TOP-PRICED THREE-YEAR-OLDS

  • H and J Sport Horses Ltd’s Cantona Kann, three-year-old gelding by Cantona TN (dam by Monaco) €46,000 (Goresbridge Go For Gold).
  • MBF Sport Horses’ MBF Lucky Find, three-year-old gelding by Lucky Luck (dam by Ars Vivendi) €45,000 (Goresbridge Go For Gold).
  • Higgins Sport Horses and MBF Sport Horses’ MBF Tallow, three-year-old filly by Conthargos (KMS Chicago) €45,000 (Goresbridge Go For Gold).

    • TRADE for the age group had been sticky throughout the year, but bucking all trends and boosting confidence in the process, the season closed with a raft of good results.

    Most appeared at the Goresbridge Go For Gold sale, where on a glittering November night, Henry and Joanne Foley’s Cantona Kann headed the age group at €46,000.

    Bred by John McDermott, and bought from him earlier in the year, the son of Cantona TN was out of the Irish Sport Horse mare Minerva by Kannan. Closely related to the four-star event horse Boherdeal Cruise, he will remain in Ireland to go eventing.

    The same evening also delivered two further prices at €45,000 apiece. The first went to MBF Sport Horses’ MBF Lucky Find, a gelding by Lucky Luck out of TRSH Kiss Me Kate by Ars Vivendi. Show jumping breeder and owner Ronan Tynan was the breeder of this eye-catcher, whose dam is a sibling to Richie Moloney’s Rocksy Music (1.60m).

    Never far from the business end of proceedings, the MBF team joined with Higgins Sport Horses to scoop the award for the year’s highest priced filly with MBF Tallow. Selling for €45,000, the daughter of Conthargos was out of Kilmountain Saphira by KMS Chicago and, bred by Jack O’Donohue, is bound for America.

    In this age group, notable horses by thoroughbred sires were few and far between, but selling well to head the entire year at €25,000 was Cathal Doherty’s three-year-old by Pointilliste. Bred by Michael Byrne, he was out of Ricardo’s Imp (Master Imp) and was sold at the Goresbridge Go For Gold.

    In the country

    Slow, and indeed late to gain momentum, the three-year-old sector proved notably two-tier. As buyers remained selective, the middle market never took hold, with the result that clearance rates hovered around the average throughout the year.

    There were, of course, plenty of customers for the right individuals, and notably for AJM Horses’ unnamed gelding by Castlefield Kingston, who headed the Goresbridge October sale at €28,000.

    Consigned by astute pin hooker Alannah Morgan and bred by Margaret Bergin in Co Laois, the gelding was the first registered progeny of Fairfield Lucky (Ars Vivendi), whose predominately traditional maternal line goes back to Ballinvella and Gael Force.

    The subject of one of the most competitive exchanges of the sale, the hammer finally fell in favour of Co Limerick show jumper Robyn Moran.

    At €26,500, George Campbell’s show jumping-bred gelding headed the figures at Goresbridge in September. An impressive bay, by Pegase Van’t Rutershof, Carrickview Cotique had been sourced as a foal from his Co Armagh breeder John Haughey, and is the first progeny out of the Belgian-bred jumping mare Larcotique Van Dael by For Passion V Ive Z (by For Pleasure).

    The fourth renewal of the pre-selected three-year-old jumping sale at Goresbridge in October was also a success. Closing with an above -average clearance of 68%, the top return of €30,000 fell to Columbcille Wheelagower M, a filly by Cornet Obolensky out of Kilcoltrim Blue Diamond (Plot Blue).

    Columbcille Wheelagower MBF

    Consigned jointly by producers MBF Sporthorses and H&J Sporthorses and bred in Co Cork by Cynthia Murphy Kearney, the well-related filly hails from the close maternal line of the Hickstead Derby specialist A Touch Imperius (1.60m) and is a sibling to the promising young event horse Wheelagower She’s Got It.