Midnight Empress tops Tattersalls Online Barrier Trials Pop-Up Sale sale at 45,000gns

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Midnight Empress, a daughter of Mehmas, topped the Tattersalls Online Barrier Trials Pop-Up Sale when selling for 45,000gns to Joseph Bell.

Trained by Diego Dias, the two-year-old had won her six-furlong trial by a length and a half and recorded the second-fastest time among the juvenile contests staged at Leopardstown.

The filly is out of Star Empress, an unraced daughter of Tamayuz, who is a half-sister to Minzaal, the Group 1-winning son of Mehmas who is now plying his trade as a stallion at Shadwell. 

Dias was pleased with the result and said the trials offered buyers a valuable opportunity to assess young horses before they were offered for sale.

"The barrier trials are a very good idea," he said. "They are good for the horses and, with the videos available after the trials, everything is there to see.

"You can judge a horse very well from the trials, how they handle the racecourse and their temperament in the barriers. The online sale works well after the trials and I will support them again.

"We were very happy with the price for the filly and the owners are very happy too."

The ITM Barrier Trials have produced a number of notable graduates, including Group 1 winners Magical Lagoon and A Case Of You.

Diego Dias: 'We were very happy with the price for the filly and the owners are very happy too'Credit: Sophie Webber Photography/Goffs

Tattersalls Online sales manager Katherine Sheridan said: "We are delighted with the response to the Tattersalls Online Barrier Trial Pop-Up Sale, with Midnight Empress delivering a pleasing result when selling for 45,000 guineas.

"The Barrier Trials provide an excellent opportunity to identify young horses at an early stage of their careers and we wanted to create a straightforward avenue of trade for those horses.

"This sale has demonstrated the potential for the concept to grow and we will continue to build on it in the future, with Tattersalls Online providing the most effective marketplace to connect Barrier Trial performers with an international audience of buyers."

The next auction on the Tattersalls Online platform is the September Sale on September 15-16. The catalogue is due to be published on September 9, with wildcard entries remaining open until September 11.

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