If you are reading this on Thursday morning there is still time to phone a bloodstock agent and arrange to buy a young racehorse named Jonbon who is being sold at a public auction in Wales shortly after 12pm.

It will probably set you back close to £500,000 but it will all be worth it when he wins three Cheltenham Gold Cups for you. You might just break even!

Yes, there might be no racegoers at the tracks and even the betting shops are closed, but racing continues and the bloodstock market is holding up surprisingly well. Point-to-points are also going ahead behind closed doors and the really good winners are being snapped up by multi-millionaire owners.

Just last Friday (6 November) there was a sale with a difference at Tattersalls Ireland featuring 25 point-to-point horses, most of which had won recently.

Prospective buyers were allowed on-site to inspect the horses in advance by appointment and bids were placed by phone or online.

There was plenty of chat beforehand about Ginto, who had won a point-to-point at the adjacent Tattersalls Farm in October. He was trained by Gordon Elliott, who was also a part-owner of the horse with a syndicate of investors.

No doubt the trainer was very keen that the horse would stay in his yard and that was achieved when he was bought by Noel and Valerie Moran for a record €470,000. The Morans are new to racing, having sold their online financial payments company for €200 million. They are now based at Bective Stud in Co Meath and have accumulated a powerful team of racehorses, all trained locally in Co Meath by Elliott.

Ginto is just four years old and connections will be hoping he can win some big jumps races in Ireland and Britain in the coming years. As a gelding, he has no breeding potential and no value other than as a racehorse.

His price was a record for a point-to-pointer in Ireland but even that price looks set to be topped this Thursday (12 November) when Jonbon comes up for sale at an auction being staged at Yorton Farm in Wales.

Like Ginto, Jonbon is a French-bred gelding by Walk In The Park, a stallion who came to prominence in 2015 as the sire of Douvan, a brilliant horse trained by Willie Mullins. Coolmore Stud acted quickly to bring Walk In The Park to Tipperary and he covers approximately 250 mares every year.

Jonbon is actually a full-brother to Douvan and he was bought as an unbroken three-year-old for €140,000 by Kilkenny-based horsemen Paul Holden and Michael Shefflin. Paul’s daughter Ellmarie trained Jonbon to win his point-to-point and the experts say it was as impressive a performance as has been seen by a newcomer for many years.