DAVID Eiffe bred the first two colts from the unraced Sally Is The Boss (Orpen) before sending her, through Paddy and Peter Kelly’s Ballybin Stud, for sale at the 2017 Goffs February Sale. She was due to foal weeks later to Alhebayeb (Dark Angel).

When the hammer fell at €2,200 in favour of Tom Cooke from Thomastown Farm, who could have imagined what a bargain he had acquired. On April 3rd she had a colt foal, and by the time Cooke came to sell him at Goffs in November, which he did for €16,000, his two-year-old half-brother Valle Inclan (Elusive Pimpernel) was unbeaten in three starts in France and Spain.