Record shattered at Goffs as Grade 1 winner's foal sparks fierce bidding battle

Without looking at the catalogue or glancing up at one of the many television screens strategically located throughout the Goffs sales complex at Kildare Paddocks, it's still easy to know when a special horse is about to come under the hammer.

Crowds wind their way from the back ring to the auditorium, or leave their space in the queue for coffee and food, the comfortable couches vacated and coffee cups abandoned, their contents left to go cold as people, whether potential purchasers or interested bystanders, migrate as one flock to gain the perfect pitch.

Shortly after 3pm on Tuesday afternoon, the mood shifted and it wasn't the plummeting temperatures that sent people scurrying for the warmth of the sales ring. Instead it was the magnetic pull of witnessing a potential sale of significance at the December National Hunt Sale that lured the crowds inside.

The foal in question had an aura around him despite his tender age; although less than eight months old, the Walk In The Park colt moved with the purpose of a star who understands their own worth and that the spotlight is trained on them. It's an attitude the powerful bay may have inherited from his dam, the Grade 1 JLT and Neville Hotels Novice Chase winner Shattered Love.

His breeders, Justin and Jackie Owens, would later reveal that there is a lot of Shattered Love about her first born son.

The familiar figures of successful pinhooker Richard Frisby and his son JJ answered Henry Beeby's call for an opening bid at €50,000 from below the rostrum, and the bidding quickly reached six figures as Ben Case joined the fray and the price surpassed the sale's record figure for a foal of €100,000, set last year when Flash Conroy paid that sum for Ballyreddin Stud's son of No Risk At All.

Battle was joined between Frisby father and son and Gerry Aherne as the foal took turn after turn round the ring, circling under lights while the record price soared ever higher. Eventually Aherne's offer of €155,000 shattered the resistance of his rivals and the colt earned his place in the Goffs history books.

He joins the Camelot half-brother to Altior as the joint-second most expensive National Hunt colt foals ever sold in Ireland, but still some way behind the record price of €210,000 for a National Hunt foal. That was set back in 2007 when Sunnyhill Stud sold Forever Present, a Presenting filly out of Sidalcea - a half-sister to the legendary Best Mate - for €210,000 to Netherfield House Stud.

Gerry Aherne inspects the Walk In The Park colt he would later buy for €155,000Credit: Peter Mooney

Aherne, who along with his family bred Irish 2,000 Guineas and Prix Jacques le Marois winner Romanised, signed the docket for the record-breaking foal, whose career path has been mapped out already.

"He is for a syndicate that has been put together by a group of friends who want to buy the best Walk In The Park foals and go pointing with them," Aherne said, and confirmed the colt was the group's second purchase of the day having earlier bought a son of the sire du jour from Coolmara Stables for €82,000.

"The hope is that they will maybe find the next Facile Vega [Grade 1-winning son of Walk In The Park]. Every time you open the paper, there's something more about Walk In The Park, whether it's another Grade 1 winner or promising four-year-old, and there hasn't been a National Hunt sire like him since Deep Run."

Couple place their faith in Love

Just 12 months ago Shattered Love brought €260,000 in the same ring, carrying the foal who would command attention and a record price. The Yeats mare was sold by Gigginstown House Stud, for whom she won 11 of her 33 starts. In addition to her pair of top-level novice chase successes, she was a Grade 3 and Listed winner both over hurdles and fences for Gordon Elliott.

Shattered Love's own prowess on the track is allied to an excellent pedigree; she is a half-sister to Rebecca Curtis's Charlie Hall Chase winner Irish Cavalier and to You Take Care, the dam of Grade 2 December Novices' Chase winner Keeper Hill. Their dam Tracker is an unraced Bustino half-sister to Make A Stand, who defeated Theatreworld and Space Trucker in the Champion Hurdle of 1997 for Martin Pipe and Sir AP McCoy.

Sale-topping colt strikes a pose at GoffsCredit: Peter Mooney

For her delighted owners, who are excited about the Crystal Ocean foal that Shattered Love is carrying, the price recoups a considerable chunk of their investment almost immediately.

"He is a big, strong and imposing foal and I would say he is a lot like his mother," remarked Jackie Owens. "She is a great mother, a really tough and very intelligent mare and he has taken after her.

"He adapted really well when he came here, you could see him taking in everything and just showing himself so well."

The couple owns Mount Armstrong Stud outside Clane and established the farm only two years ago. Their purchase of Shattered Love at Goffs last year was their first foray into National Hunt breeding, adding the Grade 1 winner to the handful of Flat mares they own.

Lyndsey McDonnell gives a reassuring pat to lot 316, the sale-topping Walk In The Park coltCredit: Goffs

Going into the sale last December, neither Jackie nor her husband Justin were convinced they would end up bringing Shattered Love the 15 minutes up the road from Kildare Paddocks to their Clane farm, but they were very wrong.

"We bought Shattered Love as a foundation broodmare but she was a better mare than we thought we would be able to buy," explained Justin. "She was the standout mare in the sale on both her race record and pedigree so to be able to get her was brilliant."

A strong and physically imposing daughter of Yeats, she appears to have passed on her physique and temperament to her son.

"She is the boss!" smiled Jackie. "He is a big foal and robust, like her, and he has everything to back him up."

Her father Eddie Cawley, who has been advising the couple, was on hand to witness the first flourishings of Mount Armstrong Stud, as a vendor.

"It's a great result and he'll be a good one if he has half the ability that his mother had," he commented.

Sales success a Walk In The Park

The other Walk In The Park colt Aherne purchased on behalf of the syndicate was also the first foal of a talented track performer. His dam, Royale Joana Has, won the Grade 3 Prix Hopper Chase and the Listed Prix Roger de Minvielle Chase for Guillaume Macaire.

A daughter of the brilliant Martaline, she was purchased by Richard Venn for €105,000 three years ago and made one start in Ireland for the Mariga family of Coolmara Stables.

Royale Joana Has is a half-sister to Royale Maria Has, who preceded her as winner of the Prix Hopper for Macaire and their owner-breeders SCEA Hamel Stud.

The Mariga family with their Walk In The Park colt foalCredit: Peter Mooney

Cathal Mariga said: "We are delighted with this result, we like our mares to race well before they go breeding. We knew we had a good foal and we got more confident when we came up here with all the people coming back for second and third looks, but we didn't think he'd go for that price."

Paul Murphy, who manages the Cork farm, confirmed that Royale Joana Has is back in foal to Walk In The Park as the team were so impressed with this, her first foal.

"It's nice to give a young mare a proven stallion and it will give her a good start in her broodmare career," he said.

Seven foals changed hands on Tuesday for at least €50,000 and four of them were by the ubiquitous Walk In The Park.

He was responsible for the session's most expensive filly, Cleaboy Stud and Coppice Farm's foal out of Tidjy, a Slickly half-sister to Frodon, whose three Grade 1 triumphs included the King George VI Chase.

She was purchased by Franny Woods of Abbeylands Farm for €52,000, while the fourth member of the quartet was a colt out of Silverpockets, a winning daughter of Milan from the family of recent Grade 2 Florida Pearl Novice Chase winner Darrens Hope. Consigned by Mountrivers Stables on behalf of Robert Murphy, he brought €50,000 from George Frisby.

Ocean's foals sparkle for The Beeches

The other three foals who exceeded €50,000 were all by stallion sons of Sea The Stars, with Crystal Ocean siring two and dual Derby hero Harzand the other.

Ian Ferguson was in action at Goffs on TuesdayCredit: Goffs

A colt from the second crop of Crystal Ocean, consigned by The Beeches Stud, where the Prince of Wales's Stakes winner stands, brought €75,000 from Ian Ferguson.

It is a family Ferguson has strong knowledge of as he had his four-year-old Flemensfirth half-brother Porthill, who was second on his debut in a maiden at Fairyhouse last spring for Colin McKeever before making £250,000 to Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins at the Goffs UK Spring Point-to-Point Sale.

"He will be going racing," said Ferguson. "Porthill looks a nice horse and was very good for us so hopefully he can do us a turn and give the pedigree an update."

It is a family with which Mullins has enjoyed success in the recent past; dam Presenting Juno is a Presenting half-sister to Last Of The Bunch, who is the dam of Mullins' Grade 1 Champion Bumper-winning mare Relegate. Presenting Juno is also a half-sister to Funny Times, successful in a Listed mares' bumper at Doncaster and now the dam of the dual Listed-winning hurdler Mrs Hyde.

Crystal Ocean was also the sire of the colt out of Supreme Serata who made €52,000 to Brooklodge Farm. Consigned by Peter Molony's Rathmore Stud on behalf of breeders Cyril Crowe and Mags Melody, he is a grandson of the Sandown Grade 3 handicap hurdle winner Supreme Serenade and she is a Supreme Leader full-sister to Supreme Prince, successful in the Persian War Novices' Hurdle and Noel Novices' Chase for Philip Hobbs.

Harzand's work rider gallops to success

The Aga Khan's homebred Derby hero Harzand has just three crops of racing age on the ground but the son of Sea The Stars has joined the ranks of National Hunt stallions ahead of the 2023 breeding season, swapping Giltown Stud for Kilbarry Lodge Stud in Waterford.

Legendary jockeys Charlie Swan and Norman Williamson, who bought a Harzand colt for €52,000Credit: Peter Mooney

Con O'Keefe will be buoyed by the sale of a Harzand colt for €52,000 to shrewd judge and noted horseman Norman Williamson. Consigned by Dean Sinnott, who works for Dermot Weld and was work-rider for both Harzand and Tarnawa, the foal is out of Sea Rocket, a winning Shantou full-sister to Barry Connell's Cheltenham Festival winner Tully East.

His pedigree traces back to Sharpaway, an excellent broodmare for the Parkhill family whose legacy includes Mole Board, Deep Dawn, The Railway Man and Bob Olinger.

Tuesday's action in the ring generated turnover of €2,161,200, which was a slight dip of two per cent from day two last year but from 67 fewer horses sold than 12 months ago.

That was eclipsed by the significant rises in both the average and median figures. The former jumped by 25 per cent to €16,498 from €13,165, while the median price of €10,000 was a gain of 18 per cent on the second day of the 2021 sale, when the median was €8,500.

The clearance rate on Tuesday was just 66 per cent, with a total of 131 sold of the 198 foals that were offered.

The sale resumes at 10am on Wednesday with the third of four foal sessions.

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