TWO private sales resulted in Meabh Bolger and Brian Flynn selling the six-lot draft they consigned to this week’s Goresbridge Go For Gold Sale under their MBF Sporthorses banner and the five horses they had entered in partnership with Jason Higgins.
Among the 11 were the sale’s two top-priced fillies, both three-year-old Irish Sport Horses, MBF Tallow (Lot 66), who was sold to the USA’s Sara Beth Anton for €45,000, and MBF Qatara (Lot 30). The latter failed to reach her reserve on Wednesday evening when unsold at €31,000 but subsequently changed hands for €40,000 in a private transaction with another US event rider, Erin Strader.
Bred not far from MBF Sporthorses’ Co Waterford base by Jack O’Donohue, MBF Tallow is a chesnut with four white legs by Conthargos. Her dam is the KMS Chicago mare Kilmountain Saphira, who is jumping at 1.40m level. The athletic and very well put together MBF Qatara is a bay daughter of the increasingly popular Tyson out of a Sandro Boy mare.
In an aside, another Tyson filly who made a good price was Alyson Keane’s TDS Moonbeams Strength (Lot 20), a four-year-old ISH, who was knocked down for €35,000 to Co Meath’s Everina Kilfeather whose daughter Lexi events at four-star level. The bay, who was bred in Co Roscommon by Padraig Arthur, is out of Moonbeam, a Balou du Rouet half-sister to the Don VHP Z mare Paris 16 (1.50m).
It just took a little nudge to get the sale of MBF Lucky Find (Lot 50) over the line, as Bolger and Flynn accepted a private bid of €45,000 from the USA’s Kelly Pugh for the three-year-old ISH gelding, who wasn’t sold at the auction for €1,000 less. Bred in Co Kilkenny by Ronan Tynan, the bay, who is highly-regarded by the vendors, is by Lucky Luck out of the Ars Vivendi mare TRSH Kiss Me Kate, a full-sister to Rocksy Music (1.60m) from the family of Krafty Jack (1.50m) and MGH Jessica (CCI3*-L).
In partnership with Higgins Sporthorses, Bolger and Flynn also received €40,000 from the USA’s Ada Cosby for the Patrick Flynn-bred four-year-old ISH gelding MBF Killoran (Lot 22), a bay by Lagans OBOS Quality out of a Cabriole mare from the family of Sarahs Sparky E (1.50m).
Another lot who made €40,000 was D.J. O’Sullivan’s Obailey (Lot 5), a five-year-old KWPN-registered gelding by Interest, who was knocked down to Canadian Olympian Karl Slezak. The latter, who was bidding online, had asked Neil Wrynn to check out the grey, who has jumped at 1.10m level and has been schooled cross-country. Out of a Montreal VDL mare, he comes from the family of the 1.60m performers Mister Acobat and Victory van de Laarsenheide.