There was a clearance rate of 75% at last Wednesday night’s Goresbridge Go For Gold sale in the Amber Springs Hotel, Gorey, where the top price of €53,500 was attained after a bidding duel between Richard Sheane and Oliver Townend.

Over the phone, it was Sheane of Cooley Sport Horses who emerged victorious for the three-year-old by Ramiro B. The chesnut gelding is out of a Rhoman Rule half-sister to the British intermediate eventer Pusiden (by Puissance).

The sale-topper was prepped over the past few weeks by Jason Higgins, who is now breaking him for Sheane.

Kilkenny’s Carol Gee made the first of eight purchases as soon as the sale started when going to €13,000 for The Irish Ambassador, a seven-year-old Cruisings Ambassador gelding who was consigned by Co Down’s Ray McArdle.

Gee’s most expensive buy on the night was Kiltroms Limzed, a five-year-old Limmerick gelding who was sent up by Maurice Cousins.

Mike Williams was delighted to have the final say at €29,000 on John Craig’s home-bred mare Kilrodan Sailorette, winner of the small event horse class at the RDS in August. The England-based Australian purchased the Boherdeal Clover six-year-old, who he described as “a little stunner”, for his daughter, Alex.

Gary Ritchie-Bland, a former master of the Zetland Hunt, made two purchases. The cheaper of the pair, at €5,000, James Browne’s Diamond Cruise Nazar, a three-year-old Nazar half-brother of Aoife Clark’s London Olympics ride Master Crusoe, was bought as a potential hunter.

Steven Smith’s SRS Everest was purchased to join the show jumping/eventing string of Ritchie-Bland’s daughter, Laura. The five-year-old Silvano gelding out of a Clover Hill mare, who was knocked down at €27,000, finished third on the second of just two pre-novice starts during the season past.

The absent Ned Cash was revealed as buyer of Becky Tandy’s Mylestown Navaho, the only coloured horse in the sale. A six-year-old by Cavalier Two For Joy, the piebald gelding finished second in a CNC1* class at Kedrah Castle last month.

Heading across the Atlantic to Long Island is Tim O’Shea’s Bonmahon Boy Blue, a well-related three-year-old gelding by Bonmahon Mister Blue out of a Duca Di Busted half-sister to the international show jumping stallion Coolcooron Cool Diamond. The grey was sold for €26,000 to Mark Reid, a native of Cookstown who has been living in the United States for some time.

Co Cork’s Patricia Ryan secured Gemma Phelan’s Beechfields Gold Digga, a four-year-old Boherdeal Clover gelding, for €20,000, a price also paid by Anne Marie Young for Steven Kelliher’s Baxters Bank. This flashy four-year-old Carlo Bank gelding, who was among a number produced for the sale by DJ O’Sullivan, will be partnered by Young’s daughter, Amy, one of the up-and-coming riders on the British eventing scene.