Best set of figures to date for Goresbridge

The European breeze-up sale circuit moved to Ireland last Friday when Goresbridge sales yard held a one-day auction. The Kilkenny venue produced its best set of breeze-up results to date.

Now in its eighth year, Ireland’s only breeze-up sale has firmly established itself on the sales calendar and turnover last week jumped by €1m to over €3.4m. The average improved from €17,811 to €22,474, while the median increased by almost a third to €14,000. Furthermore, 163 of the 183 horses offered were sold.

The top lot was a son of the French 2000 Guineas winner Astronomer Royal who cost agent Adam Driver €125,000. The colt was showing a terrific return on the €12,000 he cost last autumn.

The other lot to reach six figures was a son of the American-based sire Scat Daddy and he was knocked down to English trainer Jamie Osborne at €100,000.

Doncaster sale

Meanwhile, with the major Irish National Hunt store sales looming large on the horizon, there were encouraging signs from the store section of last week’s Doncaster Spring Sale.

The three-day auction concluded with a session given over to stores and a good day’s trade produced an 87% clearance rate where the aggregate of over £3.7m represented an increase of some 59%.

The average of £21,205 was up by 18% while the £16,000 median was a progression of seven points.

The top-priced store was a two-year-old son of Dalakhani who cost Harold Kirk £90,000. Kirk was acting on behalf of Willie Mullins for the brother to the stakes flat performer Aklan, who made a stylish debut over hurdles for the champion trainer when scoring at Navan in January.

The other top lots included an £85,000 son of Presenting and a son of the late King’s Theatre, who cost Gordon Elliott £82,000.

The focus of the store market shifts to the Goffs Land Rover Sale which gets under way on 11 June. Meanwhile, the horses-in-training section of the Spring Sale was headed by Operating, who won a valuable handicap chase for Jessica Harrington at the Punchestown Festival. The seven-year-old cost Donald McCain £140,000.