TRADE Horse Ltd sold two of the three geldings they brought down from Co Meath to this week’s Goresbridge Go For Gold Sale, where they received the top price of €57,000 for their four-year-old Irish Sport Horse (Lot 23) and €42,000 for their three-year-old Dutch Warmblood (Lot 57).
Traditionally-bred and grey like his sire, Cruising With Diamonds, the unnamed sales-topper proved popular with potential purchasers at Barnadown on Tuesday and was sold speedily in the Amber Springs Hotel late the following afternoon. Bidding opened at €20,000 and rose with little delay to €57,000, when the hammer came down in favour of a ‘Cash’ buyer from the UK.
The vendor-supplied blurb on the horse’s catalogue page stated: “An attractive, traditionally-bred gelding with a super jump and three lovely paces. He carries over 73% thoroughbred blood and holds all the desired qualities to make a top-class event horse or show jumper.”
When asked at Barnadown, Dermot and Virginia Considine would have said that the horse had been to a few training shows, had competed in a couple of arena eventing classes at Mullingar and was well-schooled cross-country. An added selling point was a video of their 12-year-old son Timmy showcasing the grey over a set of show jumps and a cross-country track before loading him with ease into a trailer.
Stout pedigree
Other than in his pedigree panel, there was no reference to the sales-topper’s family in the catalogue but, bred at his Clohamon Stud outside Bunclody by Michael Murphy, he was the fifth and final foal, and only colt, out of the thoroughbred Windmill Cross, who won a mares’ point-to-point maiden at Stradbally in May 2009.
That 2002 Insatiable bay was well-bred, being out of a daughter of Beau Charmeur, the sire of top chasers, such as Willsford and Laura’s Beau plus Karen O’Connor’s USEA Horse of the Century Biko, and Miss Blue Shoes. That Niels mare was a half-sister to the multiple blacktype performers Commercial Artist, Mass Appeal and Macallister and, more pertinently in this instance, to Andrew Hoy’s Badminton and Burghley winner, Moonfleet (aka Empty Wagon).
The Considines, who purchased the sales-topper as a foal, also bought, and have since sold, his 2019 full-sister, Burnlea Cruise Control, while Murphy, who purchased the grey’s grandam Windmill Theatre from the late John O’Toole of Carnew, has retained his half-sister Clohamon Commander. That 2017 Island Commander mare had a filly in 2023 by Cruising With Diamonds and a colt foal this year by the Connemara stallion Three Leaf Shamrock.
Lot 57, Rolando van het Remerman, who was purchased in The Netherlands as a yearling, is now joining the Ravenna yard of Italian four-star event rider Anna Baracca. By For Sure, a 2017 son of For Pleasure, the bay gelding is a half-brother to the 1.35m jumper Neptun being out of the Applaus mare Elrike II, a half-sister to the dam of All I Want (1.40m).
The sales-topper was well-showcased at Barnadown by Alex Reynolds, with Virginia Considine commenting: “We couldn’t do it without all the people at home.” That team includes Dermot and Virginia’s elder son Coili (14), who has a huge interest in farming and land management.
Pleased
Another Meath vendor, John Bannon, a Dunshaughlin-based auctioneer specialising in residental property and development land sales, was well-pleased with the sale although he only bid adieu to one of the two three-year-old ISH geldings he consigned, Lot 83, who was secured for €40,000 by British event rider Sam Ecroyd, a regular Go For Gold attendee.
Lot 83, a three-year-old by Lagans OBOS Quality, was sold to British event rider Sam Ecroyd for €40,000 \ Goresbridge Sales
“I was happy with the price and where the horse has gone,” said Bannon of the Lagans OBOS Quality bay, who was bred in Co Limerick by William Kennedy and is a three-parts brother to the OBOS Quality 004 gelding KBS Time Travel (CCI3*-S) out of a half-sister to KEC Alligator Alley (1.60m).
The bay won a qualifier for the young event horse championship at Dublin where, in August, he finished sixth behind his stable-companion ‘Hugo’ who, as Lot 33, was unsold at €27,000 on Wednesday. “I wasn’t too worried that I didn’t sell him,” said Bannon of the black son of Rock ‘N Roll Ter Putte. “He’s broken and riding and I will produce him under saddle next year, along with three other three-year-olds I have at home.”
Bannon was under pressure on Tuesday, as he also had to attend the November National Hunt Sale at Tattersalls Ireland, where he sold a Santiago colt foal he bred out of the four-time winning Doyen mare Biddy The Boss who, sadly, has since died. The bay, who comes from the family of Our Vic, was knocked down to Cudgley Stables for €12,000.
Click here to read about other top lots at the sale.
Top returns
Summary
Age group Clearance Total Average
Three-year-olds 88% €1,210,500 €22,839
Four-year-olds 88% €484,000 €32,266
Five-year-olds 70% €192,000 €27,428
Overall 86% €1,886,500 €25,153