ALL good things come to those who wait, and indeed for Stephen Reilly, whose filly foal was the penultimate lot through the ring on late on Thursday night, Christmas came early. Reilly, who breeds from just four mares at his home in Roscommon, couldn’t quite believe it as his eye-catching filly by Tangelo Van’t Zuuthoeve was knocked down at a whopping €35,000.

“I am delighted for both myself and the mare,” he said afterwards. “If someone had given me €15,000 on the night I would have taken it, and I would have been more than delighted with €20,000.”