Saladins ready to rule at Cheltenham for Maike Magnussen

Maike Magnussen comes from a background in showjumping, where patience is one of the greatest virtues that a trainer can have.

She has applied such methods to her team of Irish point-to-pointers and is already having her best season to date with four winners on the board from eight to have raced.

One of them, Saladins Son, was able to win on his debut in a four-year-old maiden and is sent to Saturday’s Tattersalls Cheltenham January Sale as a bright hope for his trainer and for owner-breeder Thomas Westropp-Bennett.

"I always thought he was a very, very nice horse," said Magnussen of the Tobougg gelding, who scored at Tattersalls just before Christmas with a spirited response on the run-in.

"There were never any issues with him, he was ready in the spring but we gave him the time, the summer, to mature more. I had spoken to the owner and he agreed, I just wanted to wait for the right opportunity. He’s only now the horse which I wanted to see and he’s not finished filling out yet.

"He loves jumping, he stays well and he’s just a big, fine galloping horse. Whatever you want to do, he’ll do. A pleasure and a gentleman to deal with - the owner and the horse!"

Maike Magnussen's Templemore stables have attracted some promising horses

How a former German showjumper should end up training point-to-pointers from Manna Stables in rural County Tipperary is a surprising story. Magnussen has been in Ireland for a decade and spent a year working for Henry de Bromhead.

"I had never ridden a racehorse before I came here!" she says. "I went to [trainer] Mark Molly. My English wasn’t very good, he pretty much said, 'That’s a racehorse, do you want to give it a go?'

"It was all very simple, I rode for him and I fell in love with the pointers. I started on my own, doing some breaking, pre-training and training a few pointers; from thereon it’s just progressed.

"I’m grateful where I am in Templemore, Bill Harney’s place. There are brilliant facilities. Some owners have supported me from the start and are still with me, they’ve really helped."

Magnussen says a focus is not to waste the time of owners, or of her own, on horses that she doesn’t believe in. One of her past projects, I Am Gonna Be, has already won twice for Michael Scudamore after selling for £37,000 at Goffs UK a year ago.

She feels that Saladins Son, lot 30 at the sale, could be destined for even bigger things.

"Hopefully he has a really bright future and I’ll miss him for sure. He’s just a dude," she said.

"I’ve still a few to run, maybe some straight after the sales. I’ve plenty of young promising horses for whenever they’re ready. I don’t like to push them and there’s nothing left afterwards. I give them the time they need to become a long-term racehorse."

The Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale takes place on SaturdayCredit: Debbie Burt

A catalogue of 43 has been collected for the third edition of this particular sale, which is set to take place at 5pm after Festival Trials Day.

Last year’s £210,000 top lot was Weveallbeencaught, who did not take up an entry at the track on Saturday but has engagements at both the Dublin Racing Festival and back at Cheltenham in March and is held in high esteem by trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies.

Speed Davis (5), a half-brother of the useful Violin Davis out of a sister to mighty two-miler Klairon Davis, was off the mark first-time at Boulta for Donnchadh Doyle, whose brother Sean has the impressive Borris House winner Sanda Rena (27) in the sale.

Barrabooka (22), by Presenting out of an unraced sister of Oscar Whisky, made a good first impression for Colin Bowe at Carrigarostig, with similar comments applying to Totowolfe (26) for Ian McCarthy at Ballindenisk on New Year’s Day.

Gordon Elliott should have little trouble finding a new buyer for Wingmen (8), a son of Kayf Tara who won as he liked at Ballycrystal last weekend.

Whosmydaddy (1) was a wide-margin winner at Alnwick and is among three representatives from British point-to-points for Tom and Gina Ellis.