second highest priced filly of the day, for €40,000 from consignors Thistletown Stud. She is out of the winning Supreme Leader mare Dewasentah, who has already produced two winners, and this is the further family of Coq Hardi Diamond.

A Milan three-parts brother to Enniscoffey Oscar, winner of the Grade 2 Albert Bartlett River Don Novice Hurdle at Doncaster in January for Emma Lavelle, was sold for €44,000 from Kilcornan Stables.

Purchased by the entity Cahereelea, he features very close inbreeding to Sadler’s Wells in his pedigree as his damsire is Old Vic, another son of the great sire.

His dam Enniscoffey is an unraced three-parts sister to the Accordion-sired Weird Al, who won the Grade 2 Charlie Hall Chase and was third in Kauto Star’s historic 2011 Betfair Chase triumph.

Tuesday’s average price jumped by over a fifth on the equivalent day last year with the 2018 figure of €12,813 up 21 per cent on the €10,562 recorded in 2017. The gain in the median was more solid than spectacular, a seven per cent improvement from €7,000 last year to €7,500 on Tuesday.

The aggregate figure on Tuesday, from 34 fewer horses sold than on this day last year, was €2,011,600, down less than one per cent on last year’s sum of €2,017,250.