IT was a couple of supplemented lots that stole the show on Wednesday, in a session largely confined to performers between the flags.
Looking like a winner when he was badly hampered and pulled up on his debut, Roadlesstravelled made no mistake next time out, running away with a maiden at Taylorstown.
Trained by Donnchadh Doyle, and offered for sale from Monbeg Stables, this €44,000 Derby Sale store was the fancy of many in the ring, with David Minton and Nicky Henderson making a determined bid to secure him. However, their effort was thwarted when Jonjo O’Neill made the final offer of £215,000, and the hammer fell in his favour.
The trainer, acting as usual with Matt Coleman of Stroud Coleman Bloodstock, revealed that the son of Lauro is likely to race in his own colours, though he didn’t rule out changing his mind if the right offer came along,
O’Neill and Coleman were back in the thick of the action just minutes later when then spent €100,000 on the four-year-old Shirocco gelding Peso, runner-up on his only start at Dromahane. He was another successful pinhook for Tom Keating’s Nicholastown Stud, as the handler secured him last year at the Goffs Land Rover Sale for €33,000. The gelding is out of a half-sister to the Grade 1-winning hurdler Garruth.
Another six-figure purchase by Coleman, this time for another client, was Della Casa Lunga, a five-year-old daughter of Champs Elysees. Out of a half-sister to the Thyestes Chase winner Longhouse Poet, this mare has winning hurdle form, being successful at Leopardstown, and on her most recent outing she was runner-up in a good contest at Punchestown to Sandor Clegane. A €15,000 store purchase at the Goffs Land Rover Sale two years ago, this time her value soared to £150,000. She will now be trained by Clive Boultbee-Brooks.
Curling, who tasted Cheltenham Festival success this year, also sold the Ballindenisk winner Western Symphony, a four-year-old son of Champs Elysees, to Jerry McGrath for £115,000.
Another on the day with racecourse rather than pointing form was the Kelso bumper winner St Cuthbert’s Cave, a son of the Boardsmill stallion Court Cave. A graduate of the same sale ring two years ago when he cost £22,000, his victory for Rose Dobbin meant that Gordon Elliott had to pay £150,000 to secure him on this occasion.