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RECENT Dundalk handicap winner Ridhaz topped Tuesday’s Goffs Autumn Horses in Training Sale when bought by BBA Ireland for €220,000.
Trained for the Aga Khan by Michael Halford and Tracey Collins, the three-year-old Iffraaj gelding scored by three and a half lengths in a 10-furlong handicap on the all-weather on September 27th. He was racing off a mark of 82 and was raised 10lb for that success.
BBA Ireland's Mick Donohoe said: "He's for a client in the Middle East and will head out there shortly. He has won on the all-weather and on good ground, so he could run on both surfaces. Horses by Iffraaj tend to be versatile. I saw this horse a couple of times during the year when I was in Conyngham Lodge and he comes highly recommended by Mick Halford."
Four of the top five lots on Tuesday were part of the Aga Khan Studs consignment.
Blandford Bloodstock paid €105,000 for Masoun, a three-year-old gelding by Too Darn Hot who has not raced since winning a 10-furlong Curragh handicap in August for trainer Johnny Murtagh off a mark of 80. His revised rating is 88.
Murtagh also trained Raydamann, a three-year-old Sea The Stars gelding rated 79, who is now headed to Gordon Elliott’s yard, having realised €68,000.
Imarajan, a three-year-old Camelot gelding rated 66, was bought out of the Halford/Collins yard by the Stroud Coleman agency for €70,000.
The only non-Aga Khan lot among the day’s top transactions was Thecompanysergeant, who sold for €110,000. This seven-year-old, a smart novice chaser for trainer Denis Hogan, finished fourth in a Grade 3 contest at Cork on Sunday and moves to Gavin Cromwell.
A total of 82 horses were sold during the session, generating a clearance rate of over 87% and turnover of almost €1.5 million. The average price was €17,658 and the median came in at €6,000. All statistics were broadly in line with last year.
Goffs CEO Henry Beeby acknowledged the contribution made by the Aga Khan consignment which is a perennial highlight of this sale, adding: “It is just our hope that more Irish owners and trainers take notice and see that Goffs will provide at least as good a market for the category as was available elsewhere last week, but we can’t do it without the support.”
Pointing to the fact that a large number of overseas buyers are at Goffs this week for the Autumn Yearling Sale, which starts on Wednesday, Beeby said that today’s sale was “surely the natural choice for Irish horses in training”. He concluded: “It’s really up to Irish owners and trainers to give us the chance as we will deliver and prove the point so often.”
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