MICHAEL Moore’s Ballincurrig House Stud ended the one-day Goffs UK Spring Store Sale on Tuesday as the leading consignor, thanks in no small part to selling two of the top three lots in the session.

Heading the trade, and the best-priced store at the event for a decade, was a son of the leading British National Hunt stallion Kayf Tara. Bought privately as a foal by Fiona Magee, the three-year-old was knocked down for £140,000 to Mags O’Toole who saw off the challenges of Aidan Murphy and Tom Malone for the day’s star offering.

The gelding is a half-brother to the point-to-point winner Royal Rendezvous and Mrs Magee sold that son of King’s Theatre at the Goffs UK Aintree Sale last year for £130,000. Their dam Novacella was placed in a listed hurdle race in France and is a half-sister to the Grade 1 Tolworth Hurdle winner Marcel. The son of Kayf Tara will now join Gordon Elliott.

Moore sold 15 lots on the day and almost 200 lots after the sale topper he received £75,000 on behalf of Heathview Stables for a British-bred son of Great Pretender, just the third foal of the bumper and hurdle winner High Benefit. This gelding comes from the outstanding Parkhill family of Morley Street and Granville Again, the Champion Hurdle winning siblings.

The bidding for this lot was conducted by agent Kevin Ross and Ben Case will now train the three-year-old for owner Caroline Kendrick. He returned a nice profit on his foal price of €28,000 at the Goffs December Sale in 2015.

Three more lots in the draft of the leading consignor sold for €50,000 or more. A three-year-old daughter of No Risk At All, an impeccably bred half-sister to a pair of Grade 1 winners in Lac Fontana and All Yours, was the second-highest price for a filly on the day and cost Kieran McManus £65,000. This was a spectacular pinhooking success as she cost just €8,000 as a yearling at Arqana.

This was £1,000 more than the final bid of Harry Fry to acquire a three-year-old son of Milan, out of a placed hurdler who is a half-sister to Grade 1 winning hurdler and chaser Muirhead. He had been a €35,000 foal buy for Richard Rohan at Tattersalls Ireland. Completing the quintet of top-priced lots in the Ballincurrig House draft was a three-year-old Stowaway half-brother to the ill-fated Granit Jack and he sold to James Doyle for €52,000.

John Dwan bought a son of Getaway and the Persian Mews mare Wat A Mewsment for €31,000 as a young yearling at the Tattersalls Ireland February Sale in 2016 and just over two years later sold him to Kieran McManus for £88,000. The dam is responsible for four winners, three of which have earned blacktype, the best of these being the Grade 1 winning chaser Klepht. This is the immediate family of Grade 1 winners Fiveforthree and No More Heroes.

McManus made three purchases and the other was a three-year-old son of Jeremy, a half-brother to a pair of point-to-point winners, and he cost £70,000. Sold by Chapel Lane Bloodstock, the gelding is from the last crop of his sire and is out of a half-sister to Grade 2 winning chaser Wee Robbie.

Bloodstock agent Tom Malone combined with Paul Nicholls to buy three lots, the most expensive being a son of Al Namix from RH Bloodstock, the initials standing for Richard Hobson. Named Feeling Jap, the three-year-old French-bred is out of a winning full-sister to Grade 1 chaser New Little Bric. Al Namix is sire of the Nicholls-trained Saphit De Rheu.

Shortly afterwards the same duo spent £68,000 to secure the top-priced filly on the day. This was a three-year-old daughter of Presenting, the first foal of a half-sister to the high-class Empire Of Dirt. The filly’s grandam Rose Of Inchiquin and third dam Boreen Belle were both high-class winners, while the latest star to emerge in the family is Monalee. With a top-class pedigree, the filly will not be long finding an owner as Nicholls purchased her on spec. The filly was sold through Tom and Katie Rudd’s Busherstown Stud.

Dan Skelton trains the listed chase winner Amore Alato and the dual hurdle winner Solomon Grey for Sarah Faulks and it was little surprise therefore that he purchased their three-year-old Sholokov half-brother to join his yard. The £62,000 purchase was sold through Ashbrittle Stud by Mrs Faulks and her husband Nigel.

There was strong demand for fillies with a good pedigree and one of these was Goldford Stud’s three-year-old from the only British crop of Great Pretender. Out of a listed hurdle winning half-sister to the Grand National winner Rule The World, she cost Highflyer Bloodstock’s Tessa Greatrex £60,000. Last November Richard and Sally Aston sold the filly’s Kayf Tara half-brother for €60,000 as a foal at Tattersalls Ireland.

A couple of other noteworthy purchases by Highflyer were Rathmore Stud’s three-year-old son of Getaway for £58,000, and a son of Cloudings from Monamore Stables for £50,000. The former was bought as a foal by Michael Lynch at Goffs for €13,000 and is out of a half-sister to the Grade 1 Tolworth Hurdle winner Perce Rock. The Cloudings gelding is a half-brother to a pair of Grade 2 winners in Wymott and Testify.

Norman and Janet Williamson’s Oak Tree Farm sold a three-year-old son of Oscar out of a half-sister to the Grade 1 Punchestown bumper winner Supreme Developer for £60,000 to Colin Tizzard, well ahead of his foal price of €24,000. Ian Ferguson was on the buyer’s sheet after his outlay of £59,000 for a three-year-old by Stowaway from the Russellstown Stud family of Carobee and Winter Squall. He sold from Treannahow Stables. Ferguson also bought a son of Aizavoski from Peter Nolan Bloodstock for €58,000. He is the first foal of a winning point-to-pointer who is a full-sister to the dual Thyestes Chase winner Preists Leap.

Juliet Minton’s Mill House Stud sold a pair of three-year-old geldings for £58,000. First was Cavenham Estates Ltd’s son of French Fifteen, a half-brother to the dual 2018 Grade 1 winning chaser Terrefort. Anthony Honeyball was excited to sign for him. Later the same consignor sold a Midnight Legend own-brother to Easter Legend on behalf of Simon Willes to Richard Black for the same amount.

Mags O’Toole’s purchases included Brown Island Stables’ Oscar three-year-old gelding from the family of Grand National runner-up The Last Samurai. The most expensive of Monbeg Stables’ buys was Sluggera Farm’s three-year-old son of Jukebox Jury for £56,000, and the same vendor and buyer combination was involved in the sale of a three-year-old Flemensfirth gelding out of the useful racemare Mistletoeandwine for £50,000.

Four lots sold for £55,000, a pair of geldings and a pair of fillies. The latter were Ballinaroone Stud’s daughter of Midnight Legend and the listed hurdle winner Ryde Back who was bought by Tom Malone for Jamie Snowden, and Selwood Stud’s Yeats half-sister to the listed winning chaser The Romford Pele, bought by Mouse Morris.

The same priced geldings were Liss House’s Fame And Glory from the family of Cahervillahow who sold to Milestone Bloodstock, while Harry Fry purchased Springhill Stud’s Milan half-brother to On The Shannon. A son of Shirocco, from the family of this year’s Gold Cup winner Native River, cost Geoff Thompson £52,000 from Distillery Stud, and Chasers Farm sold a son of Black Sam Bellamy to Biddestone Racing for £50,000.

After the sale concluded, Goffs UK managing director Tony Williams commented: “To sell the highest priced store in over a decade is testament to the enduring appeal of the Doncaster Spring Sale. Last year we celebrated a record store sale, with the average and median growing by 22% and 15% respectively, so to grow that median again [up 4%] demonstrates that the sale continues to progress and evolve.

“We had another wonderful attendance with a huge number of owners, trainers and agents on site and the demand for horses was strong at all levels, particularly in the middle market, which ensured we finished with a high clearance rate.”