Royal Ascot began for most people on Tuesday, but for a select few the most important part of the week happened on Monday evening at the Goffs London Sale held at Kensington Palace, London.

The boutique sale mainly offers horses engaged at Royal Ascot this week, and the second and third highest prices paid were for Irish horses - the Michael O’Callaghan-trained Crypto Force for £900,000 and Jessica Harrington’s Cadillac for £500,000.

Crypto Force is due to run on Saturday in the Chesham Stakes on what could be a big week for O’Callaghan, who also runs Twilight Jet in the Commonwealth Cup on Friday.

The Kerry native but Curragh based trainer has invested significantly into the breeze-up sales again this year and will have been delighted to sell Crypto Force on Monday, having acquired the Time Test colt for 160,000 guineas.

O’Callaghan also sold the 82,000 guineas purchase Harry Time for £300,000.

Twilight Jet is one of the main contenders for the Commonwealth Cup and was another breeze-up purchase at €210,000, but was later bought into by American owner Michael Iavarone.

He was an impressive winner of the Group 3 Lacken Stakes at Naas last month which led his up-and-coming trainer to speak bullishly about his chances of securing a first Royal Ascot success.

“On his comeback at Naas, Leigh (Roche, jockey) said that he had a massive heave two furlongs out and that he’d never felt anything like it, the horse’s lungs completely expanded, he filled himself up and quickened on again and ran out through the line,” O’Callaghan said. “If he’s in the same form at Ascot, I can’t see anything catching him.”

The trainer has a team of “eight or nine horses” for Ascot this week as he searches for a significant breakthrough at the “Olympics of European flat racing.”