AFTER two postponements due to Covid-19 restrictions, Meabh Bolger and Brian Flynn of MBF Sporthorses are getting married next Friday and do so on the back of a remarkable set of results at Tuesday’s Goresbridge Go For Gold Sale.

The Kilbeg, Co Waterford couple were involved with 16 of the 74 lots forward at this auction of select event horses (80 catalogued) and all were sold. A dozen made €20,000 or more with five being sold for in excess of €30,000 including the three top-priced horses who made considerably more and were consigned solely by Bolger and Flynn.

“It was unbelievable!” said the latter, who bred the top-priced MBF Starburst (Lot 25), the first three-year-old to come under the hammer in the Amber Springs Hotel on Tuesday evening.

“It says a lot for people’s trust in the sale, the whole process of pre-sale videos, vetting and X-rays and online bidding that this filly was bought online and unseen because, as far as we know, neither the buyers (Three Creeks Training in the USA) nor their rider (Allie Knowles) were at Barnadown or came to see her beforehand.”

Bidding on MBF Starburst opened (online) at €24,000 and, in €2,000 increments, quickly grew to €66,000 at which stage it became a match between two parties with the Americans having the final online bid at €82,000.

Faultless filly

“With most horses you would find a fault but not with this filly,” said a proud and delighted Flynn of the bay Irish Sport Horse who is by the ISH stallion Sligo Candy Boy.

“She has great presence and I don’t think I ever had a horse with a walk like hers. Also, she can really jump and everyone who looked at her – and there were a lot of them – was impressed.

“We bought her dam, the thoroughbred Monalease, when she was 17 (now 22) and have bred three other foals out of her. Her now four-year-old Ramiro B gelding MBF Gambler, who we sold here last year (for €42,000), is successfully competing in young event horse classes in the States while we still have her 2019 Ganesh Hero Z filly (MBF Roll The Dice) and a colt foal by Castlefield Kingston.”

Monalease is dam also of the Anglo European Studbook-registered Country Lone Ranger gelding Chincalese Cowboy (CCI3*-L) who was bred in Britain by Sam Hodge. Monalease was likewise bred across the water by Judy Wilson in whose colours she ran 11 times in point-to-points and, after five placings, finished off her career with a win in a maiden at Tabley in May 2007.

A daughter of the Group 1-winning Bustino stallion Terimon (who was second in the 1989 Derby at Epsom, to Nashwan, at odds of 500/1) out of a Strong Gale mare, she is a half-sister to two other point-to-point winners including the Presenting mare Tinker’s Burrow whose first foal, Watch The Weather, a 2016 gelding by Kayf Tara, was third on his debut in a bumper at Navan earlier this month.

There had been much pre-sale interest also in Bolger and Flynn’s MBF Major Lazer K (Lot 15), a four-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding who comes from the family of Lux Z (Olympic Games and sire) and Mahon Point (CSI4*). Bidding on the bay, who is a son of Emir R out of the Landsiefeer I mare L, opened at €20,000, he came on the market at €60,000 and was eventually knocked down for €79,000 to Britain’s GHF Equestrian, underbidders for the sales-topper.

Lot 15 MBF Major Lazer K \ Tadhg Ryan Bit-Media

“We bought this fellow in February I think it was, well early in the year anyway, from a woman in Holland that we would buy two or three horses from every year,” commented Flynn. “A lot of people looked at him and there were plenty of bids both in the room and online for him.” GHF Equestrian’s Andrew Williams conducted two Go For Gold preview nights online in the days leading up to the sale and was fulsome in his praise for Emir R stock.

Bolger and Flynn sold MBF Celtic Claddagh (Lot 19), online, to the Cotswolds-based operation Barrington Sport Horses for €49,000. This chesnut ISH gelding by Belmont House Stud’s Zangersheide stallion Celtic Hero BZ won the four-year-old show jumping championship at Dublin in August under Bolger. Out of the Radolin mare Janis B, MBF Celtic Claddagh was bred at Belmont House by Etter Sportpferde but was purchased locally as a yearling by Bolger and Flynn from their good friends Jerry and Joan Lenihan.

Lot 19, MBF Celtic Claddagh \ Tadhg Ryan Bit-Media

MBF Sporthorses’ stranglehold on the top-priced lots was halted by their oft-time business partner Jason Higgins whose three-year-old ISH filly Flirtation (Lot 30) was knocked down for €48,000 to Britain’s Lindsey Oman who was bidding online. By the Belgian Warmblood stallion Je T’Aime Flamenco, the bay, who is out of the VDL Arkansas mare Kilglass Arkansas, was highly regarded by Higgins who only put her on the market when she reached €42,000.

A final bid of €40,000 on EPA Elegance (Lot 11) surpassed the expectations of her vendors Elizabeth Ahern and Felicity Ward who were not only delighted with the price but were also thrilled to learn that the four-year-old ISH filly would be going to an excellent home in the United States with Shannon Daily.

“I buy one or two youngsters a year with Pat and Elizabeth Ahern who live down the road from me,” commented Ward, “and we purchased this filly, who I think is very special, back in February. She is out of a very well-related Dow Jones Courcel mare (family of HHS 007, etc) and was bred by Mary Vaughen at Clongeel Stud where her sire Wido stands.

“She was a bit weak and raw when we got her but we produced her slowly and, as we always had this sale in mind, we never had to push her. She has lots of presence, which is something Wido stamps his stock with, and we think so highly of her that we have already bought her three-year-old full-sister who we have named EPA Encore.”

Lot 11 EPA Elegance \ Tadhg Ryan Bit-Media

D.J. O’Sullivan also received €40,000, this time from Britain’s Jo Forrester, for NPS Lanzarote (Lot 62), a dark bay three-year-old gelding by the Zangersheide stallion Campagne II Z out of the Dutch Warmblood mare Fatima F.

Most lots sold were heading to Britain or the US but it was good to see Germany’s Michael Jung buying again at the Gold For Gold Sale giving €26,000 for Flynn and Bolger’s MBF Senorita (Lot 51), a British-bred three-year-old filly by the Belgian Warmblood sire Ramiro B. The bay was perhaps lacking an inch or two in height but her pedigree couldn’t be faulted as she is out of the Spanish Sport Horse mare Beca, a full-sister to Armada (CCI4*), Nereo (CCI4*), etc.

Jung’s compatriot Nicolai Aldinger purchased two lots, giving his higher price of €18,000 for Lot 50, Michael O’Callaghan’s unnamed three-year-old by the ISH stallion Tullabeg Fusion. Being out of the Aldatus Z mare Zantus, the bay gelding is a half-brother to the Ars Vivendi mare Santiago Bay (CCI5*-L) among others.

Online bidders

Very few Irish riders even attended the sale but Co Kildare’s Alyssa O’Neill got in early to buy Dan Dennehy’s home-bred ISH filly Danos Lola (Lot 3), a five-year-old grey mare by the Dutch Warmblood stallion Carrera VDL out of a Cruising mare from the family of Dromgurrihy Blue (CCI4*), for €24,000.

O’Neill was bidding online as was Co Armagh’s Suzanne Hagan who gave €16,000 for Tomás Doyle’s home-bred Monbeg Django (Lot 39). This three-year-old brown gelding by the Belgian Warmblood Dignified van’t Zorgvliet is out of OBOS Nancy Broone who has no sire recorded but has bred a number of winning event horses by OBOS Quality 004 including OBOS Impressive (CCI4*-S) and Hagan’s own OBOS Take One (CCI3*-L).

England-based, Co Down-born event rider Susie Berry will be taking charge of Lot 74, Brandon View Stud’s three-year-old unnamed ISH gelding as he was purchased by one of her owners, Nick Caton, for €30,000. The dark grey, who comes from the family of Willow Fairgreen Attraction (CCI4*), is by the ISH sire Numero Cruise out of the Courage II mare Homefarms Capitol Hill.

Co Sligo show jumper Cian Harrison parted with €15,000 to secure Jason Higgins’s Zwavo’s John (Lot 75) who is AES-registered. The three-year-old bay gelding by the Dutch Warmblood stallion Unaniem is out of a mare by the thoroughbred Roven who has previously bred the international two-star jumpers Esprit (1.60m) and Halocia (1.50m).

One Irish bidder, Patricia Hoey, was successful three times on the night but her purchases were for one English and two American clients. However, Co Meath’s Nicola Ennis will have the ride next year on MBF Corbeagh (42) who was consigned to the sale by Brian Flynn and Jason Higgins and was purchased at €22,000 for Carrie Meehan’s Virginia-based Gold To Blue Sporthorses.

The three-year-old ISH gelding, who is by the Dutch Warmblood stallion Quidam Junior I out of a Lux Z mare, will be aimed at next season’s four-year-old Young Event Horse league as Meehan would love to have a horse compete at Dublin. This year she had to be satisfied with her Ennis-produced MBF Silver Bridge competing at the final in Lambertstown.

Slick production

While it is very much hoped that the sale will revert to its traditional format of the auction taking place during a gala dinner in the Amber Springs Hotel, it was noticeable that the majority of those attending the showcase sessions at Barnadown were there with the intention of buying.

However, thanks to Bit-Media others could follow all the action over the two days online, a much-appreciated service.