SALE

Ryan McElligott

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A host of promising Irish point-to-pointers lit up the latest Brightwells Sale at Cheltenham last Friday where a smaller catalogue gave rise to an impressive set of results. In all, there were 11 six-figure purchases at the Brightwells Sale in Cheltenham last week and all were consigned by Irish vendors. Of the 47 lots offered, 39 were sold to produce a turnover in excess of £3.3m, while the average came in at an impressive £86,205. Centre stage went to Alisier D’Irlande, who was an impressive winner of a Templemore point-to-point for Willie Codd last month. The French-bred four-year-old was snapped up by English owner Roger Brookhouse for £300,000.

This price was closely matched by Timmy Hyde’s Adam Du Breteau, who cost Jonjo O’Neill £280,000. The Network gelding failed to complete on his first two starts but ran out a stylish winner of a Dromahane point several weeks ago.

The Irish National-winning trainer forked out £210,000 for Thomond O’Mara’s Champagne Present, who followed an encouraging debut behind Adam Du Breteau with success at Kilmallock.

Willie Mullins will take charge of Colin Bowe’s Potters Point after he fetched £260,000 on the back of a second at Monksgrange on his debut (right). The Flemensfirth gelding Jeweloftheocean, who defeated Potters Point, cost Jonjo O’Neill £175,000.

Elsewhere, 84-year-old trainer Michael Ronayne, who sent out Moon Racer to register a shock win on his debut in the Tattersalls Ireland Sales Bumper the previous Sunday, had further cause for cheer when the Saffron Walden gelding was bought by David Pipe for £225,000.

Doncaster Sale

To continue with the sales theme, last week’s Doncaster breeze-up sale saw records fall by the wayside. The one-day auction produced an aggregate of over £4.6m which was a 56% increase on last year. The average of £36,585 was up by 19% while the €22,000 median represented a progression of 10 points. In addition, the clearance rate for the sale came in at 85%.

The number of six-figure lots doubled to six and the top lot was a £340,000 daughter of Exceed And Excel from Grove Stud who was bought by David Redvers on behalf of Sheikh Fahad Al Thani. Redvers also forked out £260,000 on a colt by Lope De Vega who is being represented by his first runners this year. He was sold by Willie Browne.

The next highest-priced lot was a £230,000 son of Henrythenavigator from the Slattery family’s Meadowview Stables. He will go into training with Yorkshire-based John Quinn.

Un De Sceaux

The latest appearance of the exciting Un De Sceaux in France last weekend more than lived up to expectations as he ran out a stylish winner of the Grade 2 Prix Leon Rambaud at Auteuil. The Willie Mullins-trained gelding’s record now stands at nine wins from as many starts and we have still to find out quite how good he is but, even though he has yet to tackle Grade 1 company, there is little doubt that he is a jumper of the highest quality.

On his first ride since the Cheltenham Festival, Ruby Walsh allowed Un De Sceaux to adopt his customary front-running role and the six-year-old picked up very smartly in the closing stages to win with authority. He remains one of the most exciting jumpers in training.

On the domestic front it was an especially low-key week on the jumping front. However, the first meeting of the year at Ballinrobe did witness a nice performance from Robert Tyner’s Sir Abbot in the bumper. A winning pointer, this Morozov five-year-old was value for a good deal more than the two-length winning margin and looks a good sort for the summer months.