Hypersonic Missile fires up John McConnell for £34,000

Debut British point-to-point winner Hypersonic Missile led the way at Wednesday's ThoroughBid Spring Sale when bought by Irish trainer John McConnell for £34,000.

The four-year-old Califet gelding had been a first winner for Maddie Hand when scoring in a bumper at Milborne St Andrew last month. His granddam was a half-sister to the popular Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Imperial Call and Hypersonic Missile now finds himself qualified for ThoroughBid’s £5,000 Point2Rules Bonus, which is in McConnell's crosshairs.

He said: "With Irish point-to-points being so hard to buy out of, you have to go elsewhere. This is a nice horse who ticks the boxes and has plenty left in the tank. He could be anything and I’m glad to have found him in the Spring Sale.

"With Hypersonic Missile, we’ll be trying to win first time out and will try him in a bumper. I haven’t bought him for anyone in particular so, if anyone’s interested, get in touch!"

The sale concluded with 16 of the 19 lots sold for £135,100, working out at an average £8,444 and median £5,250.

Others of note included Liz Doyle's placed Irish pointer Moorefields, who sold to Tom Malone Bloodstock for £22,000, and two hurdlers, The Priests Leap and What An Ocean, who were bought by Aidan 'Mouse' O’Ryan. 

The CEO of ThoroughBid, James Richardson, said: "We are delighted with the Spring Sale results and to have a clearance rate of over 80 per cent is particularly pleasing. It’s great to see both British and Irish pointers such as Moorefields and Hypersonic Missile selling so well to new connections, who are now in with a realistic chance of winning our £5,000 Point2Rules Bonus.

"Having the likes of Tom Malone and Mouse O’Ryan involved in the online bidding battle today was good to see, and we wish them the best of luck with their new purchases."

Read this next:

Great galloping grey Daylami dies at 29