No Risk At All for Knight and Grech as duo spend €320,000 on gelding and filly

A dramatic day one of the Goffs Land Rover Sale ultimately ended with Henrietta Knight and owner Mike Grech landing two of the session's priciest lots, both by No Risk At All, including the €195,000 gelding out of Tangaspeed

Best Mate's trainer was the purchaser of Moanmore Stables' offering by the half-brother to Nickname and the May-born foal has an impressive lineage of his own, being out of a dual Flat Listed winner who was also placed at Group 3 level.

A daughter of Vertical Speed, Tangaspeed is the dam of five winners from as many runners, including the French Listed-placed hurdler Speedy Speed and Authorized Speed, who won a Newbury bumper last season for Gary Moore and was second in a Listed Ascot bumper and fifth to Facile Vega in the Champion Bumper.

Knight was forced to go to €195,000 to secure the unnamed gelding on behalf of Grech. They will be hoping to have more luck with these No Risk At All offspring than they had with their star-crossed £370,000 purchase Keskonrisk, who was third to Appreciate It in the Grade 1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle for the Joseph O'Brien yard.

Meanwhile, the No Risk At All half-sister to Listed Prix Finot Hurdle winner Here I Am and to the dam of dual Listed-winning hurdler Born To Hold, both sons of Born To Sea, represented a pinhooking triumph for Peter Nolan, who purchased her for €16,000 as a foal and sold her for €125,000 to Knight, again on behalf of Grech.

"That filly was a great pinhook and any day you do that is a good day," said Nolan.

Knight, who was taking instructions on the phone from her client, was effusive in her praise of the half-sister to three winners out of Khazina, an Alhaarth half-sister to Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris and Group 2 Prix Hocquart winner Khalkevi.

Peter Nolan's No Risk At All filly lit up the Goffs bid boardCredit: Sarah Farnsworth

Knight said: "She is a gorgeous filly and I love the stallion. She has a great walk and seems to have a wonderful temperament. I loved her from day one, I saw her on Sunday and thought she was special. She will come back to me to begin her education and plans for her career and training will be made later."

The Gold Cup-winning trainer's purchase was one of a pair of fillies offered during the day by the rising star of the French stallion ranks and both fillies brought six figures.

Juliet Minton's Mill House Stud offered the first foal out of Scorpio Queen, a winning Scorpion half-sister to Reynoldstown Novices' Chase winner Master Of The Hall and Pair Of Brown Eyes, twice successful in the Leinster National.

Scorpio Queen is also a half-sister to the dam of the triple Grade 1 winner Samcro and it was that chestnut's trainer Elliott who purchased this No Risk At All filly for €115,000.

There is seemingly no risk at all attached to buying the progeny of Haras du Montaigu's sire of Cheltenham luminaries Allaho and Epatante - and that is certainly the case as far as Knight is concerned.

Henrietta Knight was among the big spenders at GoffsCredit: Sarah Farnsworth

Her purchases helped No Risk At All amass total sales of €743,000 from nine horses offered, with all nine finding a buyer. The average for his progeny was €82,556, with the median coming in at €72,000.

Stunning statistics

A staggering 25 horses sold for at least €100,000 during an astonishing opening to the Goffs Land Rover Sale. Over the entirety of last year's part one, a total of 22 horses changed hands for six-figure sums, which was an increase on the previous year, but that number was surpassed on Tuesday with half of the catalogue still to come under the hammer.

From a total of 224 horses offered, 205 were sold at a clearance rate of 92 per cent. The day's aggregate was €11,054,000, an increase of 29 per cent on last year's day-one total.

Both the average and median figures showed gains on 2021, with the average of €53,922 up by 17 per cent and the median improving by ten per cent to €46,000.

The sale continues on Wednesday from 10am.

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