Quality over quantity as Goffs offer quintet before Irish Champion Stakes card

There is no let-up with Leopardstown’s marathon eight-race card packed with Group 1s and valuable handicaps but it would be advisable to start the day even earlier as a quintet of high-quality lots are going under the hammer an hour before racing in the Leopardstown winner’s enclosure for the Goffs Champions Sale.

One of them, Joseph O’Brien’s Waitingfortheday (lot 3), has been declared for Sunday’s Moyglare 'Jewels' Blandford Stakes at the Curragh and the organisers are comfortable that while the catalogue might be short in length, the quality is assured.

"We get offered quite a lot of horses for this - we never want to catalogue more than ten or 12 - so it’s small but select and all of the five this year are realistically six-figure horses," said Goffs director of sales Nick Nugent.

View Goffs Champion Sale catalogue here

"There's a history going back many decades of Goffs selling even one or two horses before or after racing at Leopardstown, so we’re only doing something we’ve done before.

"The very first sale Goffs ever ran was only about 12 horses up at the Curragh. These sales are relatively easy to run and hopefully it adds a little bit to the proceedings."

Waitingfortheday, an Elzaam filly, has done very well in two seasons for O’Brien, picking up an impressive seven victories including a defeat of Group 1 star Skitter Scatter in the Fairy Bridge Stakes at Tipperary on her latest effort.

"Not many Group-winning fillies really come on the market in any given year, including in the end-of-season breeding stock sales," Nugent said. "She’ll always be a Group-winning filly, whatever happens, but she appears to be getting better and better."

John Murphy supplies two of the offerings, starting with the lightly-raced Declaration Of War colt War Diary (1), who won a premier handicap at the Curragh in June. The Cork trainer also brings down the curtain with Think Big (5), an Elzaam juvenile who caught the eye when making dramatic progress from the rear to take fourth in the Roses Stakes at York.

Joseph O'Brien has engaged Waitingfortheday at the Curragh on SundayCredit: Patrick McCann

The Aga Khan is selling Zarzyni (2), his promising Siyouni juvenile who placed fourth behind Lope Y Fernandez in the Round Tower Stakes, while there is expectation of plenty of interest in the representative from Joseph Murphy’s yard, Gustavus Weston, who successfully stepped up to Group 3 level in the Phoenix Sprint Stakes and has an entry in the richly-endowed Golden Eagle in Australia later in the year.

"Joe Murphy is a very canny fellow and believes he could be a potential Group 1 sprinter," said Nugent. "By right, he is entitled to be the most valuable horse in the sale, as a Group 3 winner on his last run."

In conclusion, he added: "They’re five horses which will suit different people, with several that would suit the export market, and if anyone wants a runner on Champions Weekend, they can buy Waitingfortheday and see her run on Sunday!"

GOFFS CHAMPIONS SALE

Where Leopardstown racecourse winner’s enclosure

When Saturday, September 13; selling starts at 12.30pm

Last year's stats 6 lots sold from 8 offered (75 per cent) for turnover of €1,312,000, an average of €218,667, and a median of €185,000

Notable graduates Cimeara (sold by Glebe House Stables to Sun Bloodstock for €500,000); Sikandarabad (Aga Khan Studs, BBA Ireland, €50,000; Haripour (Aga Khan Studs, BBA Ireland, €70,000)

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