'We thought they were the best here' - £420,000 sale-toppers both heading to Gordon Elliott

The Prestbury Park winner's enclosure remained busy early into the evening yesterday as the Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale progressed, and it took only a handful of lots for the £400,000 mark to be eclipsed.

Kayf Tara’s son Romeo Coolio, number six into the ring, commanded a winning bid of £420,000 from Aidan ‘Mouse’ O’Ryan.

Having been sent off favourite for a Belclare maiden, Romeo Coolio duly delivered at a track where, among others, Best Mate, The Thinker and Minella Times cut their teeth.

A €92,000 purchase as a store from the Derby Sale last summer, Romeo Coolio, out of the Kapgarde mare Miss Bailly, is bound for the Cullentra Stables of Gordon Elliott, who earlier in the day had been on the mark in the Stayers’ Hurdle with Sire Du Berlais.

O'Ryan signed the docket for the four-year-old consigned by Donnchadh Doyle’s Monbeg Stables and confirmed the purchase was for KTDA Racing. 

He said: "We saw him in January before he won his point to point. He's just a gorgeous model of a Kayf Tara."

Also reaching £420,000, heading for Cullentra and hailing from Doyle’s Monbeg yard was Jalon D’Oudairies, a four-year-old son of No Risk At All who on Sunday had won a Lingstown maiden from which Bravesmansgame and Gerri Colombe have graduated. 

The new owners of the gelding out of the Equerry mare Ukalee were not disclosed, but Elliott said: "He was a lovely horse who came well recommended.”

He added of his two pricey purchases: “These are the kind of horses you want to be buying and we thought they were the best in the sale.”

Jalon d'Oudairies, also knocked down for £420,000 to the Elliott teamCredit: Patrick McCann

Elliott’s spending also stretched to a different department when going to £150,000 for British point-to-pointer Touch Me Not, a Malinas gelding who had looked set to make a winning debut at Charm Park for Tom and Gina Ellis before falling at the last. 

"That’s a great result, one of our very best," said Tom Ellis. "We thought a lot of him and he had put up a really good run on what was only his first go as a four-year-old. He’s going to go to a great place, where he can show the best of his ability."

McNeill strikes

Quebecois, a four-year-old son of No Risk At All and half-brother to 2012 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle winner Brindisi Breeze, had not managed to win on his point-to-point debut at Castlelands this month but had nonetheless ran a race brimful of promise, finishing a length second to Queensbury Boy for Sean Doyle.

The Monbeg Stables-consigned lot is out of the winning mare Miss Poutine and it was Max McNeill - who had earlier in the afternoon spoken so magnanimously about selling Plate winner Seddon - who lasted longest in the battle to secure him.

Iain Turner, his racing manager, said: "He'll go back to Jamie Magee, the pre-trainer who has a lot of our horses, and then we'll make a decision about him. He's been bought with an existing partnership that we own other horses with

"We were at the point-to-point, it didn't matter that he got beat, a lot of people had been telling us about him and we've had a lot of luck with horses from Sean Doyle in the past." 

Seddon had got John McConnell off the mark as a Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer and he signed the docket at £210,000 for Intense Approach, consigned by Warren Ewing and a good winner at Farmaclaffley last month.

Mulholland and O'Neill stock up 

Neil Mulholland won out for Tinahely winner Break My Soul, a daughter of Doyen out of Presenting mare Ayleoola

The trainer confirmed the four-year-old filly was for owner Olly Harris, and added: "He said she was the one he wanted. She looked really good in her point and I was particularly impressed she beat geldings." 

Matt Coleman (right), purchaser of Bill Joyce, in conversation with Graham WylieCredit: Patrick McCann

Stroud Coleman and Jonjo O'Neill teamed up to land Lisronagh maiden winner Bill Joyce for £225,000. 

Consigned by Benny Walsh’s Crossgales Stables, the four-year-old is by Mahler out of a Flemensfirth mare, so bred on the same cross as the JP McManus-owned and Nicky Henderson-trained Ok Corral, who was runner-up in the 2018 Albert Bartlett.

Matt Coleman said: “He's going to Jonjo O'Neill. I thought there was a lot of Flemensfirth in him. I saw a video of him in a schooling race and then the point-to-point. He looks like he could be really progressive over time.”

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